The phrase 'each generation has its own Maotai, but this generation's' Maotai' is a trendy toy. 'This popular statement on the internet is being confirmed in both the capital and consumer markets. In the first half of 2025, multiple trendy toy companies gathered for IPOs, with Beijing Bubble Mart Cultural and Creative Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Bubble Mart"), a leading player in the trendy toy industry, having a market value of over HKD 340 billion. Its vinyl plush toy "LABUBU" has also sparked a global consumer frenzy to purchase it. China Fashion Play IP is refreshing the world's perception of China's creation with a momentum of breaking the bamboo tree. A small toy that is less than the size of a palm reflects a new landscape of China's IP economy "overtaking on the curve": from the low profit and high sales of OEM orders to the global premium of original IP, behind the small toy is an industrial revolution driven by manufacturing, creativity, and emotional power. In the years leading up to the emergence of cross-border mergers and acquisitions, and the rush to go public, the trendy gaming industry in the capital market can be said to have gone unnoticed. Zhang Ling (pseudonym), a secondary market institutional investor, introduced to reporters that a few years ago, financing for trendy toy companies was very difficult, and the capital market was unwilling to give valuations. During the downturn, there were even many doubts about the business model and sustainability of trendy toy companies. However, this year, IP and trendy gaming companies have started to pile up for IPOs. ”Zhang Ling said. In the first half of 2025, Card Game Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Card Game"), Beijing Lezi Tiancheng Cultural Development Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "52TOYS"), and Hangzhou Tongshifu Culture (Group) Co., Ltd. will successively submit prospectuses in Hong Kong. The founder of a trendy toy brand with an annual revenue of over 1 billion yuan revealed to reporters that the company is also about to launch an IPO. In the primary market, young trendy toy brands are gradually gaining more attention. Tianfeng Securities analyst Cao Rui told reporters, "The financing attention of young trendy toy brands such as March Beast and Manku will increase after that." Recently, after meeting with several investors, Ji Xiaomeng, a researcher in the big consumer IP industry, found that these investors are all looking for targets to enter the trendy toy market, but the prices have exceeded expectations. The price to earnings ratio (PE) of second tier trendy toy brands has increased from 8 times in 2024 to 15 times. ”Ji Xiaomeng expressed. Investors suddenly turned their attention to the field of trendy toys, thanks to the super strong gold mining ability demonstrated by trendy toy companies led by Pop Mart. On June 12th, the stock price of Bubble Mart hit a historic high during trading, reaching HKD 283.4 per share, an increase of over 200% compared to the beginning of the year. However, when Bubble Mart went public in 2020, its issue price was only HKD 38.5 per share. Bubble Mart has proven the commercial value of the trendy gaming track, which is a very young consumer field with many derivative tracks to explore and has strong development potential. For many investors, finding a 'second place' in the future is also great if they cannot secure the first place. ”Zhang Ling stated. This year, popular IP brands have been "incorporated" by listed companies. Recently, Quantum Song Group (hereinafter referred to as "Quantum Song"), a trendy toy company listed on the US stock market, disclosed that on March 25th, the company completed the acquisition of approximately 61% equity of Shenzhen Yiqi Culture Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Letsvan") for a total cash consideration of 235 million yuan. The reporter observed that the popular IP "WAKUKU" under Letsvan was driven by domestic celebrities, causing a surge in sales. The ranking of the "618" Tmall blind box hot selling list shows that WAKUKU's three series of products respectively occupy the top three positions on the list. A person related to Quantum Song told reporters: "The company has a long-term positive outlook on the trendy gaming track and is accelerating its business layout. With the acquisition of popular IPs, it aims to accelerate in the trendy gaming track and make this business bigger and stronger. ”Cross border layout of listed companies in the entertainment industry is becoming the norm. At the beginning of 2025, Meixue Ice City will open a global flagship store in Zhengzhou, with a surrounding sales area on the second floor and an online flagship store selling trendy toy merchandise. Public information shows that the monthly sales of blind bags for building blocks and cute granules are over 5000. Coincidentally, in May of this year, Wanda Film Co., Ltd. and China Ruyi Holdings Co., Ltd. jointly invested 144 million yuan in 52TOYS. The two parties plan to engage in strategic cooperation in the development and sales of IP toy products, marketing, and other related fields. In the consumer market, the audience of trendy toy companies is also constantly growing. TOYEART's head of the exhibition, Liu Chenglong, told reporters: "In the past, the main users who purchased exhibition tickets were young people, but this year many parents brought their children to visit. They are very willing to let their children experience design in this field." "Nowadays, there are more industry exhibitions in the trendy toy field, and even exhibitions have become more vertically segmented. Take the Fun Fair during the Loong Boat Festival this year as an example, the number of exhibitors reached more than 200, a record high. Most of the top companies in segmented tracks such as dolls, blind boxes, vinyl plush toys, cards, statues, etc. have participated. At the same time, Mercedes Benz, Meituan, Tiktok and other enterprises in the non fun industry also joined the exhibition. ”Liu Chenglong said. Revitalizing the offline real economy and revitalizing traditional industries. Playing with IP not only sparked a craze in the capital and consumer markets, but also revitalized traditional physical industries and revitalized them. Aleng, the person in charge of the Super Vitality Factory, a trendy toy brand, told reporters that trendy toy products rely heavily on offline store sales. Offline stores can provide the real touch of products and are a social hub for enthusiasts with common interests. Therefore, physical stores have become an irreplaceable experience field and social belt for young people. The traditional shopping malls in Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Zhengzhou and other cities have injected new consumption vitality into the shopping malls after the introduction of the anime shopping malls. Taking Shanghai Bailian ZX Chuangqu Chang as an example, its predecessor was Hualian Commercial Building on Nanjing East Road, with an area of only 11000 square meters, which was previously mired in business difficulties. In January 2023, after the completion of the "anime" theme transformation, the store will have a cumulative passenger flow of more than 15 million person times and sales of more than 500 million yuan in 18 months. Cao Rui said that some shopping malls have been revived by the IP economy. The Chuangqu Market under Shanghai Bailian Group Co., Ltd. has now become "Akihabara of China" (Akihabara is the world's largest anime consumption center in Tokyo, Japan). Many shopping malls have successfully transformed through this, forming chain formats such as Jing'an Joy City in Shanghai and Wangfujing Joy in Beijing. In addition, many small vendors, stationery stores, and snack chains in lower tier markets have also gained development opportunities. In the past, these community small shops had a single product line, selling only student stationery and snacks. But after the rise of the trendy toy market, Bruke's products such as block makers and card games began to contribute revenue to small shops. For small and medium-sized offline businesses, these toys have small investment and fast cost recovery, providing assistance for the development of the real economy. ”Cao Rui said. At the policy level, there is also active support for IP consumption. The "Special Action Plan for Boosting Consumption" issued in March 2025 clearly proposes to "explore the incremental market of domestic" trendy products "; The Ministry of Commerce also stated that it will promote "IP+consumption" and smooth the entire chain of IP authorization, product development, and marketing promotion. Local governments also seize the opportunity and introduce corresponding policies to encourage development. For example, the Market Supervision Bureau of Shanghai Huangpu District issued the Compliance Guidelines for the Operation of anime Derivatives and Services in Huangpu District, aiming to support and standardize the operation of anime derivatives and services in the district, and promote enterprises to operate in good faith; The Implementation Plan of Special Action to Boost Consumption in Henan Province recently issued by the General Office of Henan Provincial People's Government proposes to encourage fashion institutions, well-known brands, designer brands, high-end customized brands, fashion China-Chic brands, etc. with international and domestic influence to launch new products in Henan and hold debut, exhibition and other activities. Driven by trendy toy brands, some traditional toy manufacturing factories have also ushered in new development opportunities. Zhuang Deren, founder of Soap Studio, a Hong Kong based trendy toy brand, told reporters that the vast majority of brands in the trendy toy industry do not have their own factories. Brands tend to focus on design, packaging, operation, and other aspects, and entrust third-party factories to process their products. With the outbreak of the trendy toy market, the production of trendy toy products cannot keep up with the growth of market demand. Many brands will seek cooperation with multiple contract manufacturers, which has provided a new way for factories that used to have no orders due to the shrinkage of the traditional toy market. Hot sales in overseas markets: China Fun has become mature for nearly two years. China Fun has become a fashion trend sweeping the world and is hot in overseas markets. Zhuang Deren stated that in the past two years, the company's product exports have increased significantly, with Southeast Asia and the US market rising by 40% to 80%. The fastest growing product is the blind box, with demand for the company's plush blind box products increasing by 80% in 2024. In addition, the company's domestic and international sales proportion has also changed in 2024. Previously, the domestic sales proportion reached 65%, but after the market outbreak, the overseas sales proportion reached 70%. China Fashion Play even changed the strategy of traditional toys to attract customers by "cost performance", and overseas prices are generally higher than domestic prices. For example, "LABUBU" vinyl plush is priced at 99 yuan in China, but it is priced at 27.99 US dollars (approximately 203.56 yuan) in the United States, with a premium of 106%. The high premium did not affect demand, but instead caused American users to queue up all night when it was released. The original Beast Box series toys from 52TOYS range in price from 68 yuan to 328 yuan in China, but in overseas regions, the price range is between $20 (approximately RMB 142.47) and $80 (approximately RMB 573.86). A Ling believes that China's fashion game is becoming mature and experiencing a deep transformation from short-term "flow realization" to long-term "value creation". Zhuang Deren analyzed the reasons for the global popularity of China's popular games from two aspects: product design and supply chain. In terms of product design, Chinese designers have a rich reserve of talent, and most of them are creating original works, which is very fresh for overseas users; In terms of supply chain, Chinese toy manufacturing has a long history and high production quality. Hu Qimu, Deputy Director of the Strategic Emerging Industries Research Center at Tsinghua University, told reporters: "From the supply side, China's design capabilities, profound cultural heritage, and developed manufacturing system form the support for China's original toys; from the demand side, global consumption has upgraded from product consumption to emotional consumption, and China's original toys perfectly meet this new demand." With the growth of China's IP consumer market, which companies are expected to stand out? Cao Rui believes that there are opportunities for both upstream and downstream enterprises in the IP industry. Upstream companies such as Shanghai Bilibili Technology Co., Ltd. and Shanghai Yuewen Information Technology Co., Ltd. hold a large number of IPs and have rich derivative opportunities; Next is the channel side, where the emergence of a large number of IP products has brought development opportunities for channel merchants, such as 52TOYS, Miniso under Miniso (Guangzhou) Co., Ltd TOPTOY， And channel providers such as KKV under Guangdong Kuaike E-commerce Co., Ltd. Among them, Miniso announced on June 6th that it is conducting a preliminary evaluation of the potential spin off and listing of its trendy toy business operated under the "TOP TOY" brand, in order to optimize shareholder value. This plan is in the preliminary stage. Ji Xiaomeng believes that the success of Bubble Mart is difficult to replicate, but if companies that already have resources and models, combined with IP potential energy, have the potential to achieve a second leap. In addition, how successful breakthrough companies can further extend the IP lifecycle has also become a focus of attention. Even Bubble Mart, which holds the globally popular IP "LABUBU", is enriching the content of these IPs by building theme parks, opening jewelry stores, and producing themed animations. In Zhang Ling's view, it has the ability to self create