Editor's introduction: In recent years, a large number of blind boxes have appeared in the public eye, causing wave after wave of consumption boom. Who is consuming blind boxes? What about blind boxes? This article starts from the outbreak of the blind box economy, and analyzes the consumption objects of blind boxes and the future direction for everyone. Let's take a look.
First, the outbreak of the blind box economy
On January 14, the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Market Supervision issued the "Shanghai Blind Box Business Activity Compliance Guidelines", which is the first relevant regulations of the blind box industry in China, and made the following suggestions:
"The actual value of the goods in the blind box should be basically equivalent to its selling price, the price of a single blind box generally does not exceed 200 yuan, and the blind box operator shall not sell blind boxes to minors under the age of 8." The sale of blind box goods to minors over the age of 8 should confirm the consent of the guardian through different methods such as online and offline. ”
This marks the end of the stage of barbaric growth of blind boxes in recent years.
Like many fashion trends, blind boxes are imported.
The blind box originated in Japan's "Fukubukuro", which was originally put into opaque bags by supermarkets in order to handle unsalable goods, and attracted customers to buy by creating a sense of uncertainty. At this time, the actual value of the items in the bag is often higher than the price of the bag.
With the rise of the japanese two-dimensional dimension, the "egg machine" containing various handmade dolls also appeared.
By the 1990s, this type of "blind box" concept began to appear in the form of a set card on the mainland, especially among the student population, causing a wave of consumption.
After the development of the domestic tide play market and various marketing means, blind boxes have appeared in the public eye in large numbers, especially around 2019.
"Blind box", as the name suggests, is to add items to the non-transparent packaging and realize the sale of goods through the "gambling" psychology of consumers.
The blind box economy is a general term for a series of economic activities related to it.
Generally speaking, consumers only know the style that may appear in the blind box, but cannot determine the specific item.
The earliest blind boxes often include a variety of handmade, co-branded IP dolls and so on. However, with the development of the market, it seems that there is a situation of "everything can be blind box".
All kinds of catering blind boxes, beauty blind boxes, book blind boxes, ticket blind boxes, archaeological blind boxes, pet blind boxes, etc. emerge in an endless stream, and are sought after by a large number of consumers, especially young people after 95.
Domestic blind box pricing is different, many at about 59 yuan, sometimes a series of blind boxes include 8-12, in order to get some "hot models" or even "hidden models (the lowest probability of the series of selected styles)", consumers will consume nearly a thousand yuan of funds.
In order to ensure the access to a full range of blind box styles, some consumers will also carry out the operation of "end box", that is, to purchase all the blind box styles of the entire series at once.
Nowadays, the domestic blind box is often its pricing and design value is much higher than the material value.
But even so, it still can't stop the enthusiasm of consumers. Some enthusiasts can spend hundreds of thousands of yuan for them in a year; some hidden funds for second-hand transactions can be sold after the price of a fish and other platforms can be doubled 40 times, which has also spawned a blind box second-hand trading market, driving a wave of "speculation".
In 2019, the sales of the blind box of Tmall's "Double 11" alone reached 82.12 million yuan, and the single-day turnover increased by 368% compared with the same period in 2018; by 2020, this turnover rose to 142 million yuan, an increase of nearly 73% over 2019.
On the second-hand trading platform, blind box trading has also developed rapidly. In 2018, a total of nearly 300,000 blind box players sold blind boxes on a fish platform, an increase of 320% over 2017.
The blind box is extremely attractive to the main consumer, and the blind boxes it buys are innumerable, and it is no wonder that there is a joke of "a wall for teenagers, a suite in Beijing", "a blind box as deep as the sea, and since then the wallet is a passerby".
Second, who is consuming blind boxes
Among these consumer groups, young people after 95 have become the main force of blind box consumption. In 2020, this group accounted for nearly 40% of the consumption of blind boxes, and the per capita ownership reached 5.
Digging further into consumers of the blind box economy reveals that nearly 63 percent of consumers are women.
From the perspective of occupation, young women in big cities are the main consumer force in the first place, followed by students.
Source: 2020 Blind Box Economic Insight Report
In the region, players in Shanghai have a higher love for blind boxes, followed by Beijing and Tianjin.
Whether it is unmanned vending machines or specialized physical stores in offline shopping malls, or major online platforms, they are the consumption channels for these blind box enthusiasts.
In the "2020 Blind Box Economic Insight Report", it can be found that the reason why these consumers buy blind boxes is nothing more than the cute appearance of the handmade or dolls in the blind box, or because of the love, stimulation, impulsiveness, and blindness of the blind box, there are also some groups that speculate in order to profit from second-hand transactions.
Among these consumption reasons, the popular IP is the most important reason for these post-95s to "enter the pit".
Such as Bubble Mart's hottest IP - Molly, widely liked by consumers, as well as the IP from the popular internet comic "My Emperor Bazaar Black" - My Emperor Wan Sleep is quickly out of the circle with a lazy posture and arrogant eyes.
Some blind box products derived from the joint IP series, such as One Piece, Little Prince, Crayon Xiaoxin, and Disney series, attract consumers with their interesting appearance and strong emotional shape.
Under the development of the blind box economy, many consumers have "entered the pit".
By collecting blind boxes, unpacking blind boxes, and exchanging blind boxes, young people in many big cities have also experienced the excitement brought about by uncertainty, relaxed their mood, and established a pure blind box communication circle.
In the eyes of some post-95s, the blind box is equivalent to a "social currency" and a "carrier of catharsis." "The reasons why these consumers buy blind boxes are still relatively normal.
However, there is no shortage of consumers who fall into the trap of crazy consumption out of herd mentality, comparison psychology or gambler psychology.
Among the post-95 consumer groups, some groups are primary and secondary school students who are not deeply involved in the world.
Because this part of the group has not established a correct concept of money, it is often only out of its own crazy love for some IP, or "I have what others have" psychology and make crazy purchases of some blind boxes such as stationery blind boxes.
Even some adults can't avoid the idea of hoarding blind boxes like crazy because of the "gambler mentality".
After all, in a series of blind boxes, the probability of drawing hidden money is extremely low, because the unit price of many blind boxes is around tens of yuan, which is not too expensive, in order to draw the desired hidden money, there are many people who keep buying blind boxes.
In this way, it will fall into the cycle of continuously collecting blind boxes, opening blind boxes, and continuing to collect blind boxes and unplugging blind boxes.
However, due to the higher probability of the emergence of popular or ordinary models, in order to clean up these styles, the second-hand trading market has also been derived.
In addition to satisfying a series of personal factors such as shopping desire and stimulating pursuit, there are also some groups that make profits for speculation.
Due to the scarcity of hidden funds, some groups are able to obtain hidden funds through special means and then sell them on the second-hand trading market.
As just mentioned, some IP products themselves are worth tens of yuan, but the scarce models can be sold on the second-hand platform at nearly 40 times the price, from which to obtain super high premium income.
Third, those enterprises that are full of pots
Under the development of the blind box economy, the second-hand trading market has become active, and sellers have benefited a lot.
In addition to the second-hand trading market, some enterprises in the blind box production market have also made huge profits, and many small and medium-sized enterprises are also using blind boxes to obtain higher incomes.
From 2017 to 2019, the financing activities in the blind box industry were extremely active, and many companies carried out multiple rounds of financing, such as 52Toys, IP Station, IPSTAR Tide Play Planet, Bubble Mart, etc.
Among them, Bubble Mart, as a leading enterprise in the blind box market, has become the "biggest winner" of the recent rise of enterprises in the blind box economy.
Offline physical stores, shopping mall vending machines, various related exhibitions and online platforms can see the figure of Bubble Mart products, especially the 4 hot IP-Molly, PUCKY, the Monsters, dimoo that contribute nearly 60% of Bubble Mart's revenue to "single-handedly".
Under the prevailing blind box economy in China, the company, which was established as early as 2010, increased its revenue by nearly 10 times between 2017 and 2019, from 158 million yuan in 2017 to 1.683 billion yuan in 2019, and further increased to 2.513 billion yuan in 2020, becoming a leading enterprise in the blind box industry market, and successfully listed on Hong Kong stocks in December 2020, with a market value of nearly 100 billion Hong Kong dollars, becoming the first stock in the domestic blind box.
However, at present, the domestic tide play market, including blind boxes, its industry concentration is still relatively low, even if the leading bubble mart, its market share accounts for only 8.5%, in addition to the top few companies in the share, there is still 80% of the long tail part of the entire market.
Therefore, in addition to Bubble Mart, some companies have also appeared in the public eye and are welcomed by the majority of consumers.
When it comes to the "My Emperor Bazaar Black" series of products, consumers of blind boxes and even other masses should be familiar with them.
This popular doll blind box comes from a tide play company focusing on new retail channels - IP station.
Its name also has a large number of IP series products, such as One Piece, crayon Shin, Little Prince, Disney Princess and so on.
Under the rise of the blind box economy, combined with the domestic ancient wind boom, Rolife Ruolai has also stepped out of the "national tide blind box" wind and is committed to promoting China's traditional culture.
Launched the "Tonight and What Night Series" based on ancient women (such as Li Qingzhao), the "With Zi Cheng Series" based on ancient mythological CP (such as Bai Suzhen and Xu Xian), and the "Zodiac" series based on Chinese zodiac culture (such as Zi Rat and Yin Hu).
Fusing the trend with the ancient style, this enterprise has embarked on a distinctive tidal play road that is different from other enterprises.
Some companies have also attracted a lot of attention through the blind box game. For example, WangWang once created 56 milk cans of different ethnic styles with the help of limited blind box play; Fanta and Molly launched the "Year of the Rat Big Band Series" drinks, through which to promote the sales of products and improve market attention.
In the production market, the blind box is actually expensive in the "design" and "IP" copyright, and the attention of various enterprises to the blind box is mainly concentrated in IP self-creation or IP combination, which is also the core competitiveness of blind box enterprises.
These enterprises often need to create their own IP in the upstream link of the entire industry chain or find the designer or owner of the IP copyright, cooperate with it, and then materialize the IP into a commodity in the midstream link, and then sell the commodity downstream through blind boxes and other means.
For example, Bubble Mart has created IP series products through cooperation with artists, and the 2020 Blind Box Economic Insight Report shows that it has a total of 85 ip, exclusive IP, and non-exclusive IP. In addition, the IP station operates nearly 300 IPs.
Fourth, the blind box economy that is gradually deformed
The prevalence of blind boxes has attracted many companies to enter the market.
Good blind box products need to have good IP blessings, to create their own well-known IP or to buy IP copyrights, cooperation with IP designers require great funds, but for some small businesses, this operation is often not achieved.
Therefore, in the face of huge income space, counterfeit and shoddy products appear frequently on the market, and some products are even "three noes" products.
With more and more blind box play, some merchants also use this game to sell ordinary goods with excessive inventory, making the blind boxes on the market "mixed and chaotic", and the blind boxes seem to be "broken".
Even some large well-known enterprises have also had product quality problems. The market demand for blind boxes is large, and the blind box products are authorized by IP, because the production threshold is low, so many enterprises' products are produced by foundries, resulting in the quality of some products cannot be guaranteed.
The leading enterprises of blind boxes have not only been caught in the storm of plagiarism and sale of blind boxes after being unsealed, but also have been exposed to the problem of excessive formaldehyde of products.
Some companies' products also have defects, lack of accessories, etc., facing many consumer complaints.
Referring to this, the current blind box does not support "seven days without reason to return" there are also some legal studies.
"Seven days without reason to return" is to protect the legitimate rights and interests of consumers, to avoid some damage caused by the merchant, the physical object and the picture does not match and other behaviors to deceive consumers.
Of course, some products such as products that are prone to qualitative changes and difficult to return after unpacking do not support returns without reason, and also ensure the fairness and justice of the law.
However, some merchants take advantage of the "blind" characteristics of the blind box itself and do not support returns, resulting in "empty boxes", the damage of the blind box products themselves, and even the integrity of the products cannot be guaranteed, so that consumers can eat a dumb loss.
The diversification of blind box categories has also brought hidden dangers and illegal operations.
For example, the stationery blind box is launched, and the audience is the majority of primary and secondary school students. The lack of money concept and self-control often causes these students to fall into the trap of crazy consumption and blind comparison, affecting the healthy growth of adolescents.
There are also pet blind boxes in the market, and the nominally noble cat and dog breeds are actually some native cats and dogs, old and infirm pets sent to consumers, deceiving consumers not to say that non-compliant live delivery is still illegal.
The near-well-known delivery of live pets has led to the death of almost all pets. Even if notification and rectification are made, similar pet blind box products should still be prohibited or mandatory.
In addition, some intermediaries will hoard products, resulting in artificial scarcity, or some scalpers will obtain hidden funds through various means, and then sell them at high prices in the second-hand market, so as to speculate on the price and make profits.
For the chaos in the blind box market, the China Consumers Association has pointed out that there are problems such as excessive marketing by merchants in the domestic blind box market and consumers are easy to "hook", product quality is difficult to guarantee, consumer disputes and after-sales service need to be solved and improved, and put forward the suggestion that "operators sell blind boxes as norms, and consumers should not blindly buy blind boxes".
It also criticized the blind box package launched by a large fried chicken chain company in cooperation with a blind box leading enterprise, which was intended to promote consumption, but led to consumers buying a large number of packages only for the dolls behind them and wasting food, and the waste of food caused by impulsive consumption should be criticized.
With the promulgation of the guidelines in Shanghai, the mainland has the first blind box industry related regulations.
Under more and more norms in the future, abide by the rules, and the blind box economy can develop healthily and in the long run.
Author: Xiaolongbao; Public number: Extraordinary fritters
Original link: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/HDbkD7xn-jjXYovn_9eCRg
This article is published by @Extraordinary Fritters under the auspices of Everyone is a Product Manager. Reproduction without permission is prohibited.
The title image is from Unsplash, based on the CC0 protocol.