According to the Star Daily on December 4 (researcher Liang Youyun, intern reporter Li Jiayi, reporter Qiu Siyu), from the consumer side to the secondary market, the broad ACG economy has become a hot topic.

The term 'broad ACG' is a transliteration of the English word 'GOODS', referring to merchandise related to ACG, such as games, anime, and other IP-related derivatives. According to the white paper on the ACG content industry in china published by Zhozhong Consulting, the number of users in the broad ACG sector in china has grown rapidly, reaching nearly 0.46 billion in 2021, and it is expected to further increase to 0.52 billion by 2026.

Recently, the concept of the broad ACG economy has suddenly gained popularity in the capital markets. Relevant data shows that from November 26 to December 2, the index of the IP economy (broad ACG economy) saw a cumulative increase of 13.96% over the past seven days. As of the close on December 2, 81 stocks had newly added concepts related to the IP economy (broad ACG economy).

Regarding the popularity of the 'broad ACG economy', related personnel from Ka You believe there are three main factors: first, high-quality anime and game works have gained wide recognition, making their related products bestsellers favored by young consumers; second, emotional value and surprise economy are becoming increasingly important in modern consumption, and peripheral products in broad ACG culture can continually provide emotional satisfaction for young people; third, with the expanded influence of Generation Z, the audience range of broad ACG culture continues to expand, which also prompts more market attention to this emerging sector.

Recently, reporters from the New Consumption Daily noticed that during visits to multiple shopping centers such as Baillien ZC, Meiluo City, and TPY in shanghai, these business districts had undergone early transformation, actively embracing the broad ACG economy, which has become a 'holy land for buying ACG' for many ACG players nationwide.

Overall, the rise of the broad ACG economy reflects the trends of consumption upgrade and cultural confidence, representatives from Ka You told reporters.

Broad ACG culture 'saves' offline business districts.

“There aren't many people right now, but by the weekend, the store will be packed, and it will be difficult to move down the aisles.” At the Bailian ZC Creative Venue, a staff member from a Guzi merchandise store told the New Consumption Daily reporter that not only do many middle and high school students frequently come to buy, but undergraduates are also a major consumer group.

The core of Guzi merchandise lies in its IP influence, but its product forms are complex and varied, benefiting from the fact that many products often combine collection, daily decoration, and usability, making them widely accepted by the young IP consumption group. For example, there are relatively inexpensive products priced around ten yuan, and slightly more expensive complex stand-up figures, pendants, etc., priced at hundreds of yuan.

Especially in offline consumption scenarios, many young people often impulsively buy several desired characters or IPs at once. Multiple young consumers from the ACG (Anime, Comic, Game) community revealed to the New Consumption Daily that they spend about one thousand yuan on Guzi each year.

Ms. Tao, a seasoned Guzi enthusiast with years of experience, candidly told the New Consumption Daily that the purchasing power of children in the 'Guzi' community is also quite impressive.

Ms. Tao analyzed that a 200 yuan Guzi might be a significant burden for a university student or young adult in their twenties, requiring some consideration. In contrast, children, who do not have to bear daily living expenses, can invest all their 200 yuan pocket money into buying Guzi.

However, for a long time, China's ACG Guzi consumption has often been concentrated in events such as comic and game exhibitions, or through online purchases, and official flagship store retail.

In recent years, many traditional offline retail locations such as department stores, bookstores, and stationery stores have struggled to operate but, after realizing the purchasing power of the ACG youth community in 'emotional spending', have actively aligned with young consumers' preferences by introducing a large number of trendy toys and Guzi-related products.

Since the beginning of this year, data from Tianyancha Professional Edition shows that from January to November 2024, there have been more than 0.01 million newly established related enterprises, an increase of 14% compared to the same period in 2023. As of November, there are more than 0.064 million existing enterprises related to the 'Guzi economy.' In terms of regional distribution, Guangdong, Hebei, and Shaanxi rank in the top three for the number of related enterprises.

Currently, in developed cities such as shanghai, hangzhou, guangzhou, and chengdu, shopping districts that have undergone a二次元特色改造 often quickly gather popularity, attracting a large number of young people for photo opportunities and leisure. 百联ZX, which has been in operation for over a year, was still able to reach a peak customer flow of 0.27 million during this year’s May Day holiday; the chengdu international animation city, having completed its renovations this year for the national day holiday, attracted over 0.25 million visitors during the holiday period.

While visiting during the new consumption daily in shanghai, it was observed that even on weekdays, the "谷店" in the mall was still crowded with many二次元 players, including cosers dressed as IP characters, foreign visitors, and tourists dragging suitcases.

Retail complexes are actively injecting popularity and vitality into malls by continuously introducing different IP franchise stores, regional first stores, and IP pop-ups, which in turn boosts nearby rents and consumer activity.

According to the brand promotion conference held by grandjoy holdings group in October, the sales of its commercial sector reached 29.28 billion yuan in the first three quarters of this year, reflecting a year-on-year increase of 20%; the cumulative foot traffic reached 0.27 billion visitors, up 18% year-on-year; the overall occupancy rate reached 96%. Reports indicate that 百联ZX also maintained a similar high growth rate, with its sales in the first half of this year exceeding 0.2 billion yuan, reaching 60% of last year's total, and a single mall's cumulative foot traffic surpassed 5.5 million visitors in just six months.

Successful transformation cases of综合商业体 such as shanghai mei luo city and grandjoy holdings group show that while there are many周边 shops around, the pop-up photo spots, pop-up stage activities, lolita clothing, comic book stores, and even small-scale二次元 entrepreneur markets are all important factors that continuously attract young consumers to return. Additionally, 百联ZX has become a significant feature by attracting national tourists with many domestic二次元 first stores for photo opportunities.

The谷子 economy is even livelier online.

In fact, for many二次元 enthusiasts, online channels are the key avenues for buying and consuming谷子. Especially in recent years, with the rapid rise of domestic二次元 game and animation IPs, e-commerce flagship stores remain their core sales channels.

Taking miHoYo as an example, the company has several popular二次元 games such as "Genshin Impact," "Honkai: Star Rail," and "Uncertain Incident Record." During this year's november 11 shopping festival-related promotions, miHoYo's official Tmall flagship store became one of the brands to quickly break 100 million in sales.

The new consumer daily observed that in the mihayou flagship store, there are as many as 7 product links for character badges priced at 15 yuan, with accumulated sales between 0.5 million to 0.1 million pieces, and nearly 5 other products with accumulated sales exceeding 0.1 million pieces. Roughly estimating, mihayou's revenue from just a few basic character badges has exceeded 27 million, not to mention the hundreds of yuan figures for products like figurines, pillows, and dolls, which have thousands of pre-orders.

According to publicly available data from Tmall, on the first day of the sale for this year's november 11 shopping festival, the game "Like a Kite" flagship store broke a million within one minute of sales, and within 15 minutes, sales reached over ten million; during the pre-sale of the new peripheral of "Love and Deep Space", sales also surpassed 50 million within seconds, achieving over 0.2 billion in sales on the first day of november 11.

According to Tmall sources revealed to reporters, during this year's november 11 shopping festival, over 1,000 IPs launched more than 0.1 million peripheral products on Taobao and Tmall for Genshin Impact, Honkai Star Rail, Like a Kite, Unscheduled Events, ZhePaper Heart, Demon Slayer, etc., with IP derivative peripheral products growing over 100% compared to last year, and there are more than 500 businesses in the broad sub-culture peripheral market that reached a sales scale of millions.

Equally bustling as the official online flagship stores is the immense second-hand trading market. A young anime enthusiast often frequents various IPs and characters, thus generating significant "drop out" and "join in" trading activities.

According to data statistics from the second-hand trading platform Xianyu, the number of idle trading orders in the Gu circle has increased by 170% year-on-year, with card trading up by 108%, trendy blind box trading up by 473%, and popularity cards up by 51%. Many overhyped goods within the circle have further elevated and validated the popularity of the IP.

Driven by successful domestic anime IP cases, many Japanese anime IPs have also started to pay attention to online channels. In September of this year, Chiikawa officially launched its first online flagship store in the country, gaining nearly 0.2 million followers on opening day, with several classic doll keychains quickly sold out. Among them, a certain red Usachii keychain sold out online, with its secondary market price increasing nearly 2 times.

Behind the explosion of popularity, a number of Gu stores have already closed.

However, during the visits made by the new consumer daily reporters, it was noted that despite the increasing diversity of Gu shops and IP-linked pop-up stores across the country, a significant number of Gu shops and operators of anime businesses have been "eliminated from the market".

The Z generation can be difficult to please; they love novelty and prioritize experiences. Just having elements of two-dimensional culture is not enough; there must also be interaction and social engagement to retain their interest. This was stated by an industry observer to the New Consumer Daily.

The reason for the closure is simple: old stock cannot be sold, while new stock keeps arriving. A merchant who runs a millet store in the Nanshan District of Shenzhen revealed to reporters that since opening in mid-2023, he has tried various domestic two-dimensional IPs and actively promoted himself using social media channels such as Xiaohongshu to attract certain consumers. However, after only one year of operation, he chose to clear out stock at 60-80% off due to cost pressure and had to announce his closure early.

On social media platforms, there are numerous two-dimensional entrepreneurs who have experienced similar store closures.

According to observations by the New Consumer Daily, most entrepreneurs are driven by their love for two-dimensional culture, but the cost of offline stores, site selection, procurement channels, theft, after-sales service, and other operational management aspects have high requirements.

Due to the booming millet economy, a large number of "outsiders" have entered the market, leading to an increase in homogenous offline stores. Moreover, many "outsiders" attempt to attract young people by selling misleadingly priced millet through counterfeiting official images, but this behavior has faced widespread public resistance from the core two-dimensional community, making it unfavorable for long-term store operations.

Many seasoned two-dimensional millet buyers indicate that purchasing often involves comparing prices from online, agents, and other channels. If offline millet stores lack a differentiated experience and have excessively high premiums, it is difficult to be competitive, eventually leading to inventory buildup and tight cash flow.

Additionally, most entrepreneurs sharing their experiences of millet store closures often cite high procurement costs and an inability to obtain IP agent authorization, which prevents them from developing unique millet products around the IP.

Therefore, to get a share of the market, it is necessary to understand the consumption preferences of the two-dimensional youth generation and to have more advantageous official procurement channels, official authorization, as well as sufficient funds and retail operational experience. For example, leading retail collaborators with funding, storefronts, and first-mover advantages can order directly from the official supplier, obtaining some limited edition millets or products that arrive ahead of sale, which often becomes the target for "millet eaters".

The millet economy, IP is king.

Currently, in china, there are chain millet store brands with channel advantages, such as潮玩星球, 三月兽, animate, GOODSLOVE, and others. Among them, retailers like潮玩星球 and 三月兽 also attract young consumers to the store for interaction through derivative IP-themed restaurants, in the combination of dining + millet.

While becoming channel operators, some agents have developed a broader sales market by deeply cultivating millet sales gameplay. Among them, the domestic leading card game toy operator卡游 has achieved outstanding performance with annual sales exceeding 4.1 billion yuan by securing card design and sales authorization of top IPs like奥特曼, 小马宝莉, and 三国杀.

Another typical representative of the millet economy is miniso. In recent years, during domestic and international expansion, miniso's strategy has been to collaborate deeply with globally renowned IPs, with a focus on the development of second-dimension culture and IP derivatives. This not only allows for exclusive resources obtained through IP authorization but also achieves a deep integration with IP in product design and marketing promotions.

Currently, miniso has conducted in-depth cooperation with over 150 well-known global IPs, including marvel, disney, barbie, etc. Among the top 10 global IP licensors, 6 have cooperated with miniso, and among the top 20 IP licensors, 9 have also reached cooperation with miniso.

At the recent miniso earnings conference, miniso's chief financial officer Zhang Jingjing revealed that in the third quarter of 2024, the store increase in the second-dimension section compared to the second quarter was 300 stores, and the sales performance of the second-dimension category increased by 50% month-on-month. The financial report shows that the sales performance of the second-dimension category of miniso increased by 50% month-on-month in Q3 2024 compared to Q2.

"We have noticed the strong rise of second-dimensional culture, so we plan to make this category an important development direction for next year," Zhang Jingjing stated, expecting to launch miniso's self-researched and developed millet-related peripheral products every month next year, creating differentiated creative products through secondary creation and other means.

The core of the millet economy centers around a series of commodities derived from second-dimensional games, animations, and a large number of experiential social gameplay, mainly to satisfy the emotional value of consumers.

Therefore, the changes in market trends are quite rapid. Previously, the heat of the two-dimensional consumer market was concentrated on three-dimensional items such as figurines, models, and statues. In recent years, items like badges, acrylic stands, sand majiang, laser tickets, and color cards have become popular, as these are flat, low-threshold commodities that attract the market.

In terms of the current development trends of two-dimensional consumption, it is necessary for upstream IP producers to focus on creating quality content, while downstream channels must also develop new experiential gameplay and enrich IP derivative products. This can deepen the commercialization value of the IP and recreate it to attract a larger group of young consumers with diverse preferences.