How Did Blind Box Toys Emerge?

How Did Blind Box Toys Emerge?

The blind box originated from the Japanese "Fukubukuro", which started as an opaque bag placed by supermarkets to sell slow-moving goods to attract customers' purchase by creating a sense of uncertainty. At this time, the actual value of the items in the bag is often higher than the price of the bag.

With the rise of Japanese anime culture, the "Vending Machine" containing a variety of anime figures also appeared. By the 1990s, this type of "blind box" concept in the form of card collection began in China and caused a consumer boom, especially among the students and young adults.

After the development of Chinese domestic art toy market and various marketing tools, blind boxes came into the public eye. A concentrated explosion appeared around 2019.

How Did the Blind Box Culture Affect Other Industries?

Generally speaking, consumers are only aware of the possible styles in the blind box, but cannot identify the specific items. The earliest blind boxes often included a variety of anime figures, co-branded IP dolls, and so on. But with the development of the market, there seems to be a situation where "everything can be blind boxed".

A variety of blind boxes for food and beverage, beauty products, books, airline tickets, and even of archaeology theme, have emerged and are sought after by a large number of consumers, especially young people born after 1995.

Who is Consuming Blind Boxes?

Among these pitted consumer groups, the Z generation became the main force of blind box consumption. Back in 2020 in China, this group occupied nearly 40% of the consumption ratio of blind boxes, with a per capita ownership of 5 pieces.

Further digging into the consumers of the blind box economy, it can be found that nearly 63% of the consumers are women. In terms of occupation, young women in big cities are the first main consumers, followed by students in school.