The card game of Kaiyu that is difficult to obtain a card, the invisible winner of the Nezha craze.
As the first three-year-old box office superstar in film history, Nezha has truly stepped onto the rapidly spinning Wind and Fire Wheels.
One side of the story takes place in the theater. "Nezha: The Devil Child Rises" (hereinafter referred to as "Nezha 2") has been continuously breaking box office records since its release on January 29. It has been described by the outside world as "starting high and going strong" - According to data from Dengta Professional Edition, on February 8, its total box office exceeded 7.5 billion yuan, surpassing "Despicable Me 3" and entering the top 10 global animation box office list; on February 9, its audience count exceeded that of "Wolf Warrior 2", becoming the champion of the Chinese film history in terms of audience count; on February 10, its total box office exceeded 1.159 billion US dollars, surpassing "Minions", entering the top 6 of the global film history box office list, and it is also the only non-Hollywood film in the top 10 animation films at the box office.
It remains a hot topic on search engines, and the whole nation is inspired. Also benefiting from this is the prosperous consumption of IP derivatives.
Judging from the collection of authorized peripheral products released by the film's official, there are nearly 20 cooperative brands for "Nezha 2", including both virtual and physical consumption, among which is the familiar card collaboration.
The collection cards jointly launched by Kayou and "Nezha 2" were sold out quickly in the first batch. Many consumers lamented that "it is extremely difficult to get a card", and there are no shortage of buyers and those who offer a premium for recycling on social platforms, indicating the high popularity.
And on February 13, the new products jointly launched by Kayou and Nezha 2 have already hit the market. Up to the time of writing, the second batch of pre-sales on its Tmall flagship store has exceeded 10,000.
As a representative company in the card field, Kayou has once again been pushed to the forefront - In fact, in the development of derivatives of domestic animation IPs, this company has gone through a long journey, and the popularity of the Nezha cards is like a fruitful result after hard work.
When Nezha Goes from the Big Screen to the Small Cards
During the release of "Nezha 2", Kayou also simultaneously launched the Nezha: The Devil Child Rises Battle Heaven Package (collection cards), the Mixed Yuan Treasure Box single card, and badges. Among them, the collection cards include 14 card types such as SP special edition lithography cards, Chinese style illustration cards, 3D grating cards, and plot cards. With the addition of technologies such as gold stamping, flash film, reverse, and lithography, the production is exquisite.
In addition to the booming pre-sale situation on the online channel, the offline channel, which is more significant, is also experiencing a craze. "In the first few days after it was put on the shelves, the Nezha cards were snapped up." Said a clerk at a Kayou store in Beijing.
But the emotions of movie fans and players are rapidly escalating. Currently, the rare cards of Kayou's Nezha, especially the autographed cards by Director Jiaozi, are in high demand by many users on the second-hand platform. The craze has also spread overseas. On eBay, a leading global card trading platform, a set of 90 Nezha cards has a premium of more than $43.99.
The popularity of Kayou is a side effect of the explosion of Nezha, and it also raises a business question - How many fields can the influence of a movie sweep through? The definite answer is that a good character and a good story will not end on the screen, but will exist in countless small spaces in various vivid ways. Cards and figurines, fashion and collaborations are all ways for a good IP to be remembered and spread again.
In terms of the underlying logic of the development of cultural IP derivatives, an IP usually gathers the first circle of fans through the attractiveness of its content itself, and the subsequent various authorized cooperations become the carriers for it to expand the fan base. The latter is not limited by timeliness and can further exert creativity. In the continuous process of secondary creation, the value of the IP can be transformed, amplified, and even form an ecosystem like an "IP kingdom".
"Nezha 2" has set an excellent example for the development of Chinese IP derivatives. The relevant person in charge of the Tmall Toy Trendy Play Industry previously disclosed to the media that the search and transaction growth of "Nezha 2"-related products on the platform is explosive, with an average daily increase of more than 100,000 searchers compared to the previous day, which is quite rare. On February 8, the official Taobao data showed that the sales of Nezha series image-authorized peripherals on the platform have exceeded 50 million yuan, and the transaction volume is still soaring.
Unlike the rush of the first part, the IP authorization of "Nezha 2" is obviously more mature. As early as December 11, 2024, before the movie was released, Enlight Media disclosed the IP authorization situation - "We have planned and will timely launch a rich variety of derivative products with a wide price range, including trendy toys, figurines, statues, cards, stationery, food toys, badges, standees, publications, plush products, daily necessities, etc., to meet the diverse needs of different groups of people."
Kayou, which was selected at that time, naturally has its confidence in the card industry.
According to the prospectus previously disclosed by Kayou, as of the first three quarters of 2023, Kayou has as many as 44 authorized IPs, in addition to Ultraman, there are also "Soul Land", "Eggy Party", "Naruto", "Detective Conan", etc. In the Chinese trading card game industry, Kayou ranks first with a market share of 71.0%.
If in the past, with the card development of evergreen IPs such as Ultraman and My Little Pony, Kayou has already become extremely popular among young people. Then, with its bet on a domestic animation IP like Nezha that is popular among the entire nation, Kayou has once again embarked on a path of breaking the circle - A middle-aged consumer joked on a social platform, "I never thought that one day I would be controlled by Kayou until I saw the Nezha cards. Is this the power of a national-level IP?"
However, the development of IP derivatives is never achieved overnight. The narrative of Kayou's popularity this time is not just being "luckily" selected, but rather picking the fruit after taking a solid path in the development of IP derivatives, especially those of domestic animation IPs.
The Future and Journey of the "New Standard for Domestic Animation IPs"
Behind the cooperation between "Nezha 2" and Kayou, there is more or less a certain fit in values.
"Nezha 2", which has a production cycle of up to five years, is simply because of the sentence "Good things can only be polished slowly." As the authorized cooperative party of cards, Kayou's domestic animation IP has also been on the road for five years. The common belief, determination, and patience have brought consumers and audiences a "Nezha World" with a wider coverage and more accessible at any time.
Looking back over the past few years, Kayou has launched domestic animation IP cards such as "Qin's Moon" and "Soul Land" since 2020. The Chinese style elements such as small seal script, Chinese style seals, and the Hui character pattern in these cards make the visual experience of related products more distinctive with a Chinese style.
Since then, Kayou's cooperative products of domestic animation IPs have further broken away from the established framework, and the novel expressions of IPs have emerged one after another. Taking the "Chang'an Three Thousand Miles", the "dark horse" of the 2023 summer movie season as an example, during the film's release, the "Chang'an Three Thousand Miles Poetry Collection Card" launched by Kayou was launched on the K9 Museum mini-program, matching the classic images in the film with representative poems, and using small cards to freeze the classic historical moments. At the same time, Kayou also created answering activities such as "Awakening Poetry" in the mini-program and set up ancient poetry "Feihua Ling" activities in offline cooperative stores, not only bringing users a diverse collection experience, but also making the sentences and paragraphs in the textbooks come alive.
In addition to the cooperative development with long-lasting IPs, the more difficult original IPs have not been left behind. In this year's Henan Spring Festival Gala, Kayou intervened in the IP development at the initial stage. Finally, in the presentation of the program, the Four Heavenly Kings in Chinese mythological stories transformed into modern musicians to form the "Heavenly Court Trendy Sound", with a visual system and IP content that are both highly deconstructive and contemporary. Kayou also launched the first joint card of "Heavenly Court Trendy Sound" during the same period of the Henan Spring Festival Gala.
One IP after another has made Kayou's recognition and acceptance in the field of domestic animation IPs increasingly enhanced. An industry insider told 36Kr, "In the card industry, Kayou should now be regarded as the new standard for authorized cooperation of domestic animation IPs."
The above-mentioned person said that Kayou's growth and popularity in recent years are not simply the expansion of IPs, and its "hard ability" is the basis for it to become a benchmark. Product ability is one aspect - "Guzi" that combines quality and craftsmanship, content value and consumption value, undoubtedly has more vitality.
Take the Nezha cards this time as an example. Kayou not only restored the "famous scenes" in the movie, but also carried out a special process design after obtaining the permission of the copyright owner. The relevant person in charge of Kayou previously also told the media, "In order to present the legendary story of Nezha in a small space, we added a variety of printing processes in the card design process to truly present the aesthetic style in the movie."
On the other hand, the card-drawing focuses on the immediate experience, which determines the indispensability of the offline scene, and the channel that determines the coverage of distribution is also important.
The data disclosed in Kayou's prospectus shows that its main sales method is mainly distribution, supplemented by direct sales and retail. Currently, its 230 distributors cover 31 provinces. Such channel capabilities are unique in the card field.
Looking at it from a higher perspective, what kind of business will IP derivatives eventually become? The global benchmark precedent "Disney" has told a truth through practice - Content and consumption are never an either-or topic.
Third-party data shows that the total sales of the "Frozen" series reached 14.1 billion US dollars in 2021, of which the total revenue of consumer products and authorized products was as high as 10.588 billion US dollars. At the launch conference of Disney Greater China's 2025 Consumer Products Department, Lin Jiawen, the senior vice president and general manager of Disney's Asia-Pacific Consumer Products Department, emphasized the "Strawberry Bear" as a new classic case - "In three years, Disney has transformed the 'Strawberry Bear', a villain with only one movie work, into a 'heartthrob' that enters every aspect of consumers' lives."
It is gratifying that for a long period in the past, the business of IP derivatives seemed to only revolve around international giants like Disney; now, narratives like the record-breaking Nezha are beginning to grow in the soil of China.
After the box office miracle, the Nezha series will undoubtedly leave a strong mark in the Chinese and world film history, and a long-lasting IP born from Chinese classical culture has thus emerged. With the加成 of the "Guzi craze" that sweeps across various places and high-quality domestic animation IPs, Kayou may not only be the "new standard for domestic animation IPs", but also an important ecological force that moves in the same direction in the Chinese "IP era".