In the home of the player's chat, blind box dolls with different images are lined up.
A small box, with an average price ranging from 39 yuan to 99 yuan, contains one of 12 different styles of dolls. You can't predict which one you will draw, nor can you predict whether you will be surprised or disappointed after opening the box. , But it is the feeling of soaring adrenaline created by this "uncertainty" that makes many people addicted to it, from children to adults.
In the eyes of many consumers, the blind box is a kind of "addictive" product. In order to pick their favorite style or collect a series, players often "smash money" time and time again.
Is the blind box a "little hobby" or an "IQ tax"?
What are the hidden worries behind the "blind box economy"?
Recently, all media reporters from Guangzhou Daily conducted an interview and investigation.
Text, picture/Guangzhou Daily full media reporter Cheng Yilun
"The price setting of the blind box is ingenious here. It will not make you unable to eat, but it will also cost you a lot of money without knowing it." Blind box enthusiasts chatted, she said from the beginning of 2019 Those who have entered the trendy play circle have purchased more than 300 blind box products, including 8 "big babies" with a unit price of nearly 1,000 yuan.
The "record" of chatter is not top in the trendy play circle. In order to win a certain limited edition doll with a unit price of about 999 yuan, a player bought 500 blind boxes at a time, and a single consumption was as high as 30,000. .
Small toys with "healing power"
Nao graduated from South China Normal University.
Walking into her house, all kinds of small dolls are greeted, from shoe cabinets to TV cabinets, dolls occupy most of the corners of the living room.
Nao has more than 300 blind boxes in total, but she does not consider herself a senior player.
The trend of blind boxes probably began in 2015, and the chattering "entering the pit" was in early 2019. At that time, she and her friends passed by the store together, and her friends won the first blind box doll "MOLLY" through the platform. To her.
"To be honest, I didn't arouse my desire to buy at the time. Later, I saw a doll "PUCKY" in the store and found that its shape is very cute.
Nao told reporters that she has no "collection fetish" and doesn't care too much about her own savings. She bought the blind box purely out of liking a certain series, "seeing that they are so cute and wanting to own it".
He said that buying blind boxes has the effect of reducing stress to a certain extent, “not to follow suit, but to buy one when you are unhappy, you can get happiness from it.”
Blind boxes are usually priced at 59 yuan each. For Chatter who is 25 years old this year and has been working for several years, the happiness of buying blind boxes is simpler and more cost-effective than buying clothes and bags.
And the most tempting is often the process of "opening the box", "just like a box of chocolate, you never know what the next piece will taste." Chat says.
Blind box enthusiast KK is a junior this year, studying at a university in Guangzhou.
During the Chinese New Year, she and her friends accidentally picked a hidden doll in an offline store while hanging out, and "entered the pit".
KK told reporters that she had been plagued by depression before, "I feel that my life is very boring. It was not until that time I got the hidden money that I found myself finally feeling emotional."
The blind box "cured" KK to a certain extent.
In order to be able to draw more styles of the central device, she also began to join some trendy play communities, including the "guess box group" created by the player "Little Manniang". Everyone will share the blind box with each other in the group. Experience will also share the joy of drawing the blind box of the central instrument.
Players will experience "labor pains"
"Little Manniang" is now the mother of two children, and was once a diehard fan of the blind box brand Bubble Mart.
In July last year, through an offline store, "Little Manniang" came into contact with blind boxes. She was soon attracted by this cute and small doll. She wrote a guide on blind box extraction on social platforms. , "Little Manniang" simply established a WeChat group for blind box lovers.
One year later, the group is constantly full of people, and now she has a total of 20 or 30 "baby friends".
There are two themes of these groups, namely "Guess the baby" and "Change the baby"-"Guess the baby" is used to draw boxes in each series of blind boxes by shaking boxes, weighing, and online box drawing prompts. Hidden models or hot models, this is almost every player's wish; "Change Baby" is a transformation of the "Thunder Model" in the series of blind boxes.
And behind the "guess" and "reform", it often indicates a psychological "throttle" that blind box players must experience, that is, the style without the central instrument.
"This kind of mentality is very torturous, because you know that as the blind box gets more and more popular, your chances of drawing a central instrument style begin to decrease. But every time there is a new series of favorites, you still cannot help but want to fight. Give it a go.” KK said, but the reality is often that every time a hot item is newly launched, it will be sold out immediately on the Internet.
Chatting has also had such a moment.
"The most exaggerated time. I wanted to buy a flower fairy doll, but at that time, 12 of the online box drawer machines had already been taken away. In order to improve the hit rate, I used three reminder coupons and eliminated three of them. Blind box, I took a picture of the remaining blind boxes at a cost of four to five hundred yuan, but when I got it, I found that none of the 8 blind boxes were present." He said that as the brand is getting newer and faster Players began to feel the "powerlessness" of their wallets, "especially these things ended up being piled up at home. They couldn't eat or use them when they were left there. They could only become dusty, and gradually they would become useless."
I am used to seeing the joys, sorrows, sorrows and joys of the players in the major groups, "Little Manniang" is quite emotional.
She told reporters: "Many people like the stimulating feeling when you draw blind boxes. I look at this thing more rationally. I often don't draw if I can't draw two boxes."
The scalpers intervened to make the players "cry
Haobao told reporters that there are roughly three ways to buy blind boxes: order purchases at brand flagship stores, online box-drawing machines, and offline stores.
Compared with the first one, the latter two undoubtedly can make consumers feel the pleasure of unpacking, "but now many offline stores will have the phenomenon of scalpers picking hidden money in advance."
In the WeChat group, some netizens also reported to reporters that in offline stores, there are many scalpers who will judge which doll is inside by weighing, shaking the box, etc., so as to take away the hot or hidden models and resell them; In a series of blind boxes, there are usually 12 big boxes, each box contains 12 dolls, of which only one is hidden.
In the second-hand market, a hidden doll can sell for 1,000 yuan.
The online box drawing machine is also not easy.
"Many scalpers will grasp the release time of the limited-level blind box Taobao in advance, and then use the proxy camera to help players shoot on behalf of the player, which also causes many products to be sold out soon after the sale." KK revealed that she had previously ordered a limited edition The blind box was kept in front of the computer for a long time, but it was shown that it was no longer available for sale just after it was sold. In the end, she had to buy it on the second-hand platform at a price four times the original price.
KK told reporters: "Even though everyone knows that these dolls are plastic toys made of resin, they still can't stop some people from wanting to have them crazily." KK was a little angry about this, in her opinion The people who speculate on blind boxes not only raise the price of blind boxes and break the rules of the circle, but also damage the brand IP, making many people who really like this product have to "extract fans and retreat." "This kind of behavior makes me feel more and more that this circle has changed and distorted."
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Big business in a "small box"
When it comes to blind boxes, the most inescapable thing is the well-known domestic fashion brand-Bubble Mart.
With the appearance of a 14-year-old girl with blond hair, blue eyes and pouting mouth, "MOLLY", Bubble Mart took ten years to transform from a small department store in the underground corridor of Zhongguancun, Beijing to the largest growth rate in China. One of the fastest fashion brands.
What kind of big business is in this little box?
According to data, from 2017 to 2019, Bubble Mart’s revenue was 158 million yuan, 515 million yuan, and 1.683 billion yuan, and net profits were 1.56 million yuan, 99.52 million yuan and 451.1 million yuan. The revenue brought by the "MOLLY" IP reached 41.01 million yuan, 214 million yuan, and 456 million yuan respectively.
Under the brand, as many as 85 IPs are now in operation.
In China, not only Bubble Mart, but also a number of trendy play brands such as 52TOYS (K&M), ACTOYS (bell cat), and 19 August 3TOYS have achieved high growth through blind box "out of the circle".
The high profits brought by blind boxes have made many well-known domestic brands test the water: Xiaomi launched a series of blind box peripherals in commemoration of the 10th anniversary of Xiaomi, and MINISO also launched blind box products with different brands.
Blind box IPs on the market emerge in endlessly, and consumers willing to pay for the blind box are also increasing day by day.
According to a "List of Post-95 Players Chopping Hands" released by Tmall in 2019, on the Tmall platform alone, nearly 200,000 consumers spend more than 20,000 yuan a year to collect blind boxes; among them, the purchasing power is the strongest. Of consumers even spend millions of yuan to buy blind boxes a year, and post-95 players account for the majority.
Most of these players are players who already have a certain income and have a certain recognition ability.
According to data from Bubble Mart, more than 95% of trendy toy consumers are between 15 and 40 years old, and 63% of players have a bachelor degree or above.
Reporter's Notes:
"Getting into the pit" is easy to "get out of the pit" and it is difficult to look at "blind box marketing"
The blind box ring is "easy to enter the pit and difficult to escape".
Haoyu told reporters that the consumption mode attached to the blind box is extremely "rich". For example, she has recently become obsessed with "changing baby"-by buying spray guns, spray paint, white molds and other products, I can make some dolls that I don't like. Make a transformation.
In addition, she also bought a big baby under the same IP series.
“I almost didn’t buy blind boxes this year, only a few big babies. Big babies are usually only divided into two types, AB, which means that the hit rate reached 50%. The quality and quality of the big babies are relatively better, but the price It is also higher, usually priced at about 700 to 1,000 yuan, and the price in the second-hand market is doubled." On the TV cabinet of the chatting house, there is a different-color big baby "DIMOO"— —This is what she won in the online box drawing machine at a price of 800 yuan, and now the price of the product on the second-hand trading platform has reached as high as 3,800 to 4,800 yuan.
But for "big baby players", the brand still has its own unique marketing routines, one of which is the "purchase right", that is, consumers need to purchase other blind boxes to obtain the lottery code before they may be eligible to buy the big baby .
"Before, a friend of mine bought a total of 500 blind boxes in order to obtain the right to purchase a limited-edition doll worth 999 yuan. However, participating in the purchase does not mean that you can get 100% of that doll. KK said, "In short, watching more and more people start to play blind boxes, I just want to tell everyone to look at it rationally. Because once you enter this circle, it may be difficult for you to control your desire to buy."
Previously, Zhang Yi, CEO and chief analyst of iiMedia Consulting, revealed that there are some manufacturers and brands behind blind box consumption, thereby enhancing the value of blind boxes; but the value of products depends on "scarcity, artistry, and usability at least. Have one of them", the blind box is highly reproducible, the craftsmanship is not complicated, and the usability is not obvious. It is recommended that players do not blindly invest in the blind box.