Per editor: Dong Xingsheng
Five years ago, if selling toys to adults was a good business, no doubt trying to sell combs to bald heads, toys that don't have a primary audience for children are becoming the new darlings of the consumer market. Wang Ning, the founder of Bubble Mart, once described it as a phrase by Nietzsche: "Those who can't hear music think those who dance are crazy." ”
With the continuous development of tide play shops and products, some people are attracted by a variety of tide play, and the home is full of cabinets; some people think that toys are only exclusive to children, and do not understand the behavior of adults buying tide play. However, in this voice of admiration or doubt, the trendy toy industry has awakened.
On December 24, the National Situation Survey and Big Data Research Center of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences released the "2021 China Trend Toy Market Development Report". The report shows that as of 2020, the scale of China's tide play market has reached 29.5 billion yuan, with a compound annual growth rate of 36% in 6 years, and it is expected that the tide play market size will reach 47.8 billion yuan in 2022.
Release site Image source: Courtesy of the organizer
The "Daily Economic News" reporter noted that among the many product IP, the designer's original IP represented by Molly, DIMOO, Labubu, etc. has been favored by more than 80% of consumers, which means that the original IP has become the core competitiveness of the tide play enterprise. Trend toy companies need to pay more attention to the creative ability and experience of artists, and increase the development of independent IP derivatives.
In 2022, the industrial scale will reach 47.8 billion Bubble Mart will lead the tide play market
In the 1990s, Hong Kong artist Liu Jianwen integrated street trend culture to create a creative toy doll, which laid the foundation for trendy toys, and he was also known as the "father of Hong Kong dolls".
Unlike the traditional handmade often derived from anime and other two-dimensional characters, trendy toys are mostly designed and created by artists, designers, sculptors, etc. The toy itself has no background story, and purely relies on artistic design and visual beauty to convey the artist's design concept.
At the end of the last century, trendy toys have begun to be popular in Hong Kong, Japan, and the United States, and it was not until around 2015 that the tide play market Chinese mainland entered a period of rapid development. The "2021 China Trend Toy Market Development Report" pointed out that the emergence and development of trendy toys in recent years has been affected by multiple factors such as economic development, technological change, change in consumption concepts, and the rise of Generation Z. Among them, the advent of the digital era makes the segmented online social circle based on interests and hobbies replace the pan-social circle based on the relationship between acquaintances and have a greater impact. Trendy toys just fit in with the trend of consumer socialization in the digital age, with entertainment, personalization, and shareability, so that consumers can find circles and friends with common hobbies through trendy toys.
Image source: Screenshot of the report
According to the data, from 2015 to 2019, the global market size of the tide play industry increased from 8.7 billion US dollars to 19.8 billion US dollars, with a compound annual growth rate of 23%, and the total size of the industry is expected to reach 34.6 billion US dollars in 2022. Under the background of the overall development of the global tide play industry, China's trend toy industry has also shown great market potential. As of 2020, the scale of China's tide play market has reached 29.5 billion yuan, with a compound annual growth rate of 36% in 6 years, and it is expected that the domestic tide play market size will reach 47.8 billion yuan in 2022.
Behind the continuous expansion of market scale is the rapid development of tide play enterprises and brands. The report shows that as of 2020, the number of registered toy companies in China has reached 250, including bubble mart, 52TOYS, Ruolai Ruoshi, looking for unicorns, Xinghui Chao play and many other trend toy companies, and created a large number of IP favored by consumers such as MOLLY, DIMOO, LuLu, CBB, Farmer Bob, Nanci Xi and so on.
In fact, the development of China's tide play industry is inextricably linked to Bubble Mart. Founded in 2010, Bubble Mart was initially positioned not to be a trendy play, until 2016, when co-artist Kenny launched the Molly First Generation Constellation Series Blind Box. The unified size of the series and the pricing of dozens of pieces have lowered the purchase threshold of tide play, and promoted trend toys from niche art collections to become popular trend cultural consumer goods.
The report shows that in 2019, the market share of Bubble Mart has reached 8.5%, leading the tide play market. In 2020, The online and offline sales of Bubble Mart were 950 million and 1.56 billion, respectively, with a compound annual growth rate of 300% and 122% in 4 years, respectively; offline stores increased from 32 in 2017 to 250 in September 2021; and the number of registered members in June 2021 reached 11.415 million, an increase of 419% year-on-year.
Surprise is the main attraction of blind boxes Original IP is more favored by consumers
Wang Ning, founder of Bubble Mart, once said in his speech that the essence of consumption is to solve two needs - satisfaction and presence. The trendy toys represented by Bubble Mart have captured the emotional needs of contemporary young consumers.
In the "2021 China Trend Toy Market Development Report" on the motivation survey of buying tide play blind boxes, 46.78% of consumers believe that surprise is an important reason for buying tide play blind boxes, and 38.95% of consumers will buy because they have their favorite IP. It can be seen that social and self-pleasure are the main motivations for consumers to buy the tide play blind box, and only a very small number of consumers will buy the tide play blind box for the purpose of investment or second-hand transaction.
In terms of specific emotions, 87.39% of the respondents can get a huge sense of surprise when they get their favorite tide play blind box styles, thereby enhancing their sense of satisfaction; 25.21% of the respondents believe that through the tide play blind box related community can make friends and enhance their sense of belonging to the group; 60.77% of the respondents recognize that the tide play blind box products can bring emotional companionship and healing.
Tide play blind box to meet the emotional needs of consumers, for tide play company, what kind of products can be more attractive to consumers?
According to the survey, in terms of brand selection, tide play consumers will pay more attention to product design, product image, product innovation and other factors, and the value judgments such as "value for money" and "professional" that are valued in the traditional consumption field are not prominent; and in terms of IP preferences, the designer's original IP represented by Molly, DIMOO, Labubu, etc. has been favored by more than 80% of consumers, far exceeding other IP products, which means that in the future tide play market, the importance of original IP will become more prominent.
Although tide play is not aimed at children, it is undoubtedly more suitable for young consumer groups for young people and adults, whether it is the "surprise economy" brought by it, or social attributes such as socialization, collection, and entertainment. The survey shows that The Z generation born after 1995 is the main force of tide play consumption, accounting for 39%. In addition, female trend blind box players are also far larger than male players, accounting for up to 85%.
Daily economic news