Eager to buy a limited edition “goods” of Chiikawa, a Japanese anime character, Connie Fung was contacting a Japanese buyer on social media platforms to negotiate price and delivery details.
"These characters aren’t just toys," Fung said, her eyes lighting up. "When I secure a rare piece by buying an edition, it's like winning a cultural badge of honour."
Fung, a university student, spends around HK$5,000 a year on collecting Chiikawa-related items.
Like Fung, Ada Liu is also a fan of Chiikawa, who hangs the figure on her bag, noting that many fans do this as a form of identity. “We can start a conversation easily while shopping in a goods store, as ‘goods’ helped us identify each other–You are also a fan of a certain series,” said Liu.
In the context of Anime, Comics, and Games (ACG) culture, “goods” refer to merchandise derived from Intellectual Properties, including items such as badges, dolls, figures, cards, etc.
These IP-related items are adored by ACG fans as cultural currency to show their identity and devotion to virtual characters. The passion for collecting goods has heated the wave of “goods economy,” signalling a new consumption trend that “pays for emotional value.”
The popularity of the “goods economy” has even caught the attention of Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po, who addressed it in his weekly blog entry. He noted that the rapidly emerging “goods economy” has successfully attracted young people's attention and tapped into their enormous spending power, estimated to be in the hundreds of billions of dollars.
“Goods economy” is not only visible on the streets of Hong Kong, but has also entered the city’s capital market.
For example, Pop Mart, a Chinese toy company that leads in merchandising Intellectual Properties and was listed in HKEX five years ago, performed exceptionally well in 2024. The share price soared from HK$ 20 in February 2024 to over HK$ 100, an increase of 400%, which made Pop Mart one of the biggest gainers in the Hong Kong stock market last year.
The frenzy among collectors for Pop Mart blind boxes and signature characters drove a surge in the share price. According to the company’s third-quarter earnings report, its overall revenue grew by up to 125% in the third quarter, with mainland China’s market increasing by 55% to 60%, and Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, and overseas revenue increasing by an outstanding 440% to 445%.
Sinnie Hong travelled from mainland China to get special editions of Pop Mart blind boxes in Hong Kong.
"Here, sometimes they offer Pop Mart products that aren't available on the mainland," said Hong.
She visited official Pop Mart offline stores in Hong Kong but found products featuring anime series she adores were sold out. However, by communicating with other Pop Mart fans on Red Notes, a Chinese version of Instagram, she learned that some limited editions were still available at the T.O.P mall in MongKok.
At the fourth floor of T.O.P Mall in Mongkok, a total of 10 anime and manga stores, plus five pop-up shops, are open to customers from around the world.
Yan Co, a pop-up shop owner, says his store was able to lock in profit because of “following the latest trends.”
The store’s main entrance display is changed with popular anime series, manga or games. As a result, Yan's store only sells goods from one to two of the hottest anime characters of the season.
Blind box products, packaged in opaque containers concealing random collectible items, often feature multiple themed designs or rare variants to stimulate repeated purchases, as some customers will buy them multiple times or overpay for those that were unsealed in order to collect favourite styles.
A few blocks away in Mongkok, a Pop Mart store, located at Olympian City Mall in Western Kowloon, was decorated for the Chinese New Year while displaying its flagship IP product– Labubu at the main entrance to attract customers.
The character Labubu, with a fluffy rabbit-eared elf, serrated teeth and a mischievous grin, was sold as part of Pop Mart’s The Monster.
The character Labubu, with a fluffy rabbit-eared elf, serrated teeth and a mischievous grin, was sold as part of Pop Mart’s The Monsters series, which brought in RMB 626.8 million to the company in the first half of 2024, representing 13.7% of its total revenue. In the same period a year prior, The Monsters contributed RMB 159.8 million to the revenue, signalling a quadrupled demand for The Monster series.
“Labubu is an undeniable catalyst for Pop Mart’s success who enjoys a wide audience group, especially with the K-pop star’s promotion,” said Kenny Wen, head of Investment Strategy at KGI Asia.
In November 2024, a YouTube video interviewing Lisa, a member of the South Korean girl group BlackPink, hit breakout numbers of 1.9 million views and 74,000 likes on YouTube with her sampling Pop Mart's blind boxes and showing Labubu dolls.
The popularity of the Asian celebrity triggered consumption waves among her fans. Kitty Lee stopped for Labubu at the underground floor of T.O.P. mall, picked up an item, and said, “I wouldn't have known about and spent money on Labubu without Lisa.”
Besides Labubu, Pop Mart's collaboration with China's top-grossing movie “Ne Zha 2,” as shown on official China Movie Database, caused a consumer fever with all Nezha-related items sold out nationwide a few days after the release of the movie on Jan. 30. The earliest replenishment and delivery date, as shown on Pop Mart’s online page, is on June 30.
The instantaneous sell-out of Nezha's IP derivatives, triggered by the anime movie, has revealed just the tip of the iceberg of mainland China’s expanding “goods” economy.
From 2017 to 2021, mainland China’s ACG content industry market grew at a CAGR of 25.7% and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 12.9% from 2021 to 2026, with a potential market size of up to RMB 116.14 billion by 2026, according to China Insights Consultancy’s report.
The rapid expansion of the domestic ACG market opened new market opportunities for related enterprises, with more than a dozen industry chain players going to Hong Kong for IPO, including video sharing platforms and toy manufacturers.
Bloks, China’s largest maker of building block toys, listed in Hong Kong in January and experienced an 82% rise above the IPO price on its first trading day.
Stevan Tam, Associate Director of Fulbright Securities Limited, said that toy companies such as Pop Mart and Bloks have investment value, but due to the high volume of merchants entering into the industry in such a short period, the short-term upside potential may be small.
Wen raised another concern about contract expiry. Toy companies are positioned downstream in the entire ACG industry chain, merchandising virtual characters into actual products.
However, those owning intellectual property can choose to shift contracts to other downstreams. Therefore, if a toy manufacturer lacks exclusive and permanent IP ownership, it may be vulnerable in the market when contracts are lost or expire.
Besides, Wen warned about investing in China concept stocks, which can be easily influenced by mainland China’s policies. The slump in Pop Mart’s share price in 2022, as Wen pointed out, is partially due to criticisms from mainland China authorities regarding blind boxes.
“Pop Mart’s current success is the result of a combination of factors. Its victory is hard to replicate,” said Tam. “For people who plan to invest in the goods economy, it’s vital to look for the potential value the merchant can offer.”
《The Young Reporter》
The Young Reporter (TYR) started as a newspaper in 1969. Today, it is published across multiple media platforms and updated constantly to bring the latest news and analyses to its readers.
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