news with opinions·industry insights｜has the “golden age” of trendy toys that are popular in china and abroad arrived?
2024-09-22
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according to the china national radio network beijing, september 21 (reporter yang chang), according to the china voice of china national radio and television, the joint ip dolls with delicate craftsmanship, the building block toys with simple lines, the blind box dolls with varied styles... behind the various personalized toys, there is a "blue ocean" space of trendy toys worth hundreds of billions of yuan. according to the "report on the development of the trendy toy industry (2023)", my country's trendy toy market has shown a strong growth momentum, and the retail market size is expected to reach 100 billion yuan in 2026. while the trendy toy economy continues to grow in china, it has also ushered in a wave of "trendy toy fever" in the international market with the help of "going overseas". many trendy toys are sold out in an instant after they are released. in the case of product shortage, some overseas customers even spend six figures to go to china to "sweep goods". at the same time, the number of fans of overseas official accounts of many trendy toy brands has exceeded one million, and the "trendy toy fever" has swept the global market.
what is the charm of trendy toys? what signals does the success of trendy toys going overseas send? what kind of imagination space is there in the chinese trendy toy industry market? china national radio and television’s voice of china’s news with views specially planned “industry insights” to talk with li yongjian, a researcher at the institute of financial strategy of the chinese academy of social sciences, and wang tao, general manager of public affairs of china’s leading trendy toy company, to take you closer to the past and present of trendy toys and discuss the development path of the trendy toy industry.
li yongjian (left) wang tao (right)
from "artist's toy" to "abebe for adults"
has the era of “big trend play” begun?
li yongjian, leader of the research team of the "tide play industry development report (2023)" and researcher at the institute of finance and economics strategy of the chinese academy of social sciences, introduced that around 2000, the domestic tide play culture emerged in hong kong. at first, the relevant works were called "artist toys", which were the products of artists using toys as carriers for creation. they combined the rich colors of prints and the three-dimensional forms of sculptures, and had a unique artistic style, which gradually became popular in niche circles. over the past 20 years, under the influence of factors such as the introduction of multiple styles, the iterative upgrade of social media, and the innovation of sales models, tide play has gradually transformed from a niche art and cultural product to a highly personalized industry. today, the industry has leaped from a single consumer category to a full industrial chain with tide play ip as the core. the current trendy toys not only cover hand-made blind boxes and plush vinyl toys, but also include many emerging categories. "today, we have entered an era of 'big tide play'." li yongjian commented on the current tide play industry.
in the era of "big trendy toys", the traditional consumer perception of "binding toys to children" has been overturned. wang tao, general manager of public affairs of a trendy toy company with rich experience in the industry, pointed out based on first-hand data that the fans of trendy toys are mainly young people aged 18 to 35, and this age group accounts for as much as 70% of the consumer population. young trendy toy consumers show the characteristics of paying attention to themselves, being keen on expressing themselves, and being willing to share bits and pieces of life. they regard beautifully made trendy toys as "abebe" (items that make people have a fetish complex) for adults to comfort themselves, a medium to attract like-minded people, a collection to show taste, and a social currency to make new friends.
the psychological needs of young people to please themselves have helped to expand the trendy toy consumption market. at the same time, the optimization of marketing channels has also injected strong momentum into the growth of the trendy toy industry. in li yongjian's view, on the one hand, new ways of playing, such as blind boxes and blind bags, have greatly stimulated consumers' desire to buy and created more profit opportunities for the trendy toy industry. on the other hand, joint ips and new forms of expression, mainly based on animation, theme parks, online dramas, and online literature, are also being integrated into the trendy toy industry. at a time when the cultural and tourism industry is booming, a huge trendy toy ecosystem has been built for this industry. in this regard, li yongjian predicts that my country's trendy toys will continue to be in a stage of rapid growth.
long queues in trendy toy stores (photo provided by the interviewee and released by china national radio)
going overseas like crazy, becoming a "chinese specialty"
how to become a top star?
trendy toys, which are gaining momentum in china, are also becoming the top brands in overseas markets, especially in southeast asia. the popularity of domestic trendy toys has skyrocketed, and customers are so enthusiastic that they are willing to pay ten times the premium to buy popular trendy toys. wang tao is deeply touched by this situation. this year, the trendy toy company where wang tao works opened its sixth store in thailand. the sales on the first day of opening exceeded 10 million yuan, which is several times the daily income of ordinary stores.
wang tao revealed that since 2018, their company team has been working on international layout, from expanding sales agents to expanding offline stores, to promoting fashion exhibitions, and promoting overseas work in all aspects, successfully attracting trendy toy enthusiasts around the world and achieving rapid growth in overseas sales. in the first half of this year, the overseas revenue of wang tao's trendy toy company increased by more than 30% year-on-year, and the four major regional markets all achieved an increase of more than 100%. in addition, the company team is well aware that the core competitiveness of trendy toys lies in ip, so it has built a complete business structure around ip, including theme parks, games and new categories of toys, and used marketing actions such as entering the louvre and cross-border joint names to help ip seize the minds of overseas consumers.
li yongjian also spoke highly of the overseas expansion of trendy toys. in his opinion, in the past, china's toy industry had the shortcoming of being "big but not strong", that is, although the scale was large, the brand ip had insufficient influence in the field. the overseas expansion of trendy toys is reversing the embarrassing situation of the chinese toy industry in the past, which was "big but not strong". its overseas expansion path is also significantly different from the traditional export model of "good quality and low price" of domestic products. the differences are mainly reflected in two aspects: first, the market positioning of trendy toy products is mid-to-high-end, avoiding price wars; second, trendy toys implement diversified market strategies, including setting up physical stores overseas. with these two differences, today's trendy toys, relying on the cultural charm of ip, are gradually becoming a powerful carrier for inheriting and promoting my country's traditional culture, and shining on the international stage.
a trendy toy brand opened a vietnam castle theme store (photo provided by the interviewee, released by china national radio)
the sea is wide and the tide is high
how will the future "play" into a new chapter?
while lamenting the great potential of the overseas trendy toy market, li yongjian forward-lookingly proposed several challenges that trendy toys may face in the future: first, there is the challenge of cultural differences. trendy toys going overseas need to cater to the cultural orientation of overseas markets and achieve deep localization of products and services. this process is complex and subtle; second, the innovation of operating models. not only must the value of trendy toys in social, collection, and cultural aspects be considered, but the efficient operation of offline stores must also be ensured. however, there is currently a lack of sufficient past experience worth learning from; finally, how to accurately convey the multi-dimensional value of trendy toys on the global stage, especially the deep connotation of ip, also constitutes a challenging task.
regarding the design and operation of trendy toy ip, li yongjian talked about his vision. he hopes that the construction of ip in the future can follow a more coherent and smooth logic, so that chinese stories can be more effectively embedded in the business model. at the same time, he is full of expectations for the combination of trendy toy ip and cutting-edge technology, and believes that digital tools such as generative artificial intelligence and big data can be used to create a new ip ecosystem.
wang tao emphasized that ip is the core of the trendy toy business. if the industry is compared to a violin performance, then the live performance of the musician is limited by the venue, which will lead to a relatively limited number of audiences. the early operating model of trendy toy companies is similar to record companies recording artists' works and promoting them to various places, fully amplifying the dissemination of trendy toy ip. today, their goal is to build a comprehensive operating platform covering the entire industry chain of trendy toy ip, discover and promote more excellent ips, and reach a wider range of global consumers.
overseas customers take photos with trendy toys (photo provided by the interviewee and released by china national radio)
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