LABUBU keeps showing that it is out of stock.
2024年9月22日14點40分，LABUBU坐坐派對系列盲盒線上開售，直播間即時湧進來3萬人。
沒有人知道這場線上銷售持續了多久，可能是10秒，也可能1秒不到，但結果都是一樣：秒殺，售罄。
THE DEMAND FOR LABUBU IN THE MARKET IS STILL RISING. When the popularity was at its highest, the blind box with the original price of 845 yuan in this series reached a premium of 0.0-0 times on the second-hand platform, and the premium of the hidden model was as high as 0%.
這讓過去習慣倒騰茅臺與蘋果手機的黃牛找到了新的機會，互聯網上有關大學生倒賣LABUBU“日入2萬”的財富奇聞，進一步給這隻咧著九顆牙的森林精靈賦予了一層魔力。
At present, trendy toys have burst out with commercial energy that is more dazzling than that of top stars.
2025年3月26日，泡泡瑪特國際集團發佈了2024全年財報。財報顯示，去年，LABUBU所在的THE MONSTERS系列總營收為30.4億元，同比增長726.6%。
According to Bubble Mart's 4-year financial report, last year, the total revenue of the MONSTERS series where LABUBU is located was 00 million yuan
Some media commented that the money that LABUBU made for Bubble Mart was about 5 times the money that Wang Yibo earned for his company Lehua Entertainment at his peak.
In addition to Bubble Mart, a collection brand such as TOP TOY was also born in the trendy toy trend, and its parent company, MINISO, has become more and more like a company that sells "co-branded peripherals". Their founders, with the help of these small toys, have become billionaires.
If you refer to the consumption concept of the older generation of "what is the use of this" or "the cost is worth a few dollars", the explosion of these dolls is really puzzling.
Ye Guofu and Wang Ning, founders of MINISO and Bubble Mart
But from the long queues at the entrance of overseas stores to the astonishing figures on the financial reports of various companies, the reality has taken people in the old world by surprise: Maslow's theory of needs is true, and young people who have met their basic survival needs are beginning to seek new things through consumption, not food, not clothing, or luxury goods that show their status, but something else.
The logic of contemporary consumption is undergoing a profound change – although not necessarily understood by everyone, but in any case, capital has long been moved, and they are afraid of missing out on some kind of technological wave from Silicon Valley, because it is a rare and clear benchmark in a wide new continent.
The name of this new continent is called "New Consumption of Generation Z".
A miniature version of "Exploring the Unknown"
For Dangni, buying a trendy blind box offline is a wonderful experience. Danny stood there, picking up each box and shaking it, feeling the weight inside, listening carefully to the sound of the collision.
In the language unique to Generation Z, she said excitedly: "Maybe I'm a wind sign, I think this is very interesting." ”
Dangni is a "post-985", 0 college graduates, and has a decent job in Hangzhou. She said that when she bought her own house in the future, she must arrange an entire glass display case for the figurines, which is what one of her colleagues did.
Netizens shared their homes for the figures or blind box "babies" / picture source @ light two blue
潮玩早已不再是一個小眾愛好。截至2024年底，中國最大的潮玩公司泡泡瑪特的註冊用戶數量為4608.3萬。同時，Statista預計，2024年中國潮玩市場規模達到764億元，並且規模還在高速增長，未來三年的年複合增長率預計達到20%。
According to Statista's statistics, blind boxes are the category with the highest proportion of the trendy toy market, reaching 6.0%.
Blind boxes, trendy toys...... These words are new concepts to many people, so it is easy to confuse, in fact, blind boxes are just a prominent sales method in the trendy toy industry, in addition, there are a large number of figurines and building blocks on the market that are not sold in the form of blind boxes.
But there is no doubt that blind boxes have brought new spices to traditional offline retail. Wang Ning, chairman and CEO of Pop Mart International Group, once mentioned in an interview that in the early days, Pop Mart put forward the theory of "retail entertainment", hoping to sell products and entertainment at the same time, and establish an emotional connection with consumers, and blind boxes happen to be a good way to establish emotional connection.
Opening a blind box is a mini version of "Exploring the Unknown". Its results can be pleasantly surprised or disappointing.
A consumer of trendy toy blind boxes told Yan Caijing that buying blind boxes is an instant emotional consumption, and she is used to walking into trendy toy collection stores like TOP TOY when shopping in shopping malls, and when she sees an eye-catching IP, she will spend dozens of dollars to buy a piece of fun.
Netizens shared the blind boxes they bought/Source: @陳turtur
The blind box gives people a direct and fresh experience, with a little stimulation, but not all products can arouse people's desire to buy when they are placed in the blind box, the key is still what is in the box.
More than one founder of Trendy Toys has expressed the meaning that IP is the core of Trendy Toys.
IP is a direct motivation for many people to buy trendy toys. The most purchased mystery box is Bubble Mart's Ania series, Ania is a character in the popular Japanese animation "Spy Playing Home" and is also Dannie's favorite anime character.
"She can know what other people think, she has a lovely voice and lovely hair." In this eccentric little girl with green eyes and pink hair, Danny projects her ideal self, "all the qualities I want to have are reflected in her".
And more often, consumers don't need to understand the story behind each IP, they don't need a deep love, and they can make a move just by their appearance. Dannie bought the blind box of the Strawberry Bear series, "To be honest, I haven't watched "Toy Story", but I think Strawberry Bear is so cute." In interviews, the word Dani said the most was "cute".
Bubble Mart Strawberry Bear series products
IP is squeezing into the real world of young people in a light and powerful manner. Whether they are interested or not, they can always detect the latest popular IPs on the product shelves or in the chat dialog, sometimes a pink dumb beaver, or a milky big-bellied dinosaur, or a yellow bear always wearing an apron.
This phenomenon is not new, and the young people of Generation Z originally grew up surrounded by Conan, Donald Duck and Barbie dolls.
In the midst of a large population, there is always a group of people who are particularly susceptible to pop culture. In his famous book Making Consumers, French scholar Antoni Galluzzo writes that youth culture has been a culture of media and business since the beginning, and that their sense of self is built on and influenced by the market.
Dani said that she has been very concerned about "cultural communication" since college, and in addition to the Ania blind box, she also lingers in all kinds of Zhen Huan's handicrafts and the Forbidden City.
And what hinders her from developing her interest is the gradually shy purse, "If it goes on like this, my wallet will be finished."
In the process of transformation, we encounter the right time, place and people
At first, it was a niche circle of artists and enthusiasts, but later, it was commercial organizations that brought it into the public eye.
But the entrepreneurs who "started it" were not trendy toy enthusiasts at the beginning. The reason why they were able to tap into the energy of IP is because they saw the feedback from the market.
The first Bubble Mart store was born in 2010, sharing the same year of birth as Xiaomi. At that time, Pop Mart was more like a grocery store, gathering trendy goods from all over the world. Among them, there is a Japanese doll called Sonny Angel that is extremely popular.
Wang Ning noticed this special category and asked netizens on Weibo: In addition to Sonny Angel, what else do you like?
50% of the comments answered: MOLLY.
MOLLY is a small painter with lake-green eyes and a downturned mouth. In 2016, Wang Ning went to Hong Kong to find her designer Wang Xinming and signed the copyright of MOLLY.
MOLLY is a small painter with lake-green eyes and a downturned mouth
Due to the lack of full commercialization, most of Hong Kong's toy artists at that time had meager incomes and survived in a small market. At that time, MOLLY could only sell a few hundred a year, and after Bubble Mart took over, in 9 years, MOLLY's sales were 00 million yuan.
Ye Guofu also saw the potential of IP through the market. In 2 years, MINISO's first Marvel-themed store opened, and its performance increased by 0 times on the same day. Ye Guofu once said in an interview that in the past, consumers were biased against Mingchuang but after making IP, he immediately found that consumers' feelings about them had changed.
In 2020 years, TOP TOY, a trendy toy brand under MINISO, was established, and the first store was opened in Guangzhou Grandview Plaza, which opened for three days, and the store sales exceeded one million.
Kong Xiao, brand marketing director of TOP TOY, told Yan Finance that as a collection store of trendy toys, TOP TOY currently maintains a single-store SKU dynamic at 500-0, covering global trend IP, original designs and limited edition products. TOP TOY is deeply bound to top IP copyright owners such as Disney and Sanrio, and aggregates 0+ IP to form a system of "international top IP drainage + domestic IP breakthrough + self-owned IP precipitation".
According to the financial report released by MINISO on 276/0/00, for the whole year, the total revenue of TOP TOY was 0.0 billion, a year-on-year increase of 0.0%, and the total number of stores increased by 0 to 0.
Kong Xiao revealed to Yan Finance that TOP TOY will continue to expand in 100 years, and plans to add 0-0 new stores throughout the year.
TOP TOY will continue to expand in 2025 years
Before any new business model flourishes, society has gone through a long period of preparation, and "the right time, place and people" may be indispensable. As early as the eighties and nineties of the twentieth century, Made in China has been exercised in the global market, making the toy process more and more mature.
Dongguan is the world's largest toy production base. So far, many Dongguan toy manufacturers are also exploring the transformation from toy OEM to trendy toy brands.
Fang Qinglin, the "second generation" of Huatai Toy Factory, told Yan Finance that the cycle from design to mass production of a trendy toy is about 3-0 months, and the channels are mainly offline exhibitions and trendy art stores - this is another condition in the "right time and place", after decades of economic development after the reform and opening up, the Chinese market has cultivated a group of people who will pay for the value of symbols.
Looking back on the past, you will find that the top trendy toy companies appeared one after another in about the same period of time.
A YEAR BEFORE WANG NING SIGNED MOLLY, CHEN WEI, WHO WAS A TOY AGENT, CREATED 52TOYS IN 0.
In the previous 2019 years, Zhu Weisong founded Bruco for the second time, and transformed his role to build building blocks in 0 years.
Internet giants have also emerged in the trendy toy industry. Founded in 2021, Koi Naqu is a trendy toy business brand under Alibaba Entertainment, which undertakes Alibaba Pictures' rich film and television, variety show, and animation IP resources.
However, about 2020 years ago, trendy toys were one of the most neglected tracks in the venture capital circle, and "selling toys to adults" was once regarded as absurd as "selling shampoo to bald heads". It wasn't until the bell rang for Bubble Mart's listing that the ceiling of the valuation of new consumer companies was set, and the venture capital companies in the high-rise buildings let out one sigh after another.
The second half of the trendy play
total revenue was 1500.0 billion, a year-on-year increase of 0.0%; The net profit was 0.0 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 0.0% - as soon as Bubble Mart's financial report came out, the market exclaimed. On 0/0 and 0, the share price of Pop Mart ushered in a surge, according to media reports, compared with the lowest point of the stock price in 0/0, the share price of Pop Mart rose by 0%.
The expansion of overseas markets and the explosion of plush categories were the key to the take-off of Pop Mart's performance last year. Although they belong to different strategic plans, they are largely overlapping in the perception of outsiders.
When it comes to Bubble Mart's debut last year, many people will think of a photo of BLACKPINK girl group Lisa and LABUBU, as well as a LABUBU pendant hung by a Thai princess on a Hermès leather bag.
泰國頂流明星Lisa與Labubu
Analysts at Morgan Stanley believe that plush dolls that can be hung on a bag are more "show-off" than figurines lying quietly in a cabinet, so they have a strong viral potential.
And on a microscopic level, every LABUBU enthusiast is convinced that heals himself from this grinning mischievous elf.
In the "SONG OF LABUBU" CREATED BY BUBBLE MART FOR LABUBU, THERE ARE NO OTHER LYRICS EXCEPT "LABUBU", BUT PEOPLE FEEL A TRACE OF TREMOR FROM THE SIMPLEST AND MEANINGLESS SINGING, A NETIZEN LEFT A MESSAGE UNDER NETEASE CLOUD MUSIC: "It's so cute, I can't stand it, listen to it let me, a poisonous woman, return to the time when I was not a poisonous woman"
Netease Cloud "LABUBU Song" music under the netizen message
Business organizations create differentiated IPs that connect with adults in different ways.
For example, Hirono Ono is always down-eyed, quiet and shy, he reflects the loneliness of modern people; CRYBABY IS AN UGLY DOLL WITH TWO BIG BUBBLES OF TEARS, SHE REPRESENTS THAT EVERYONE HAS THE FREEDOM TO CRY.
MOLLY IS STILL THE SAME POUTING MOLLY. Wang Ning once wanted to make MOLLY more cute, but the artist believes that MOLLY should be expressionless, so that when you are happy, you will see happiness, and when you are unhappy, you will see unhappiness.
The business logic of popular IP seems to be emotional, but for mature trendy toy companies, there is a set of standard processes for creating popular products.
Kong Xiao told Salt Finance that the essence of the hit is the triple coupling of "user needs, scenario matching, and operational efficiency". Through data modeling, TOP TOY found that the success rate of 60% of popular models can be controlled in advance through refined operations.
First of all, data prediction, TOP TOY has established a "popular compass system", which locks in potential categories 3 months in advance by capturing 0 data indicators such as store heat maps, social media sentiment values, and second-hand market premium rates.
Secondly, after the product is launched, the SKU is dynamically adjusted by judging the market response of the product based on the dynamic sales rate, combined with the ping effect, user stay time, conversion rate, etc.
At the same time, TOP TOY also applies the horse racing mechanism to the development of original IP - the designer team needs to submit proposals and PK in the structure of "story line + character setting + commercialization model", and the winning project will get the full resource tilt of the supply chain.
隨著量產規模的增大，打造潮玩產品成為了一個越來越縝密的流程。泡泡玛特首席运营官司德在今年3月26日的業績分享會上表示：“我們需要更長的時間，產品規劃的時間（要）再往前提，需要大半年時間發展，再通過一年時間把整個數據流程跑通。”
Moreover, when a trendy toy company becomes big enough, even if it does not capture the IP that highlights the mood of the times in time, it can still cooperate with popular IP by virtue of the advantages of channels and brands. Wang Ning has mentioned many times that he hopes to platformize the company, which will help Pop Mart cooperate with the hottest IP. At the beginning of this year, the collaboration between Bubble Mart and the popular movie "Nezha 2" is an example.
A joint product between Bubble Mart and the popular movie "Nezha 2".
無論人們是否有確切的感受，但成年人正在成為玩具市場上的最強主力軍，全世界都是如此。根據國際市場調查機構 Circana的數據，2024年1—4月，年齡“18+”的消費群體首次超過 3—5歲的兒童，成為美國玩具消費的最大群體。
Against this backdrop, Chinese toy companies are constantly going overseas. IP proves that useless things may have a longer life cycle than useful things, and I believe that when the dreams of these companies come true, it will be "Mickey Mouse" and "Barbie" from China that surround foreign children.
Source: Salt Finance