As the world's largest toy production and export base, China is also the world's second largest toy consumer. On the occasion of the opening of the domestic toy industry's annual exhibition-the 30th Guangzhou International Toys and Model Exhibition and the 9th Guangzhou International Baby Carriage and Baby Products Exhibition, Li Zhuoming, president of the Guangdong Toys Association, notified through the media The relevant situation of the operation of China’s toy industry in the past year.

 

1. Industrial operation

 

In 2017, China’s toy industry performed well. According to data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Bureau of Statistics and other relevant departments, the industry’s production and sales rate last year was 97.8%, a slight decrease of 0.3% year-on-year; the main business income was 235.71 billion yuan, an increase of 8.5%; the total profit was 127.8 100 million yuan, an increase of 8.8% year-on-year; there are estimated to be more than 7,000 toy manufacturers of a certain scale in the country, and there were 9,659 companies with export records in 2016. China's toy industry has seen greater development in 2017. The biggest highlight is that the export value of products hit the largest increase in 10 years since the 2007 world economic crisis.

 

2. Product export

 

In 2017, China’s toy exports were outstanding. The annual toy exports were US$44.15 billion, a year-on-year increase of 31.2%, of which traditional toy exports were US$23.961 billion, a year-on-year increase of 30.4%. More than 70% of the products sold in the world toy market are made in China, and more than 80% in the European and American markets. Guangdong is still China’s largest toy export province, with annual product exports of 22.706 billion US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 24.1%, accounting for 51.49% of the country’s total toy exports, of which traditional toy exports were US$13.043 billion, an increase of 14.36% year-on-year, accounting for national exports. 54.47%. The above is the statistics of the customs. In fact, due to the migration of enterprise product export data, Guangdong's toy exports accounted for a larger proportion of the country's statistics, especially traditional toys, which still accounted for about 70% of the country.

 

3. the world market

 

European and American countries are still the world’s major toy consumer markets, accounting for approximately 60% of the global market. In 2017, sales in the European and American toy markets were ideal. At the beginning of the year, fingertip tops were popular in the market, Hatchimals, Shopkins, and other collectible products sold throughout the year. During the Christmas toys, there were even scalpers in the United States. The fingertip monkey, priced at US$14.99, fought for US$200 online, which alarmed members of Congress to intervene. The demand for toys in emerging markets is equally gratifying. Take Guangdong as an example. Last year, the export value of Guangdong toys to Latin America increased by 31.4% year-on-year, Africa increased by 60.4%, to BRIC countries India increased by 162.5%, Russia 84.1%, Brazil 35.6%, and South Africa 33.4%. According to estimates from customs data of various countries, the world toy market consumption last year was approximately 89.87 billion US dollars. Among them, the United States accounts for 33.8% and the European Union 26.4%. China is second only to the United States as a consumer of toys in the world, accounting for 9.6% of global consumption.

 

4. Domestic market

 

In 2017, my country's toy consumer market rose steadily. Based on the annual monitoring of national department stores, major wholesale markets, Taobao Jingdong and other e-commerce channels throughout the year, the sales of animation IP derivative toys, building blocks, science and education toys, and children’s robots were booming throughout the year. Fidget spinners once caused a wave of market frenzy. In addition, products such as "Super Flying Man" IP derivative toys and hand-thrown foam airplanes have been selling well or even out of stock.

 

According to analysis, in 2017, the domestic toy market sales increased by 5% year-on-year, with consumption of approximately RMB 68 billion, and per capita consumption of children at approximately RMB 295. Due to the development of China's economy and the improvement of people's living standards, especially the change in the consumption concept of the younger generation of parents, the sales of more expensive imported brand toys remained strong. The annual product import was 1.082 billion US dollars, an increase of 4.35% year-on-year. Imported products have strong competitiveness in the Chinese market by virtue of good brand awareness. Among them, imported models are quite popular. Imports of "other scaled-down full set of model component toys" increased by 49.84% year-on-year, and the amount increased by 95.56%.

 

5. consumer trends

 

Toys have the attributes of trendy consumer goods. Which products are better to sell is often related to the promotion of the market by film and television works, especially cartoons. Last year, there were mainly three types of domestically sold toys:

 

One is an animation IP derivative. Affected by the hits of "Cars 3" and "Wonder Woman", related derivatives are more popular in Europe and America, becoming a bright spot in the market. Domestic IP "Super Flying Man" and "Pig Man" continue to exert strength, and derivative toys are very popular. The integrated development of animation and toy industries has become a trend. Guangdong is not only a major producer of toys, but also a major province of animation and games. As a result, the Guangzhou International Toy Fair has become the first choice for the industrialization of animation IP. There are particularly many animation derivative products at the exhibition, which has become a major feature.

The second is intellectual toys. It is the common wish of parents all over the world to hope that the child will become a dragon. Therefore, traditional toys such as building blocks, puzzles, and robots that help nurture children's intelligence and practical ability are not only in the European and American markets, but also in China for many years.

 

The third is the recovery of market demand for game consoles. Last year, as the game giant Sony launched a new generation of consoles, many game fans updated their equipment. Last year, the sales of game console products in the game console market were satisfactory, which also promoted a substantial increase in China's game console product exports in 2017. Exports of "other video game controllers and equipment" The number surged 45.65% year-on-year, and the amount reached US$3.227 billion, an increase of 373.39%.

 

6. Brand competitiveness

 

After years of hard work by Chinese toy companies, the situation in which the high-end domestic toy market is firmly controlled by imported products has begun to change. Some domestic brands have been able to compete with imported products, although some traditional products such as dolls are still occupied by Barbie dolls and building blocks by Lego products. , But the share has been shrinking, and the proportion of similar domestic brands is constantly expanding. In particular, many innovative products such as robots, remote-controlled aircraft and car models for technology toys, obviously no foreign brands can compete with Chinese products. Chinese brands such as Aofei, Meizhi, Yade, Xinghui, Xinyu Technology, Shuangying, Jiaqi, Weili, Wange, Bangbao, Qimeng, Keer, etc. have obviously shared the high-end toy market at home and abroad. In fact, the Guangdong toy industry, which has always been dominated by "processing trade", continued to drop 9.7% year-on-year in the share of products exported by "processing trade" in 2017. It has dropped from more than 90% in the early stage of reform and opening up to only accounting for 42.52% means that significant progress has been made in industrial transformation and upgrading. Guangdong's toy industry, which accounts for 70% of the country's toy production capacity, is actually no longer dominated by processing trade.

 

7. sales channels

 

Affected by e-commerce, toy sales channels, supermarkets, department stores and street shops have shown a downward trend in recent years, but online sales have developed rapidly. Currently, corporate online sales (including B2B and B2C) account for approximately 20% to 30% of annual sales. On domestic e-commerce platforms, toy best-selling products are mostly traditional products such as building blocks, plush, and baby toys. Professional exhibitions are still the main channel for manufacturers to display products to expand the market. The 30th Guangzhou International Toy Fair and the 9th Guangzhou International Children's Car Show will be held from April 8th to 10th, 2018. The exhibition area will be expanded to 10 10,000 square meters, an increase of 23% over the previous year, with nearly 4,000 booths, and it is expected that more than 55,000 professional buyers from around the world will come to purchase.

 

8. Market forecast

 

Toy consumption is closely related to economic development. According to the forecast of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the global economy will grow steadily by 3.8% in 2018, which is higher than 3.7% in 2017. For this reason, so long as there is no war and special nature Disasters and other events, it is expected that world toy consumption will continue to maintain a good momentum this year. Especially in the domestic market with the full liberalization of the second-child policy and the accelerated economic development, the demand for toys is even greater.