Yuewen invests in the card company Hitcard, and more IP peripheral products will be launched in the future | Exclusive from 36Kr.

Text | Wang Yuchan

Editor | Qiao Qian 

36Kr exclusively learned that the card trend culture brand Hitcard has recently received a new round of financing, led by China Literature. After the completion of the equity change, it is expected that China Literature will own 10% of Hitcard's equity.

Hitcard is a trendy toy IP card brand founded by Shanghai Qixing Network Technology Co., Ltd. in 2021. Its main business focuses on the research and development of its own IP cards, the creation of co-branded cards with multiple cooperative brands, etc., specializing in adult-oriented consumer-level collectible cards and derivatives.

Since this year, Hitcard has received considerable attention in the primary market. In August, Hitcard just announced the completion of a new round of investment. This round of investment was jointly invested by Cygames, a game company under Japan's leading entertainment group CyberAgent, the game development and IP operation company Akatsuki, and the "Nendoroid" figure manufacturer Goodsmile. Earlier investors in Hitcard include Feng Tao, the founder of Shanghai NewMargin Ventures, Chen Yuetian, the founder of Spark Capital, Pop Mart, Sequoia Capital, and TrendyToyz.

A person close to this investment disclosed to 36Kr that investing in Hitcard is one of the links to accelerate the commercialization of the "China Literature Merchandise" business. According to the 2024 interim financial report released by China Literature Group, Hou Xiaonan, CEO and President of China Literature Group, pointed out that thanks to works such as "Hot and Spicy", "With the Phoenix", "The Second Season of Joy of Life", and "The Story of the Rose", China Literature has "taken an important step in IP commercialization", and the overall GMV of the development of card derivatives has reached the 100 million yuan mark.

This person said that in the future, China Literature Merchandise will deepen cooperation with Hitcard, expand the scope of IP commercialization cooperation, increase the number of cooperative IPs, enrich card gameplay, and use Hitcard's factories and channels to cooperate on more light and soft peripheral products.

It is understood that China Literature Merchandise is an IP derivative brand under China Literature Group, mainly engaged in products that IP fans and young users are keen on, such as light and soft peripherals, cards, plush toys, figurines, and daily necessities. China Literature Merchandise has launched popular two-dimensional categories such as badges, laser tickets, and blind boxes, and has also opened several physical stores and counters.

In the first half of this year, China Literature Merchandise and Hitcard jointly developed cards for "Joy of Life" and "The King's Avatar". In September, they released cards for "Lord of the Mysteries", and plan to release cards for "The Outcast" and "Fights Break Sphere" and the second round of cards for "The King's Avatar" in Q4 of this year. Next, there are plans to simultaneously release cards at home and abroad. In addition to Hitcard, China Literature Merchandise has also collaborated with Jicards on multiple card products including the "Under One Person" movie, and the "Fox Spirit Matchmaker" cards in cooperation with Kaiyou are also about to be launched.

Collectible Card for "The Second Season of Joy of Life"

According to the official data of China Literature, during the broadcast of the second season of "Joy of Life", the genuine cards produced by China Literature Merchandise in conjunction with Tencent Video and Hitcard had an order volume of over 20 million before the broadcast. After the classic restoration blind box of "Joy of Life" was launched in May this year, the sales volume exceeded 200,000 in two months.

The card economy is growing. The "2023 China Collectible Card Market Research Report" shows that the scale of the Chinese collectible card market exceeded 10 billion yuan in 2022, with a year-on-year growth of 42.1%. Data from Caitong Securities shows that in the next three years, the scale of the Chinese card market is expected to exceed 30 billion yuan.

IP commercialization is one of the signs that IP operation is becoming mature. According to the latest data from Wikipedia, the vast majority of the income sources of the 50 most profitable IPs in the world come from retail and licensed merchandise. Taking "Mickey Mouse and Friends" as an example, retail income accounts for more than 99% of its total income in 2024.

In 2024, China Literature Merchandise plans to open several self-operated stores. Currently, stores in Xi'an and Hangzhou have opened, and stores in Beijing and Nanchang are planned to open in late October. Stores in other regions are planned to open one after another from November to December, mainly around two-dimensional anime cities in first-tier cities and provincial capital cities, and high-quality business district malls. The single-store area is about 80 - 200 square meters.