Li Hua, who lives in Xueyuan Road, Haidian District, Beijing, recently encountered an upset affair. After the start of school this spring, fourth-graders became obsessed with the "Ultraman Card." This Spring Festival, the child got more than a thousand yuan of pressure money, and actually used hundreds of yuan to buy an "Ultraman card". "I didn't expect that the money we saved for our children was actually donated to the card company."
"Ultraman Card" is a series of cards produced by Zhejiang Kayou Culture Communication Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Zhejiang Kayou") registered in Yiwu City, Zhejiang Province, each card is printed with an Ultraman or monster in the Ultraman series of cartoons, and marked with different values such as attack power, the card is divided into N, R, SR, SSR to HR and other different levels according to scarcity.
As the state continues to strengthen control over online games and enforce the anti-addiction model, some minors have gradually lost their positions in online games, but a heart that wants to play games has never stopped. Since the second half of 2021, the "Ultraman Card" has gradually become popular among primary and secondary school students.
Alternative "blind boxes" are once again all the rage
A fourth-grade child surnamed Wu told the "Legal Person" reporter that "Ultraman cards" usually have 5 cards in each package, and the price ranges from 2 yuan, 5 yuan, 10 yuan to more expensive. Before unpacking, no one knew which 5 cards were inside. However, the higher the price, the greater the probability of drawing a "good card". "A 'good card' is one with a high scarcity level (at least an SSR level), a strong attack, or a 'TV card' (a card with 3D stereoscopic visuals). If you don't believe it, you can try, 5 yuan a pack and 10 yuan a pack, the level of the card inside is not the same. He said emphatically.
The reporter came to the off-campus small supermarket located in Xueyuan Road Street in Haidian District. In the stationery area, the reporter did not find the "Ultraman card", after asking the store manager, he learned that due to the hot sale, the "Ultraman card" was moved to the cash register. "Saiga Ultraman", "Diga Ultraman", "Zeta Ultraman" There are nearly ten series of "Ultraman Cards" in this store alone.
The reporter purchased two packs of 10 yuan Ultraman cards, a total of 10 cards, one of which was marked as "HR" grade, which looks different from other cards and has obvious 3D stereoscopic effects, which is the "TV card" in the mouth of children surnamed Wu.
The store manager also sold a card to reporters in boxes for 100 yuan a box. "The cost performance is higher than buying by bag, and it is easy to draw 'good cards'." In addition, there is a kind of card priced at 30 yuan a box, which is 3 packs of 10 yuan cards. "The more expensive it is, the easier it is to have a 'good card.'" The words of the store manager are the same as those of the children surnamed Wu.
According to the store manager, the "Ultraman Card" has existed for a long time, but it has become popular among elementary school students, such as the popularity of yo-yo, "Water Margin Hero Card" and "Three Kingdoms Heroes Space-time Magic Card" in that year, which began in the second half of last year. The reporter noted that at that time, the state restricted minors from playing online games, and the "anti-addiction system" began to achieve certain results. "Since the beginning of the spring semester this year, it has become more and more intense, and as soon as school ends, there are many children who come to buy, and some children's parents cry when they don't buy it."
The reporter found that the "Ultraman Card" is similar to the "Blind Box" in terms of gameplay, but there are also differences.
"Blind box" before opening do not know which one is specific, each series of blind boxes will have one or two "hidden models", drawing "hidden models" is like drawing a jackpot, because the scarcity of "hidden models" is far greater than the public model, which is equivalent to the "good card" in the "Ultraman card". However, the "Ultraman Card" does not have a "hidden model", and all styles are "clearly marked with price" and specify the level of scarcity.
In addition, the number of IP developments for the character image of the "Ultraman Card" is much greater than that of the "blind box". "Blind Box" and "Ultraman Card" can have a very large number of series, but after the "Blind Box" has developed more than a dozen images of the "Harry Potter" series, it will turn to other series such as "Disney Princess" and "Naruto", while the "Ultraman Card" is repeatedly developed on an "Ultraman" image that has existed for more than 50 years, and each time a new series is launched, a new set of cards can be produced.
Sell uncertainty and make big business
The reporter learned that after the manufacturer of "Ultraman Card" "Zhejiang Card Tour" obtained IP authorization from "Xinchuanghua" Company, it produced "Ultraman Card" series after series. "Xinchuanghua" company obtained the copyright general agency right of Chinese mainland from the copyright company of Ultraman Image, Japan Bandai Corporation. That is to say, Japan Bandai granted the ultraman copyright to "Xinchuanghua", and "Xinchuanghua" obtained the right to act as an agent and then granted the right to use ultraman's image on the card to "Zhejiang Kayou".
It is worth noting that the ultraman series of cartoons has declined in its hometown of Japan. Due to the violent plot of the content, Ultraman has been banned from the Youth Channel in Japan. Even so, Bandai's 2021 financial report shows that the company's total revenue is still 8.6 billion yen, and this figure is expected to reach 9.5 billion yen in 2022. The Chinese mainland is Bandai's largest overseas market.
The reporter learned that "Zhejiang Kayou" received 6 million yuan of financing from Sequoia Capital in 2021, and the valuation has reached as much as 1 billion US dollars, while the company "Bubble Mart", the leading company in the "blind box" industry, has a current market value of only 80 billion Hong Kong dollars. The "Zhejiang Card Tour", which is favored by the capital market, is known as the "Bubble Mart of the Card World".
According to the official website of the copyright agency "Xinchuanghua", the company has eight directions for Ultraman's copyright licensing: commercialization authorization, endorsement and promotion authorization, publishing authorization, space authorization, film and television cooperation, exhibition and event authorization, game authorization and online value-added authorization. The business model of "Xinchuanghua" is simple: buy the copyright agency right from Bandai in Japan, and then license it to various institutions in China that want to use ultraman's image. This also means that the commercialization authorization of "Zhejiang Kayou" is actually just the tip of the iceberg of "Xinchuanghua Ultraman Jianghu".
"There are also pirated ones, and although they look similar, the kids don't buy it." A parent waiting for the students to finish school told reporters that the unauthorized "Ultraman card", no matter which style or grade, does not have the word "card tour", and the price is much cheaper than the genuine version.
"Those who buy pirated copies can't look up in the class, so it's better not to buy them." A child surnamed Wu told reporters.
Behind the popularity of the "Ultraman card", the problem of "addiction" cannot be ignored. The above parents told reporters that some children bought wildly in boxes, just to get one or two "good cards" that they had not yet saved. "If a box doesn't have the card he wants, the money will be spent in vain, and the child will throw away the box."
"Throw it all away." A child surnamed Wu told reporters, "Classmates are interchangeable, if I have 5 SSR cards, the other party has an HR card is exactly what I want, it is possible to reach a deal, with the card for card."
How should the "card blind box" be regulated?
Like the "blind box", the "Ultraman Card" is also selling an uncertainty, that is, what is not known before unpacking, how to define this type of product with obvious lack of transparency? Is it a special class of goods?
Last year, after the consumer rights and interests incident in the "blind box" market, the China Consumer Association issued consumer tips on some chaos in the "blind box" market, but the "Ultraman Card", which has many similarities with the "blind box" play method, has not been issued any prompt by the consumer association.
"At present, the mainland has only separate legislation for the gambling industry, whether it is a 'blind box' or an 'Ultraman card', it is not enough to be as accidental as lottery tickets and lottery tickets." Zhao Hu, a lawyer at Beijing Zhongwen Law Firm, told reporters that the supervision of "Ultraman cards" can be guaranteed from the perspective of consumer rights and interests protection, and it is the obligation of merchants to ensure that consumers' right to know, which manufacturers of "Ultraman cards" should pay special attention to. "Like the 'blind box' hidden model, how many so-called 'good cards' with high scarcity and high grade are there?" Is there really or not at all? This is all information asymmetry between consumers and merchants. Zhao Hu said that merchants are using this information asymmetry to trigger the "winning" psychology of consumers, so that they can never buy, if there is such a thing, it must be suspected of defrauding consumers.
From the perspective of protecting minors, the "Ultraman Card" is indeed easy to trigger irrational consumption by minors, but it seems difficult to conclude in legal terms. Zhao Hu told reporters: "The Law on the Protection of Minors does have provisions on the sale of goods to minors, stipulating that goods must not endanger the physical and mental health of minors, but if it must be said that the 'Ultraman Card' hurts the physical and mental health of minors, it is too on the line, and it is not up to the level of being held responsible." ”
There have been incidents in which children have stolen money from their families and bought "Ultraman Cards" in a big way. According to a local media report in Hangzhou, a 10-year-old boy carried his parents behind his back and took out 1300 yuan to buy an "Ultraman card", and after mediation by the relevant departments, the stationery store owner refunded 1000 yuan.
For the irrational consumption of minors, whether parents have the right to request a refund, Zhao Hu suggested that the relevant departments set a price limit on the purchase of goods by minors, once this upper limit is exceeded, it should be regarded as minors buying products that exceed the price of their own disposal capacity, and should have the right to recover, after all, minors are people with limited capacity.
The author | Yin Xin, an all-media reporter of "Legal Person" magazine
Source| Rule of Law Daily
Edited | Quyang Chang Yu Luo Qi
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