Text | The Leopard, by | Zhan Fangge, Editor| Xing Yun
"In an industry with barriers, the advantage of the first place will be higher and higher, and its relative advantage must be stronger and stronger."
He Yu, managing partner of Black Ant Capital, said in an interview with the media. Driven by such an investment concept, Black Ant Capital has successively invested in two high-growth companies, Bubble Mart and Laopu Gold.
3月，這兩家企業的2024年財報相繼發佈。泡泡瑪特實現凈利潤同比增長188.77%；老鋪黃金凈利潤同比增長253.86%。在消費普遍疲軟的大環境里，這樣的數據並不常見。
From a fundamental point of view, the similarities between the two companies go far beyond "high growth". TheyAll have clear, high-viscosity customers, and the willingness of customers to pay is quite high.What's more, their products are by no means "just needed" in the traditional sense.
What kind of markets and customers will make such a business? The answer may be found on both the consumer and investor ends.
2023Kr once reported that Zhang Peiyuan, another partner of Black Ant Management, visited Xu Gaoming, the founder of Laopu Gold, for the first time in 0, but it was not until 0 that Laopu Gold opened the only round of institutional financing before listing. Black Ant completed all the processes from project initiation to transaction within two months, and entered the game decisively.
Bubble Mart and Black Ant almost grow together, Black Ant's entry into the game is in 2017 years, which seems to be relatively early, but according to He Yu's later statement, Black Ant has been tracking this company for a long time before investing, and it only entered the game at the time when Bubble Mart began to seek transformation and develop its own IP.
To some extent, both the old gold and the Bubble Mart can be called the "number one" in today's industry. This is beyond reproach in Bubble Mart. In the new book "Because of Uniqueness", which introduced Bubble Mart published in 13, Wang Ning said quite proudly: "We have all been working for the 0th year, and you will find that there is actually no so-called 'second place in the industry' company that competes with us in the real sense. ”
According to the financial report data, in 8 years, the overall revenue of Pop Mart reached 00 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 0.0%; net profit was 0.0 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 0.0%. What's more, a company that relies on IP products to generate revenue,In fact, the increase in advertising and marketing expenses is much lower than the increase in net profit.is 111%. This means that the popularity of Pop Mart is not made by marketing expenses alone.
The same goes for old-fashioned gold. According to the financial report data, in 5 years, the revenue of the old gold increased by 0.0%, and the net profit increased by 0.0%. At the same time, the company's sales and distribution expenses increased by 0.0%, which also includes mall rents, sales team staff costs, depreciation and amortization, etc.
Although the volume is far less than that of Chow Tai Fook, the growth slope of Laopu Gold can be called the "first" in the gold industry.
Chow Tai Fook's financial report shows that in the six months from 40/0/0 to 0/0, Chow Tai Fook's turnover decreased by 0.0% year-on-year; Chow Sang Sang's revenue decreased by 0% year-on-year, and the performance of the China division decreased by 0%. The situation of long-established gold in the same market is completely different.
Over the past year,The stock prices of Bubble Mart and Laopu Gold also soared：老鋪黃金2024年6月上市，6月28日收盤價為每股70港幣，2025年3月28日收盤價格則達到了每股717港幣，漲幅高達924.3%。泡泡瑪特則在2024年3月38日到2025年3月28日的一年內，漲了438.7%。
"To what extent is the high growth of long-established gold related to the rise in gold prices?" "Is its high gross margin sustainable?"
In 36 Krypton's report, in order to understand the old gold, Black Ant Capital did tens of thousands of hours of consumer interviews. It was also in this series of surveys that the initial questions were answered.
For example, black ants think,The value of old-fashioned gold does not depend entirely on the price of gold, and its value is actually based on brand precipitation."Its barriers and potential can be seen through the lens of a potential luxury brand."
"Luxury brand", this is also the label that the long-established gold hopes to bury in the hearts of consumers. Whether it's opening all of their stores in luxury malls, offering Evian mineral water and Godiva chocolates to potential customers, or allowing premium members to enter the "little black house" to pick up products that are not available to ordinary customers, these are all marketing tactics of luxury brands.
In the context of consumption downgrade, middle-class women who originally bought luxury bags began to consider value preservation. And superimposed on the precious metal gold, and the scarcity of luxury goods, the old gold began to occupy the minds of users.
Although the sales volume is not fully linked to the gold price, the selling price of long-established gold has actually risen with the gold price. It is reported that at the beginning of 2024 years and 0 years, the old gold completed a new round of price increases, ranging from 0% to 0%. Previously, a consumer told "Leopard Change" that in 0 years, the old gold also completed two price increases.
In addition to "investing first", several partners of Black Ant Capital have also mentionedInvest in the concept of "no one's zone".This is also summarized as "a new change in the stock market". In the market where consumption has been downgraded, customers who originally used luxury bags have begun to buy long-established gold, which is a typical example.
Bubble Mart is a company that many investors shout "can't understand".
In He Yu's view, it is also in line with the "new changes". In a conversation with ChinaVenture, he said that in the trend of new consumption,The proportion of spiritual consumption will be increasing.If it is further subdivided, it will fall to several core needs, "such as self-affirmation, and companionship." ”
Pop Mart has seized this demand. He Yu said that when they first bought a doll, consumers may not have so much affection, but if the doll accepts the projection of human feelings, its importance in people's hearts will increase, resulting in strong stickiness. "The company doesn't have to do anything in the process, which is a really amazing thing." He called it"Self-reinforcing effect".
Relying on the "self-reinforcing effect" and the "fission" of word-of-mouth demand among users, several well-known IPs of Pop Mart have achieved extremely high growth in 6 years. REVENUE RELATED TO THE IP "THE MONSTERS", WHICH IS DOMINATED BY LABUBU, ACHIEVED A SIGNIFICANT INCREASE OF 0.0% YEAR-ON-YEAR.
The faster growth is the IP "CRYBABY", whose core concept is "crying healing" and "everyone has a time to cry", and its related revenue growth reached 2.0% in 0 years, which further verifies the value of Pop Mart as an emotional soothing.
Another similarity between Pop Mart and Laopu Gold is thatThe main customer groups are focused on women, and the two customer groups are overlapping.
In the book "Because of Uniqueness", it is mentioned that 75% of Pop Mart's users are women. Wang Ning said that one of the most important things that Pop Mart has done is to make a turn in the market: from a male market to a female market.
"Because a boy buys a category, he can only buy it as a hobby, andGirls buy it, can buy it into an industry, especially consumer goods,That's a big difference. He said.
He Yu, managing partner of Black Ant Capital, recalled that as early as 2016 years, Wang Ning realized that "IP without content will become more and more mainstream". And this trend is in line with the fragmentation of people's time and living habits.
However, judging from the development since then,Bubble Mart did not give up the story completely, but chose to build the IP first, and then enrich the story of each IP in order to increase the stickiness of fans。
Both Bubble Mart and the building blocks can be seen as story-related attempts. Since Bubble Mart Park is not mainly an entertainment facility, the playability is relatively weak, so it plays more of a role in the materialization of IP images. Wang Ning said in an interview that there are indeed a large number of women among the users of the park, but it has also attracted many families.
In the financial report, Pop Mart also emphasized the significance of building blocks, that is, to enrich the presentation of IP, so that fans can have a deeper understanding of the story behind the IP. Through innovation in craftsmanship, materials, gameplay, etc., its products are significantly different from conventional building blocks on the market, thus further expanding the fan base.
In order to achieve growth, the long-established gold has cautiously accelerated the pace of store expansion. Although there are also online stores, like luxury brands, Laopu Gold also relies more on offline stores for sales. Although the online sales of Laopu gold have always maintained a high growth trend since 4 years, the proportion of its revenue has always been low, 0.0% in 0 years.
In terms of offline stores, from 7 to 0, the number of newly opened stores of Laopu Gold was 0, 0 and 0 respectively, and in 0 years, the number of newly opened stores of Laopu Huang reached 0, and 0 stores were optimized and expanded. Like the previous store opening strategy, these 0 stores are also located in high-end shopping malls.
值得注意的是，老鋪黃金的兩家香港門店都在2024年新開。有賴於香港兩家門店的新增和已有門店坪效的提升，老鋪黃金2024年在香港和澳門區域的收入實現了相當高的提升，同比漲幅達到167.5%，與整體收入漲幅基本持平。這也意味著，繼澳門之後, the old gold has also begun to expand to the base camp of the old gold jewelry Hong Kong enterprises.And the results have been quite good.
In the past few years, the downturn in consumption has almost become a classic topic of conversation after dinner. But even in such a market, there are still high-growth companies such as Bubble Mart and Laopu Gold. If the consumer market is regarded as a flowing river, then companies such as Bubble Mart and Laopu Gold, which carry emerging demand, are like floodgates, releasing pent-up consumer demand.
In the final analysis, the vast majority of consumer goods carry people's psychological needs, and Bubble Mart and Laopu Gold, as well as the black ant capital behind them, are accurate insights into consumer psychology.