Gifts / Sports & Toys

The predecessor of the blind box was Japan's blessing bag, which was introduced into China in the form of container card in the early 1990s; With the rise of trendy toys, businesses integrate the purchase method of trendy play IP handmade and blessing bag, so the blind box came into being; Nowadays, the development of the blind box industry is in a booming outbreak period.

How did the blind box break out?

The predecessor of the blind box was Japan's blessing bag, which was introduced into China in the form of container card in the early 1990s; With the rise of trendy toys, businesses integrate the purchase method of trendy play IP handmade and blessing bag, so the blind box came into being. In 2016, domestic head blind box enterprises launched blind box marketing, and the domestic blind box market has been in a period of stable development. Since then, with the increase of capital, China's blind box economy has set off an upsurge from 2019 to 2020.

AI media consulting analysts believe that the development history of China's blind box market is not long, and it has only become popular in recent years, but the blind box is no longer a niche product developed by toy merchants. It has become an important marketing model for various industries to strive for young consumer groups, and is gradually moving towards mass.

Driven by the increase of disposable income and the rapid development of trend culture industry, especially the successful incubation of more and more high-quality trend toy IP in the market, the scale of the global trend toy market has increased from 74.97 billion yuan in 2017 to 124.74 billion yuan in 2019, and is expected to reach 249.48 billion yuan in 2023. As an important segment of trendy play, the blind box market will also develop rapidly.

China's fashion market is still in its early stage and has achieved rapid development in the past few years. According to the data, the scale of China's tide play market in 2019 was 20.47 billion yuan, an increase of 71.3% year-on-year in 2018. It is expected that affected by the epidemic, the growth rate of China's tide play market will decline in 2020, and the market scale will increase to 29.48 billion yuan. AI media consulting analysts believe that affected by the surprise economy and social emotional needs, the popularity of Chinese trendy games is rising, and it is expected that the scale of Chinese trendy games market will maintain an expansion trend.

Brand marketing model of China's fashion industry: blind box of scenic spots

At present, in the domestic cultural tourism market, the enterprises using the blind box marketing mode mainly include the Forbidden City, Disney and Shaanxi Museum. Taking the Forbidden City as an example, the Forbidden City has a rich IP library. With the help of historical and cultural factors, it incubates IP, launches the scenic spot blind box, and obtains good market feedback.

With the boom of blind box economy, businesses in the industry began to process customized blind boxes on domestic trade platforms. The data show that in the first half of December 2020, the platform turnover of blind boxes and derivatives was 2.7 times that of the same period in November, and the number of buyers for processing and customization increased by 300% year-on-year. Among them, strong IP attribute and personalized customization are the two key factors of blind box customization.

Insight into blind box consumption: Shanghai people prefer blind box consumption

Young people's interest in blind boxes is turning into huge consumption power. According to the data, among the most "money burning" hobbies after 95, the blind box manual ranked first. After 1995, it became an important consumer of blind boxes, accounting for nearly 40%. Among them, 8.6% of users can accept that the unit price of blind boxes is more than 1000 yuan, and nearly 20% tend to buy a full set of blind boxes at one time, which highlights the strong consumption power of young groups.

Surprise toys grew first. According to frost Sullivan data, from 2015 to 2019, the global trend toy market increased from US $8.7 billion to US $19.8 billion, with a compound annual growth rate of 22.8%. It is estimated that the global trendy game market will reach US $25.6 billion in 2021.

According to the data of Japan Toy Association, the size of Japan's toy market reached 839.8 billion yen in 2018, an increase of 5% year-on-year, a record high. Among them, the surprise toys represented by the blind box increased by 114% year-on-year, leading the toy industry.

Shanghai people prefer blind box consumption. In terms of geographical distribution, Shanghai people have a higher preference for buying blind boxes, with a TGI of 370. Followed by Beijing and Tianjin. From the distribution of the economic belt, blind box consumers are concentrated in Beijing Tianjin Hebei and the Yangtze River Delta, while the consumption demand of the Yangtze River Delta economic belt is weak.

Development challenges of China's blind box industry

Chinese netizens generally believe that the gimmick of the blind box industry is too big. The data show that more than 30% of the netizens surveyed believe that the blind box gimmick is too large, the product itself is lack of practicability, and more than 20% of the users believe that the price is unreasonable. AI media consulting analysts believe that most of the current blind box enterprises only meet the obvious needs of consumers for "face value", but users' love for IP is accidental and random. In addition, brand loyalty is not high. Once the market dividend subsides, there is a risk of user loss. In addition, although the current blind box businesses have well-known IP, they lack creativity and points that can more touch consumers, and it is difficult to improve user stickiness.

The consumption potential of China's blind box market continues to increase. According to the data, the proportion of China's trendy game market in the global market has increased from 11.18% in 2017 to 19.74% in 2020, and is expected to reach 23.03% by 2023. AI media consulting analysts believe that the domestic tide play industry focusing on authorized commodities around IP such as film and television, animation and games is in rapid development. As an important carrier for the realization of tide play IP, the blind box market will take advantage of the trend and is expected to gradually develop into one of the core markets of global blind box consumption.