Wen 丨 Wang Manhua
Source 丨East Forty-Article Capital, a subsidiary of China Investment Network
Xiaomi and Bubble Mart, unexpectedly "cute" phantom linkage.
According to Tianyan, recently, Shanghai Youwu Culture Communication Co., Ltd., an affiliate of youwu YOWU, a two-dimensional mobile phone manufacturer, has undergone industrial and commercial changes, adding Xiaomi Technology Co., Ltd. and Beijing Bubble Mart Cultural and Creative Co., Ltd. as shareholders, both of which hold 10% and 4.3% of the shares respectively.
Bubble Mart's investment in the second dimension is not a new thing, since last year, the company has frequently shot around the Z generation, trend IP and other fields, so this investment is also reasonable.
But another investor, Xiaomi, has attracted my attention, before, Xiaomi's foreign investment was mostly for the ecological layout, and the shots were all upstream and downstream related advanced manufacturing enterprises, and this rare layout of the two-dimensional track revealed a new signal? Will there be an extra player in the second dimension?
The cat ear headphones that the "Four Pit Girls" are using
At the same time, it is favored by two popular CVCs, what kind of company is YoWU?
Founded in 2018, Yowu is a manufacturer of two-dimensional headphones, and the core users are ACGN people (animation animation, comic comics, game games, novel novels combined abbreviation).
In the two-dimensional culture, "cute" is a very important attribute, in a variety of two-dimensional exhibition halls, Cosplay activities can often see the cat ear image-related products, which is also the most common symbolic fashion elements in the current two-dimensional products.
Demon Dance YOWU in the product design is to take this route, it through the headphones to add "cat ears", "elf ears" and other quite "cute attributes" elements, and then with a variety of lights, colors to choose from, in order to cut the "otaku otaku" consumption preferences.
Up to now, Yoowu has launched three products: Demon Dance Cat Ear Headphones 3S, Demon Dance Cat Ear Headphones 3G and Demon Dance Elf Headphones.
Through relevant reports, it can be seen that Yowu is quite active in brand marketing. Not only did it find the endorsement of the popular KS anchor Fireline, but also cooperated with a number of dimensional bloggers. According to incomplete statistics, Xie Anran, Chang Kou, Aoki Mishazi, Demon King, Xiong Qi, Lao BaBao and other well-known bloggers of the "Four Pit Circle" have all done publicity for the demon dance headphones on different occasions.
(Image source: Yowu official website)
It is worth mentioning that Yowu has also linked with a number of well-known IP to jointly launch co-branded headphones. At present, the IP of cooperation includes the magic card girl Sakura, the fox demon Little Red Lady, Hatsune Mirai and so on.
Since its inception, Yowu has received two rounds of financing, the last time occurring in June 2020, which was an angel round of financing invested by Bee Qiao Capital.
Bubble Mart and Xiaomi have invested in yowu this time, presumably looking at the huge secondary market and The Z generation consumer population behind it.
Bubble Mart, Xiaomi, bet on Gen Z
Bubble Mart's investment in Gen Z is not new.
Previously, the investment network had reported in the article "Just now, Bubble Mart established an investment company", since last year, Bubble Mart has begun to make intensive shots to create a trend cultural territory through investment.
According to incomplete statistics, as of now, Bubble Mart has invested more than 10 times abroad, covering art galleries, animation films, Hanfu brands, trend buyers, secondary e-commerce, cultural and artistic trading companies, animation creation companies and so on.
The most recent shot occurred in September this year, Bubble Mart led the investment in the "two points and ten" B+ round of investment in animation creation companies, which is a whole industry chain company with animation IP research and development and operation as the core, with "Silver Tomb Keeper", "I Am Jiang Xiaobai", "Legend of the Great Wall" and other high-quality hot IPs, and reached in-depth digital CG cooperation with well-known games at home and abroad, including "League of Legends", "Yin and Yang Division", "Tomorrow's Ark", "Glory of the King" and so on.
On September 13, Bubble Mart announced the establishment of an investment company, Ningbo Play Heart Return Investment Co., Ltd., engaged in investment activities, sales of toys, animation and amusement supplies, and corporate management consulting.
At present, the investment idea of Bubble Mart is relatively clear, that is, to do the layout around the IP ecology, especially paying attention to the Z generation and IP-related fields. The demon dance YOWU invested in this investment is within this range.
Compared with the conventional investment of Bubble Mart, Xiaomi's shot is really rare.
For a long time, although Xiaomi has frequent investment actions, most of them have been laid out around its ecology, and the advanced manufacturing enterprises related to upstream and downstream have been shot. Now investing in yowu, is it to make efforts in the secondary market?
In fact, this signal has long been signs.
As early as October this year, Xiaomi was exposed to be actively laying out the tide play and the secondary market. According to media reports at the time, Xiaomi was testing an app called "Bump". It is reported that this is a tide play community, focusing on providing a communication platform for model toy lovers, involving many Z generation elements such as tide play, quadratic elements, animation IP and so on. At present, the APP is still in the testing stage.
Subsequently, on November 3, Xiaomi mobile phone announced a new two-dimensional cute sister avatar on station B, which attracted the attention of rice noodles. At that time, there was a view that Xiaomi or after the hardware stacking, appearance differentiation competition, the two-dimensional idol element as a new marketing direction.
At the investment level, Xiaomi invested in a large collection store brand called "Poetry and Kaleidoscope" on November 8. The company was founded in April 2021 to focus on creating urban Disney spaces for Generation Z. At present, its first store in China is located in Shanghai Jing'an Temple, and its products include "three pits" clothing and other peripherals such as makeup, perfumes, beauty pupils, accessories, cultural and creative products.
Coupled with this investment in yowu, Xiaomi's ambition to bet on Generation Z has become more and more obvious.