Nearly 20 listed companies are scrambling to seize the trading card market: cross-sector expansion, transformation and on-the-ground implementation
Established card issuers expand outward, IP holders, supply chain players rush in: the trading card track is getting increasingly crowded
The 2026 trading card and trendy toy market presents a rather "bizarre" phenomenon:
On the one hand, many established manufacturers, seeing the intensifying industry competition, are exploring and launching new product categories. On the other hand, a large number of large enterprises that originally operated in other tracks, seeing the strong profitability of leading product companies such as Pop Mart and Card Fun, have entered this field across sectors.
The root cause is that a variety of operation models related to Chinese IP are undergoing profound changes to a large extent:
The original creation and monetization logic of cultural and entertainment content has been subverted by new technologies such as AI. Even listed companies in the film, television and publishing sectors are in a collective sluggish state — content companies either embrace AI actively when they cannot beat it, or seek business transformation to accelerate the construction of an integrated business ecosystem of "content — products — experience".
At the same time, sectors including trading cards and trendy toys have entered a new stage of development for both the industry and individual companies, and the intensifying competition in the original market pushes product companies to expand and deepen their business.
Recently, listed companies on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and A-share market have successively released their 2026 semi-annual performance reports. According to statistics from Wenchuangchao, nearly 20 listed companies have taken trading cards as one of their key businesses, including Yaoji Technology, Aoda Holdings, China Literature Group, Huali Technology, Ruyi Film, Hanyi Co., Ltd., Yongji Co., Ltd., Kidsland, Guangbo Co., Ltd., Feiyang Group, Mango Super Media, Yuehua Entertainment, Ningmeng Films, Shanghai Film, Jinghua Laser, Yutong Technology, Baixinglong, and so on.
Among them, there are not only investment layouts from upstream IP holders such as film, television and publishing sectors, but also in-depth participation from supply chain links such as packaging and printing, as well as many enterprises entering the trading card track across sectors from their original industries, even shifting their business focus completely...
In this article, we will take a look at the dynamics and progress of these listed companies in the trading card field.
Yaoji Technology / Aoda Holdings / Huali Technology: Proven monetization model and offline scenario expansion
First, let's look at several companies that have been engaged in the trading card business for a long time.
Yaoji Technology recorded a year-on-year decline in both revenue and profit in the first half of 2026: operating revenue reached 1.322 billion yuan, down 8.07% year on year; net profit was 216 million yuan, down 15.51% year on year.
Yaoji Technology invested in the sports card platform and distributor Card Hobby in 2022, holding 38% of the shares, making it the second largest shareholder after the founder.
In the first half of 2026, the revenue of Card Hobby increased by 23% year on year to 123 million yuan; its net profit fell by 26% year on year to 8.97 million yuan.
In the first half of the year, Card Hobby took many actions in user operation and industry cooperation, such as holding the Card Hobby Carnival and weekend Card Hobby gatherings in multiple cities, launching official sports cards in cooperation with Inter Milan Football Club and the Croatian National Football Team, holding a signing event for Juventus legend Claudio Marchisio, signing Chinese padel player Zhang Bohou (who set the highest ranking in Asia in 2025), and so on.
Card Hobby is also seeking to gradually break the form constraint of "sports card trading website". In February, it launched "Card Hobby Vault", a professional storage and trading service for graded cards, and improved the member point system at the same time; from June to July, it set up an offline pop-up store in Shanghai; the platform itself is also expanding to product types other than sports cards, such as celebrity small cards and Pokémon TCG.
From the data, Card Hobby's expansion has achieved results, but it has also significantly increased expenses.
Yao Shuobin, Chairman and General Manager of Yaoji Technology, acquired Aoda Holdings, a company mainly engaged in electromechanical engineering, in December 2025. In addition, GL Ventures, the lead investor of Soul Fun's financing last year, contributed about 90 million yuan in April this year to become a shareholder of Aoda Holdings. These two major events have led some investors to believe that Aoda Holdings will become a TCG listed company.
Aoda Holdings announced in August that it would rename itself "Yaopop". In the first half of the year, it added a new trading card business, generating revenue of HK$8.327 million, accounting for 21.4% of total revenue, and its gross profit margin reached as high as 28.5%, far higher than the company's overall gross profit margin level of 7.5%. In terms of team layout, the financial report shows that its number of employees in Chinese mainland increased from 0 at the end of 2025 to 125 at the end of June, who are basically allocated around the IP business.
However, for the trading card business of Aoda Holdings / Yaopop, the ending inventory in the first half of the year reached as high as HK$24.68 million, which is about three times its half-year revenue, indicating that there may be a rhythm mismatch between channel stocking and end-user sales.
Although the management said that the "growth potential is considerable" and will focus on cultivating trading cards as a new business growth curve, it cannot hide the concerns of the capital market. Recently, after its stock price doubled in a month, the gains have gradually been wiped out.
Aoda Holdings disclosed the performance of its newly added IP-licensed products (trading cards) in the first half of the year
Huali Technology, which sells trading cards through amusement machine channels, achieved operating revenue of 334 million yuan in the first half of the year, down 30.59% year on year; its attributable net profit was -109 million yuan, turning from profit to loss year on year.
Among them, the revenue of the anime IP derivative product segment, whose main product is trading cards, was 119 million yuan, down 28.20% year on year, which is the first decline in nearly five years. The company pointed out that trading card products are significantly affected by fluctuations in consumer willingness.
Recently, Huali Technology, based on its original anime and game IPs, entered the sports IP field to seek incremental growth, and launched the new product "NBA Super All-Stars", covering 30 NBA teams and more than 180 real-name star players, integrating offline interactive experience, physical sports card collection, mini-program data binding and character development to build an integrated experience of "collection — development — battle — play".
In addition, PlayLab, a trading card and trendy toy design company acquired by Huali Technology in 2025, launched the Three Kingdoms Fantasy Battle TCG Cute General Hanging Bag series and the second "Wonderful Plan" product this year.
China Literature / Ruyi Film / Ningmeng Films and other IP holders: New cooperation, new IP, new products
China Literature Group has invested in leading trading card brand Hitcard and plush trendy toy brand Super Genki Factory, and has achieved deep synergy with the invested companies.
China Literature Group recorded revenue of 3.53 billion yuan in the first half of the year, up 10.7% year on year; its attributable net profit was 135 million yuan, down 84.1% year on year.
Among them, the copyright operation and other businesses, driven by the rapid growth of multiple business lines such as short dramas, AI manhua dramas, TV series and IP derivatives, achieved revenue of 1.691 billion yuan, a sharp year-on-year increase of 40.31%, becoming the core pillar of performance growth.
In terms of IP commercialization and monetization, the overall GMV of China Literature's derivatives business in the first half of the year reached 780 million yuan, up more than 60% year on year.
In the first half of the year, China Literature continued to deeply cultivate the "light soft weekly" track with high-frequency repurchase, expanded new categories such as plush, life peripherals and precious metals, and promoted "China Literature Good Things" to enter the first tier of Chinese animation derivatives.
In terms of new trading card products, China Literature still launches products around its leading IPs such as The King's Avatar, The Outcast, Lord of Mysteries, Fox Spirit Matchmaker and Battle Through the Heavens, among which the "Honor Gift" series of The King's Avatar has been released to the sixth edition, The Outcast has expanded to the fourth edition of "Flower Season as Promised", and the commemorative collection card series Battle Through the Heavens: Emperor Over the Sky will be launched in early September. In addition, for film and television collection cards, The Sword and the Heart has been released to the second edition, and there are new products such as the official film and television collection card of Flowers and Splendid Brocade and the "Flowers Meet in the Blossoms" series of Hundred Flowers Kill.
Hitcard, invested by China Literature, launched about 50 products in the first half of the year, extending its cooperation to almost all popular cultural consumption fields such as film, television, animation, games, variety shows, artists and sports.
In terms of cooperation forms, Hitcard's cooperation with IP has been expanded to co-creation promotion, boot-up support, drama-watching ceremony for fan groups and other aspects — it is not just selling cards, but embedded in the production and promotion chain of film and television content.
Part of new products of Hitcard
Ruyi Film (formerly Wanda Film), a large copyright holder that made a big splash to enter the trading card market this year, achieved revenue of 5.089 billion yuan in the first half of the year, down 23.92% year on year; its attributable net profit was about -154 million yuan, compared with a profit of 536 million yuan in the same period of last year.
Ruyi Film's trading card business is explored through the brand "Time Card Collection". Shortly after its establishment, the brand announced that it has built an integrated system of "IP cooperation — product distribution — event organization — community management", and unveiled a series of IP cooperation and product lines, including launching the "PHANTABEAR" collection card in cooperation with the fashion brand PHANTACi, becoming one of Fanatics' direct purchase retail partners in the Chinese market, and obtaining the Chinese regional operation right of the Japanese game IP Palworld TCG.
Time Card Collection announced the launch of three core product lines: "Time Gift", "Star River" and "WOW". Among them, "Time Gift" is positioned as a high-end collection category; the "Star River" series is mainly responsible for the commercial development of film, television, variety, artist and content IPs, and has revealed official film and television collection cards such as Dazzling and Unofficial Romance; the "WOW" series focuses on lightweight, topical and immediate consumption-oriented trendy trading cards.
At present, Time Card Collection mainly relies on Ruyi Film (Wanda Film)'s 700 cinema resources in China to hold trading card events, markets and "movie-watching + card-opening" activities.
Xiaomang E-commerce under Mango Super Media, after turning losses into profits for the first time in 2025, continued to make profits this year. Its GMV in the first half of the year reached 9.2 billion yuan, with revenue of 280 million yuan, up 47% year on year; net profit was 8.38 million yuan, a year-on-year surge of 6 times.
The profitability of Xiaomang E-commerce benefits from IP expansion and category optimization. In the first half of the year, the quality of its trading card business was upgraded, the plush category continued to make breakthroughs, and the revenue proportion of new categories such as artist albums and artist new media IPs steadily increased.
