Southeast Asia's live broadcast rooms are filled with girls opening blind boxes

From Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam to temples in Thailand, and live broadcasts on social media, blind boxes have captured the hearts of countless young people with their unique charm. This article will take you into the blind box world in Southeast Asia, exploring how this trendy toy has become a new cultural phenomenon, as well as the business logic behind it and a deep insight into the emotional consumption of contemporary young people.

At 1:30 in the morning, the center of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, was brightly lit and bustling.

Even more noisy was TikTok's live broadcast room in Vietnam, where more than 2,000 people were watching a hand-tear blind box event.

Thanh Linh, a 19-year-old Vietnamese girl, who is a heavy blind box enthusiast, placed 10 blind box orders in one go, and then waited anxiously for the merchant to open the blind box in front of the camera.

The next morning, in a Thai temple thousands of miles away, the monks who had finished their morning chanting put down the wooden fish in one hand and took the newly bought blind box doll Labubu from their companion with the other hand. After playing with it for a while, they commented on each other.

For blind boxes, young people are willing to stay up all night long, and monks do not respect Buddha but dolls. This magical scene is played out every day in Southeast Asia.

Even many Thais who travel to China will check in at Pop Mart stores and take away a "Chinese specialty" - Labubu.

According to data provided by global growth consulting firm Sullivan, more than 80% of the blind boxes that are crazily sought after by Southeast Asians originate from China and are showing explosive growth.

It is estimated that by 2026, the scale of China's blind box market may reach an astonishing 42.4 billion yuan.

Many signs indicate that trendy toys represented by blind boxes are gradually becoming another important growth point for Chinese companies in the Southeast Asian market.

In an age where traffic is paramount, why are blind boxes so popular in Southeast Asia?

01 From toys to trends: the rise and evolution of blind boxes

As the name suggests, a blind box refers to a toy box whose specific product information cannot be known by consumers when purchasing.

This concept originated from the lucky bags and capsule toys that were popular in Japan in the 1980s.

In its birthplace, it was called "minifigures", and after it became popular in Europe and the United States, it was called "blindbox".

In the 1990s, the prototype of blind boxes appeared in China - cards in instant noodles. Collecting a set would get you corresponding prizes, which once became the childhood memory of countless people.

Unlike general commodities, blind boxes create a unique psychological reward mechanism - buyers will feel satisfied and happy when they open the blind box and get the expected commodity; even if they get a commodity they don’t like, they will continue to buy it because of the psychological expectation that “I might get something better next time.”

This cyclical mentality makes blind boxes highly immersive and addictive, and buyers often become addicted after opening them only once.

Because it captures human nature, blind boxes have become popular all over the world in just a few decades since their introduction.

The emergence of large-scale blind box industry in China can be traced back to at least ten years ago.

In 2010, Wang Ning, a 23-year-old young man from Henan, founded a grocery store called "Pop Mart" in Beijing, which mainly sells various trendy toys, electronic products and stationery.

In the following years, Pop Mart never had a clear product positioning and sold toys, food, and clothing.

It wasn’t until 2015 that Wang Ning discovered that a blind box called Sonny Angel in the store was selling well: “Every time a limited edition is released, young people line up to buy it.”

Sonny Angel is a trendy doll IP designed by Japan's Dreams company. It consists of 12 styles in a series and is packaged in a box without specific styles marked on it. When customers buy it, they can feel a psychological pleasure like winning a lottery.

Therefore, a radical plan was generated in Wang Ning's mind: "Create IP and blind boxes by yourself!"

However, in the eyes of many people, this move is childish and almost absurd: "Putting children's toys in paper boxes and selling them to adults is just a joke!"

In 2016, under tremendous pressure, Wang Ning flew to Hong Kong and signed an exclusive IP licensing agreement for the Molly series of dolls with the designer.

Molly Series Dolls

The designer gave Molly, a little girl with big eyes and pouty lips, a proud and independent personality, which fits the perfect personality of the new generation of women. Therefore, it became a hit as soon as it was launched on the market.

In the following years, Wang Ning collaborated with many IP designers in the industry to launch blind box series such as Pucky, Pan, and Loli, all of which were favored by consumers.

In December 2020, Pop Mart was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, becoming the first listed company in China to start with blind boxes.

With the explosion of the market, the form of blind boxes has gradually penetrated from the toy field into other industries. Various types of beauty blind boxes, fresh blind boxes, and snack blind boxes have sprung up like mushrooms after a rain, and are likely to surpass Pop Mart.

02 Why choose Southeast Asia for blind box overseas expansion?

In 2018, Wang Ning decided to take Pop Mart abroad, and the first destination was Southeast Asia.

The reason why Wang Ning and his team chose Southeast Asia was obviously because they had conducted careful preliminary research.

First, Southeast Asia has a large population base, with a high proportion of young people.

There are 11 countries in Southeast Asia with a total population of about 680 million. Vietnam has a population of 100.3 million, more than half of whom are under 35 years old, and the population aged 15-24 accounts for 21.1%; Indonesia has a population of 270 million, with an average age of only 29.8 years old; and the Philippines, with a population of 120 million, has an even lower average age of only 23 years old.

The younger group is not only the main consumer force, but also the core driving force for the country's sustainable development. The market formed by it is undoubtedly a commercial feast.

The main consumers of blind boxes are young people aged 15 to 34.

Secondly, Southeast Asia’s consumption potential is too strong.

Taking Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, as an example, Jakarta’s per capita GDP has reached US$20,000 in 2023. Vietnam, which is in a period of rapid economic development, also achieved a per capita GDP of US$4,284 in 2023.

Coupled with the local people’s nature of not liking to save money, it’s like a godsend.

For example, according to data released by the Bank of Thailand in July this year, as of June this year, more than 120 million deposit accounts in the country had balances of less than 50,000 baht; and survey data previously released by the Central Bank of the Philippines showed that only about 20% of Filipino households have savings deposits.

If the population structure and economic size build the infrastructure of the blind box market, then the boost from the Southeast Asian Internet provides this market with a powerful advertising effect.

With the increasing penetration rate of smartphones and the Internet year by year, Southeast Asia, which has a huge demographic dividend, has become one of the emerging markets in the global Internet economy.

According to the "Southeast Asia Internet Economy Report 2023" jointly released by Google and Bain, Southeast Asia's GDP maintained a growth rate of 4% in 2023, ahead of developed markets such as Europe and the United States, and the Internet economy played an indispensable role in this.

Coupled with the promotion and sales of e-commerce platforms such as Shopee, Lazada, Tiki, Sendo, and TikTok Shops, the coverage of the blind box market has broken geographical restrictions.

Of course, the most direct factor is the promotion of offline stores. In recent years, Pop Mart's offline stores, theme exhibitions, claw machines and Miniso's retail stores have been rapidly deployed in Southeast Asia, providing consumers with opportunities to experience and purchase in person, enhancing their sense of participation and desire to buy.

The upgrading of young people’s consumption concepts has also created a larger market for trendy blind boxes.

Different from their parents who were hardworking and persevering in doing things, this generation of young people in Southeast Asia are more thoughtful. They not only love to play and have freedom, but also have higher requirements for the quality, design and personalization of toys.

For example, as China's No. 1 brand of high-end plush toys, the Cino series of dolls launched by Super Vitality Factory are highly praised by Southeast Asian players.

The Cino series of dolls have a fully detachable hardware structure. Players can freely modify the dolls by "changing faces", "changing eyes", "changing clothes", etc., experience the fun of DIY creation of trendy toys, establish a long-term emotional connection with "raising dolls", and generate a large amount of UGC secondary creation content, which increases the fun and interactivity of the product.

In addition, the IP created by the Internet can give plush blind boxes more emotional value and cultural connotations, attracting a large number of fan groups.

In addition, brands can quickly increase product popularity and sales by cooperating with well-known IPs or creating their own IPs and launching related plush blind box products, leveraging the influence and fan base of IPs.

In March this year, a plush blind box of The Powerpuff Girls created by Pop Mart was sold out in seconds after it was put on the shelves. This is a powerful proof of the IP effect.

03 Blind Box Carnival in Southeast Asia

What is the charm of blind boxes?

In fact, it can be understood this way. Because the shape and color of the toys cannot be seen, coupled with the promotion of social media and the excitement brought by the live broadcast of opening blind boxes, countless young people can't stop this novel way of playing.

For example, Labubu, which is popular in Thailand, has even surpassed the concept of toys and become a symbol of popular culture.

On July 1, 2024, in order to welcome a Chinese actress, a group of senior officials including the Minister of Thailand's Tourism, the Director of the Tourism Bureau, the Director of the Tourism Police Bureau gathered at Bangkok Airport. Countless photographers rushed to take pictures, and cheers rang out on the scene.

However, this actress is not a real person. Her name is Labubu, and she is one of the many trendy toy IPs under Pop Mart.

Labubu, a doll with pointy ears and jagged teeth, is sold in China for 99 yuan.

Princess Sirivannavari of Thailand, who is known as the world's richest princess with a net worth of over 30 billion US dollars, wore a Labubu doll on her backpack when she attended a fashion event.

Lisa, the only Thai member of the Korean girl group BLACKPINK, posted photos with Labubu on social media for three consecutive days. As an artist with hundreds of millions of fans, her move immediately triggered young people to follow suit.

With the endorsement of a public figure, Labubu was sold at a maximum price of 700 yuan in the Thai market, but it was still sold out.

The reason why Labubu has such a "brainwashing power" in Southeast Asia is that with the penetration of the Internet, more and more young people in Southeast Asia are keen to share and interact on social media.

For example, Thai consumers are keen on hanging Labubu on their bags and buy transparent dust bags and takeaway bags for them; merchants also print the image of Labubu on clothes, pendants, and even on their bodies.

Even posting a Labubu unboxing video on Youtube can get more than 3 million views, which is a surefire traffic secret.

In Vietnam, another important market in Southeast Asia, the popularity of blind boxes continues to grow.

In order to save costs, some toy packaging boxes in Vietnam have been replaced with packaging bags, and blind boxes have become blind bags.

Even so, young people's enthusiasm for consumption remains unabated.

In TikTok's live broadcast room, whether it is an affordable blind bag costing tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese dong (approximately a few yuan to more than ten yuan in RMB), or a high-end blind box costing hundreds of thousands to millions of Vietnamese dong (approximately tens of yuan to hundreds of yuan in RMB), young people are all flocking to it.

Anh Dao, a 26-year-old Vietnamese girl, watches the blind bag unboxing live broadcast on TikTok almost every night.

She said frankly: "At first I was just curious, but I was fascinated to see other players buy a few blind bags and win 20 or 30 toys. I became addicted without realizing it. Now, I spend about 300,000 to 400,000 Vietnamese dong (about 85 to 113 yuan) every night to buy blind bags in these live broadcasts."

Another 24-year-old young man, Thanh Dung, initially tried to buy only one blind bag for 79,000 Vietnamese dong (about 22 yuan), but after hearing his name mentioned by the anchor during the interaction in the live broadcast room, he bought 15 blind bags in succession.

There are countless examples like this. According to VnExpress’s survey data, in the past three months, more than 50 communities focusing on blind bags have emerged on Vietnam’s Facebook social network, with the number of members in each community ranging from 50,000 to 300,000.

Southeast Asia is ushering in a blind box carnival driven by young people.

04 Emotional consumption, opportunities and risks go hand in hand

Following e-commerce, Southeast Asia has now become a major gold mine for Chinese blind box merchants.

As a leader in the industry, Pop Mart has not only opened official flagship stores on Shopee and Lazada platforms in Vietnam, but also launched live sales activities on TikTok, aiming to further expand its market influence.

At the same time, other well-known trendy toy brands including MINISO, 52Toys and ToyCity have also entered major e-commerce platforms in Vietnam.

In 2021, Pop Mart's revenue from Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and overseas accounted for only 4.1%; but in the first half of 2024, this figure had reached 29.7%, with revenue exceeding 1.3 billion yuan.

Among them, Southeast Asia contributed 41.1%, a year-on-year increase of 478.3%.

According to the global trendy toy market trend data, Vietnam imports more than 80% of blind boxes from China. It is expected that the compound annual growth rate will reach 4.57% in the five years from 2024 to 2029.

China's blind boxes have become a hot commodity in Southeast Asia, which is not only a commercial success, but also a precise grasp of the emotional consumption of contemporary young people.

There is a concept in psychology called "soft object attachment", which refers to the fact that people use dolls as transitional objects to provide themselves with a sense of security in the process of learning to be independent.

As for those young people who are particularly fascinated by dolls, they not only get psychological comfort from Labubu, which has a cute appearance and comfortable touch, but also can find resonance in these silent dolls and see the shadow of their own hard work in life.

Toy manufacturers are not the only ones targeting the emotional consumption market.

On overseas social platforms such as TikTok, a video blogger with the account name @smltest0 posted a video about the "Eighteen Steps to Brewing Tea" of Chinese Kung Fu Tea, which quickly attracted the attention of a large number of overseas netizens.

As Chinese culture spreads widely around the world, tea culture, as an important part of traditional culture, is gaining new vitality through cross-border e-commerce platforms.

On August 20, 2024, the domestic 3A game "Black Myth: Wukong", based on the plot of "Journey to the West", one of China's four great classics, was launched simultaneously around the world. Its sales on the first day exceeded 3 million copies, with total sales exceeding 1.5 billion yuan.

This game, which took seven years to develop, combines Sun Wukong with traditional cultural elements. Its high-quality presentation and highly praised feedback have inspired the national pride of the Chinese people. It has not only set off a craze in the gaming industry, but also led to a series of cross-border marketing activities. Not long ago, "Black Myth: Wukong" also won the TGA2024 Best Action Game of the Year, which is known as the "Oscar" of the gaming industry!

In addition, selling "Einstein's brain", "scolding the love brain" services, petting cats in cat cafes, etc. are all ways for young people to seek emotional value. The reason why young people are willing to pay for this is the powerful driving force of emotional consumption.

It can be foreseen that as consumers' pursuit of emotional experience and spiritual satisfaction becomes increasingly prominent, the traditional business sector is facing unprecedented pressure for change, and emotional consumption represented by blind boxes will become extremely important in the future market.

After all, the essence of business is to provide emotional value to customers.

References:

[1] “This Chinese company is driving young people around the world crazy”, China Business Strategy

[2] “The new traffic code for Thailand tourism is actually her?” China News Weekly

[3] "Chinese trendy toys are popular in Southeast Asia!" China and Foreign Toys Network

[4] “From selling products to exporting culture, China’s trendy toy giants are making waves overseas and becoming the new “glory of domestic products”” Time Weekly

[5] “Spending money to buy happiness, is “emotional consumption” reliable?” Consumer Daily official platform

Author | Canghai Mingyuesheng Editor | Liu Jingfeng