Fang Longxi, who has been engaged in investment and entrepreneurship for 13 years, was attracted by a popular playing card project last year and entered a completely new field. Compared with the business department stores, intelligent manufacturing, online group buying and catering industries that he was familiar with, this field is more "popular" and seems to have a lower threshold, but it has not yet been truly commercialized. This project is called "Egg Hunting".
More than 100 people gathered together, four people at a table, two by two, playing cards, looking at cards, shuffling cards...... From afternoon to evening, more than 4 hours, 9 rounds of cards. Before the game, there was a lot of noise, and there was silence during the game, which seemed to be uneventful, but in fact, the "battle situation" was fierce. When it came to the hearty place, Gu Xi smiled at the prime of life, and the women did not let the eyebrows be shaved.
This is an egg breaking competition held in Tian'an Digital City, Qinhuai District, Nanjing on April 13, called the "Ding Tune Club Cup" Nanjing Ring Elite Competition. 64 teams and 128 contestants, the scale is not small, the organization is orderly, and the level of participants and competition level are quite high, which makes the reporters who are accustomed to seeing folk egg gatherings refreshing.
Fang Longxi, the funder and core organizer of the competition, is the main investor of Nanjing's catering group buying platform - "Ding Tune Hui". The contestants are mainly alumni of Nanjing University, Southeast University, Renmin University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University and other well-known universities in Nanjing, as well as members of egg associations, large enterprises and institutions and clubs in various districts of Nanjing. The top 10 of this competition gathered the current masters of the Jiangsu egg industry.
The fiery Nanjing Ring Elite is just a microcosm of the current egg breaking in Jiangsu and even the whole country. This competition between egg wrenching masters is obviously aimed at the current huge population of the "pyramid tip" of the egg wrenching circle. A large number of "grassroots" egg-breaking competitions and activities are staged almost every day in the towns and villages of Jiangsu.
On Sunday, April 21, Nanjing Yongjian Sports Club's Weekly Egg Breaking Tournament attracted 44 participants, which was a small one. In this club, which is dominated by retired cadres, egg breaking has become the most popular event, with weekly, monthly and annual competitions, and the participants are enthusiastic. So far, the club has organized nearly 100 egg competitions for more than 100 people.
There are more than 800 members of Kunshan Dingyuan Egg Club, which holds monthly competitions, points competitions, ring competitions and master challenges all year round. In April, the "Weile Ding Yuan Egg Live Room" was just launched, and the number of views is increasing day by day.
Jiangbei New Area Xiaoyaomen Chess and Card Center is the oldest egg club in Nanjing, with more than 100 members and more than 10 top masters, and has achieved good results in various large-scale competitions across the country.
Not only Jiangsu, but also this poker game that originated from the folk has become popular all over China, and even overseas. According to incomplete statistics, there are as many as 140 million egg players in the country, covering the population - 600 million to 700 million people commonly known as "can touch cards", nearly half of the country's population. On March 30 this year, at the "First Global Egg Promotion Summit" held in Nanjing, the Global Egg Club (Association) Alliance was established. Representatives from 22 countries and regions, including the United States, Canada, Australia, Germany, Malaysia and Singapore, attended the event, and behind them were nearly a million overseas egg lovers, a considerable number of whom were non-Chinese.
The huge number of participants has brought huge market demand, and the egg industry is rapidly converging and taking shape. According to incomplete statistics, the sales of equipment and services directly related to it have reached tens of billions of yuan, and they are still growing rapidly. If we calculate the new downstream extension areas of the industrial chain, such as new consumption with cross-border integration such as eggs, cultural tourism, and catering, the above figures will be expanded by at least another 50%.
Why did the eggs that had only been out of Jiangsu and Anhui provinces become a new "social password" for a few years? And how did it affect a huge new market? This reporter recently conducted an in-depth interview on this.
From a water-town pastime to a new type of intellectual sport
In fact, the egg was originally a poker game that originated from the folk, which originated in Nanzha Township, Huai'an District, Huai'an City (now Caoyun Town). The rules of the game are a combination of card games such as "running fast", "eighty points" and "fighting landlords". To put it simply, it is four people, form two teams, and play two decks of cards. It's not that hard to get started, but it does take a certain amount of wisdom to play well, and it's full of endless strategic variations and a strong focus on teamwork.
What is the fun of breaking eggs? The so-called "eating without breaking eggs is equivalent to not eating." I have to admit that the egg is indeed magical, not only able to penetrate the class, but also across ages, the elite can rely on it to socialize, and ordinary people can also rely on it for entertainment. Eggs are nicknamed by many people as the "provincial quintessence" of Jiangsu. Qi Guanshan, chairman of the Global Egg Club (Association) Alliance and president of the Jiangsu Egg Association, believes that this agricultural leisure entertainment originated from the folk has now integrated intellectual, fun, fitness, socialization and ornamentation, and has become a new type of intellectual sport.
With a bachelor's degree in philosophy, a master's degree in law and an MBA in supply chain management, Fang Longxi has founded three companies. He only started to get in touch with and pay attention to the egg last year. In Fang Longxi's view, the egg is not only deeply compatible with the traditional culture of Jiangsu and China, but also meets the increasing spiritual life needs of the current Chinese people. In the context of the increasingly significant "aging" in the country, especially in Jiangsu and other coastal developed provinces, this advantage of egg breaking is more prominent. In recent years, the popularity of this new type of intellectual sport that meets the latest needs of the Chinese people in Jiangsu and even the whole country has been like a bamboo, and the "explosive" expansion of the group and the "rocket" growth of the event are logical.
2023 is hailed by some as the "first year of eggs". During the year, the number of enterprises and associations related to egg hunting surged. As of March this year, more than 600 million eggs have a population all over the country, and there are about 800 social groups and companies registered with the name of eggs and brands, of which about 270 are in Jiangsu. At present, there are 6 provincial-level egg associations in the country, and the Jiangsu Egg Sports Association was established at the end of 2018, and there are five provincial and municipal associations in Hainan, Guizhou, Sichuan, Shanghai and Beijing. There are 140 egg-breaking associations in the country, and 69 are in Jiangsu. The number of egg associations in Jiangsu has grown from 6 at the time of the establishment of the provincial association to more than 20, and nearly 100 new clubs have been added.
In April 2017, the National Chess and Card Sports Management Center officially launched the "Huai'an Egg Competition Rules". In 2022, the "Rules for the Competitive Egg Breaking Competition (Trial)" will be officially promulgated, and the egg will officially move from group to group + competition. The Jiangsu Provincial Association issued the "Opinions on the Rating of Egg Breaking Athletes", "Measures for the Management of Egg Breaking Events", "Jiangsu Provincial Egg Club Management Standards (Trial)", etc., which have laid a solid foundation for the promotion of egg breaking sports in Jiangsu and even the whole country.
Behind the boom: driven by new market demand
Behind the popularity of eggs, in addition to historical and cultural factors, there are largely economic factors, which are fundamentally driven by new market demand.
"If you beat the eggs well, it means that you have a brain, and if you beat the eggs well, you will have a clear mind...... A similar slip of the tongue is enough to show the popularity of this game among the people. During this year's winter vacation, Hubei Yichang Tianwen Education Group assigned a special winter vacation homework: all students must learn to break eggs and set it as a new semester course. Whipping eggs into the classroom, you can see its powerful charm.
Jiang Zhaoyi, a researcher at the Jiangsu Academy of Social Sciences and vice president of the Jiangsu Provincial Institute of Finance, believes that the egg has its own social function, and this powerful social attribute is a great weapon for rapid "icebreaking" between strangers. For business people, this attribute helps them quickly expand their customers, shorten the distance, and maintain relationships later.
The origin and rapid development of the egg are in Jiangsu, and the neighboring Zhejiang and Shanghai playing card companies are the first to obtain the dividend of the popularity of the egg.
The first is playing cards. It is estimated that in recent years, the annual consumption of the domestic poker market is about 4 billion to 5 billion pairs, and the sales of special poker for egg hunting have increased the most since last year. Lou Qinfeng, chairman of Zhejiang Yiwu Binwang Poker, predicts that the egg poker market is expected to grow by 20% in 2024. It is understood that banks, investment circles of people order egg poker more, these groups have high consumption power, the price of egg poker is generally more than 10 yuan a pair, much higher than the retail price of about 5 yuan of ordinary playing cards, and the profit margin is higher. Among the four well-known playing card brands in China, Yao Ji is a Shanghai enterprise, and Binwang, Triple A, and Punctual are all Zhejiang enterprises. Yao Kee Technology's 2023 performance forecast shows that it will make a profit of 530 million to 650 million yuan that year, a year-on-year increase of 52% to 86%.
"China Playing Card Industry Base" Wuyi County, Zhejiang Province, playing card production accounts for nearly 70% of the country, has a relatively complete industrial chain, the current playing card production enterprises and supporting enterprises total nearly 80, the annual output value of about 2.5 billion yuan. A number of old poker factories in Wuyi, such as fishing, punctuality, and science and technology printing, have entered the egg market. Compared to common cards, egg cards are slightly larger in size and require higher material and clarity. In order to meet this new demand, Wuyi playing card companies have upgraded their products, replacing the original production paper with high-quality paper such as Kohler black core paper, and adding cloth texture to make it more textured.
In addition, the demand for special table mats, tables and chairs for egg breaking is also huge. A company in Zhejiang produces an automatic card issuing machine with a brand design function, with a price of more than 40,000 yuan.
Jiangsu's light industry manufacturing industry is developed, but so far there are not many enterprises that have shared the cake of "service equipment" in the egg industry chain. Jingjiang Three Rabbits Group is one of the relatively large players in the playing card market, and Yao Ji Technology has established a production base in Qidong City. Relatively speaking, Jiangsu famous brand wine companies have invested more in the egg breaking competition, especially the three major Su wine brands of Yanghe, Shuanggou and Jinshiyuan.
According to Jiang Zhaoyi's analysis, the egg industry has not only taken shape, but is also upgrading with the help of the market "outlet". In the future, the quality requirements for playing cards in the game will become higher and higher, so many playing card manufacturers have taken the initiative to transform and upgrade, upgrading the traditional flexo printing machine to a new offset printing machine to seize the market. He observed that in addition to playing cards, the industrial chain has been derived from special table mats, card machines, card recorders, etc. The scene of playing cards is also an extended industrial chain, and many chess and card rooms, cafes, and tea houses have provided egg breaking services. On the online platform, various versions of "egg breaking textbooks" and "egg breaking skills" have been widely disseminated, and derivatives such as special playing cards, card dealers, and card holders have emerged in an endless stream.
The "gold content" of new traffic
The financial investment community is the industry group that pays the most attention to the egg industry and its business opportunities, and is also the most actively invested. In Shanghai, China's financial center, there is even a special Egg Whipping Sports Association. The chairman of the first council has a great background - the chairman of Oriental Fortune with a net worth of 40 billion yuan. Bosera Fund held an egg hunting competition at the 25th anniversary celebration venue, and CITIC Securities distributed "egg gift boxes" to customers. Many business tycoons have joined in. Zhou Hongyi believes that "egg making is very important for social interaction"; Liu Qiangdong once laughed that "egg making is a great invention"; Yu Minhong also said that "it is very good to love to beat eggs, and I also love to beat eggs".
According to the analysis of some financial media, the popularity of eggs is not unrelated to the changing trend of the main sources of funds in the capital market in recent years. The Yangtze River Delta has a large number of local limited partners (LPs) and active capital contributions, and is considered by investors to be a low-cost way to break into the group. The former darling of the financial circle, "Texas Hold'em", has fallen out of favor due to the decline in US dollar LP investment in recent years. Jiang Zhaoyi pointed out that the financial industry pays more attention to communication, and "upward socialization" is known as a very important ability, and Egg Hunting provides it with a "very people-friendly social platform".
From this point of view, Fang Longxi, a senior investor in Nanjing, entered the egg industry and introduced its huge traffic into mid-to-high-end restaurants and even consumption platforms, which can be described as an "investment outlet".
Fang Longxi's founding investment in Tonglian Precision has been listed on the Science and Technology Innovation Board, and he is also a major shareholder of two other companies. In October 2021, he launched the catering collective marketing platform "Ding Tune Hui", but because there are not many people who know about it, it is difficult to promote. Last year, Fang Longxi invested in the establishment of the Ding Tiaohui Egg Club to build a professional egg breaking venue, and its original intention was to drive catering through egg fighting. Not long ago, about 500 new members were added after the "Ding Tuhui Elite Competition". It is reported that Nanjing No. 1 food e-commerce company controlled by Fang Longxi plans to invest more than 10 million yuan in the Ding Diao Hui Egg Club, first expanding the customer base of the two super cities of Beijing and Shanghai.
Like Fong, many people in the investment community have been keenly aware of a series of new business opportunities that have spawned by the egg. In addition to related equipment, it also includes: game development and promotion, event organization and planning professional services, props, equipment, training, "escort" and other related services, as well as cross-border cooperation and integrated marketing, such as integrated marketing with catering, entertainment, tourism and other industries. In a word, the new flow of eggs has brought an excellent opportunity for traditional industries, including manufacturing and service industries, to reorganize resources and upgrade their development to meet new consumer demand.
In addition to the hometown of great people, the capital of the Grand Canal, and the capital of world cuisine, Huai'an has a new business card - the hometown of eggs. Caoyun Town, Huai'an District, the birthplace of eggs, is seizing the opportunity to create a regional characteristic cultural brand. "Nanzha Egg Town" is the latest local attempt.
On the other hand, compared with other competitive chess and card sports, the road to professionalism of egg players is still far away. Deng Zhaoxia, a second-level referee of the egg breaking sport, said that professional egg players are usually closely related to commercialization and the market system, and what they pursue is the economic return and popularity of individuals and teams. She believes that from the current point of view, the commercialization of the egg breaking event is still in the process of exploration.
Jiangsu Economic News reporter Wang Junfeng Wang Shaoqiang