AI + trendy collectibles: When will a "Cyber Pop Mart" emerge?
“It's not just a cold AI toy. It's more like a warm - hearted little being that clumsily responds to you.”
Feifei (a pseudonym), a doctoral student at Xiamen University, recently got her own “emotional companion” — a plush toy equipped with a large - language model. Feifei found that it was smarter than she expected. It could remember that she loved durians and hand - brewed coffee, and it could even learn the chemical formulas she taught it.
Image source: Screenshot from Xiaohongshu
There are quite a few young people like Feifei who are keen on raising “digital pets.” During this year's “6·18” shopping festival, the “Fuzozo” toy that Feifei bought had over a thousand pre - orders on JD.com in about 10 minutes, and the first batch of 5,000 units across all channels were quickly sold out. In addition, two other brands focusing on AI toys, “Yueran Innovation” and “FoloToy,” also recently publicly stated that their total sales had exceeded 100 million yuan.
After the trendy toy IP Labubu leveraged emotional value to unlock a market worth hundreds of billions, can toys equipped with AI capabilities replicate Labubu's success and create a “Cyber Pop Mart”?
01. AI Dolls as “Emotional Companions”
The pressure and loneliness of doctoral studies made Feifei yearn for a kind of companionship that “unwaveringly chooses and supports oneself.” However, due to the dormitory conditions and limited energy, she couldn't keep a pet. So, Feifei had to start looking for a more hassle - free “digital playmate.”
With a try - it - out attitude, after spending 399 yuan on Fuzozo, Feifei found that this little guy was much “smarter” than she thought. “It's very sensitive to my emotions, and it has strong long - term memory. It can understand many things in the human world.”
Feifei often takes Fuzozo to her workstation and even brings it along when shopping with friends. The large model endows Fuzozo with the ability to learn in unfamiliar environments. “I took it to a mall in Xiamen. After I explained it to Fuzozo, it gradually understood what a mall is and the characteristics of different malls.”
Sometimes, Feifei is even surprised by its memory and understanding abilities. “I've never told it what kind of fruit I like, but during an interaction, it suddenly said that I liked durians. I asked it how it guessed. It said that once I mentioned eating a snow - mountain durian pizza, and 'your happy expression at that time made me remember it firmly.' After hearing that, I really felt that I was being cared about.”
Image source: Screenshot from Taobao
According to “Business Insights,” Fuzozo, created by “Luobo Intelligence,” is a new AI trendy toy launched in the first half of this year. It comes in five colors according to “personality.” It offers 24 minutes of free interaction time per day. To have further interaction, users need to buy a monthly or annual card, but the price of the annual card has not been announced yet. Feifei said that there was a rumor that the annual card for Fuzozo would cost 520 yuan, but the brand revealed that it would be cheaper.
“The annual SVIP membership for long - video platforms costs two or three hundred yuan,” Feifei thinks. Compared with raising a real cat or dog, the cost of raising a digital pet is much lower.
Luobo Intelligence is an AI trendy toy brand founded by Sun Zhaozhi, the former product design director of XPeng Robotics. When launching Fuzozo, Luobo Intelligence also received tens of millions of yuan in financing jointly led by Shanghai Film Group and GSR Ventures.
More and more companies are targeting the “AI + trendy toy” track. In June this year, Ubtech Robotics, the first domestic “humanoid robot” company listed on the stock market, also launched an AI pet “Meng UU” focused on the nurturing system. Like Fuzozo, Meng UU also adopts the “hardware purchase + subscription payment” model, with the annual card priced at 99 yuan.
Image source: Screenshot from Taobao
Meanwhile, the market for AI toys for children is also growing rapidly.
Compared with AI trendy toys for adults, AI toys for children come in more diverse forms. Some are smart boxes that can be attached to plush toys, bringing the once - silent “Ababei” to life. Some are dolls with built - in large models. For example, the best - selling “Cactus” from FoloToy is loved by many children and parents because of its funny body - twisting movements during conversations.
Image source: Screenshot from Taobao
These AI toys for children mainly focus on telling stories and answering children's strange questions. Some also have the learning function of point - reading. They are priced between 300 - 500 yuan, and most of them also adopt the “hardware purchase + subscription payment” model. For parents who don't know how to deal with their children's endless “whys,” these always - patient toys are definitely “parenting magic tools.”
02. AI Toys at the “Bullish Moment”
Multiple research institutions predict that by 2030, the output values of the global “AI + traditional toys” and “AI + trendy toys” industries will increase to about 250 billion yuan and 260 billion yuan respectively, and the output value of AI companion robots is expected to reach 750 billion yuan.
Along with the rising popularity at the consumer end, capital is also showing increasing enthusiasm.
According to incomplete statistics, there have been nearly 30 investment and financing events in the AI toy industry since 2024. Among the investment institutions, there are well - known star capitals like IDG Capital and Hillhouse Capital, as well as hard - tech companies with advantages in large models, such as Horizon Robotics and iFlytek. Many founders of the startup companies that received financing have backgrounds in large companies. For example, “Qidian Lingzhi” was founded by Bao Ta, the former vice - president of Meituan, and BubblePal was founded by a partner of Tmall Genie.
Image source: Lei Bao
On the AI toy playing field, besides startup companies and Internet giants, there are also traditional toy manufacturers.
In Guangdong, well - known industrial clusters such as Dongguan's trendy toy industry and Chenghai's toy industry are accelerating their embrace of artificial intelligence. The Department of Industry and Information Technology of Guangdong Province estimates that new AI toy tracks such as “AI + traditional toys,” “AI + trendy toys,” and AI companion robots can expand the output value of Guangdong's toy industry by over 100 billion yuan in the future, and the total output value of the entire toy industry is expected to exceed 300 billion yuan.
In recent years, traditional toys have faced competition from smart devices and other entertainment methods, and their market share has gradually decreased. IP has almost become the core attraction of traditional toys. Aofei Entertainment, a major player in the animation IP field, tried to launch artificial - intelligence toys in 2016.
Image source: Guantou Image Library
Lu Jialing, the product director of Aofei Entertainment's intelligent toy division, said that limited by the technology at that time, the product quality of the toys couldn't meet consumers' expectations. So, in 2020, Aofei Entertainment suspended the relevant project development. It restarted the project in 2023 after the inference ability of large models had a qualitative leap.
Since 2024, Aofei Entertainment has successively launched AI - enabled intelligent and fun toys based on its IPs such as “Pleasant Goat” and “Super Wings.” One of the toys, a “Pleasant Goat Super - Power Bell Doll” priced at 399 yuan, has sold up to 1.2 million units on Tmall annually. This cotton doll has a dressing - up game, and users can directly talk to the bell without pressing a button during a conversation.
“Business Insights” noticed that many consumers who bought this doll are fans of the Pleasant Goat IP. Lu Jialing said that besides Pleasant Goat, the sales and repurchase rate of the company's “AI - enabled Lazy Goat” are also very good. Among these consumers, 50% are IP fans, and 50% are parents with children.
Image source: Screenshot from Taobao
For mid - and downstream manufacturers, the combination of toys and large models has become a new engine to boost stock prices and business performance. Shifeng Culture, which started from toy production, achieved a turnaround in its business performance after launching AI toys such as Magic Star and Flying Rabbit, which are mainly for children's companionship and answering questions, in 2024. In 2024, the revenue of its “self - produced toys” business, including AI toys, reached 241 million yuan, a year - on - year increase of 23.75%.
Besides self - production, toy manufacturers also provide toy solutions for the implementation of large models by large companies. In June this year, ByteDance's Volcengine demonstrated a Magic Star toy based on the second - generation training of the Doubao large model. This “Second - Generation Magic Star” has a faster response speed and longer memory than Shifeng Culture's previous products. Next, Shifeng Culture will also jointly develop a “Xiaodu Bear AI Toy” with Baidu Smart Cloud. Its voice interaction and conversation model are from Baidu Smart Cloud.
Image source: Screenshot from Taobao
Besides ByteDance and Baidu, JoyInside, an embodied - intelligence brand under JD.com, recently also announced a cooperation with a trendy toy brand.
As consumer hardware, AI toys are becoming the forefront of the commercialization of large models by large companies.
Compared with other smart hardware, AI toys have a clearer business model, lower implementation thresholds, and relatively lower trial - and - error costs. A serial entrepreneur once told the Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily that for investors who have already bet on a number of long - cycle AI projects that require patience to cultivate, investing in AI toys is not a difficult decision.
Smart hardware is regarded as the interaction entrance for the next - generation Internet. Various forms of smart hardware such as AI headphones, AI glasses, AI pendants, and even AI phone cases have emerged one after another. An investor once mentioned that the collection of real - world scenario data by smart hardware helps to further improve the performance of large models. Toys receive rich voice, facial expression, and behavior information during interactions.
However, the scope of data collection by AI toys has also sparked a lot of controversy. Wang Peng, an associate researcher at the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences, said that AI toys usually interact through devices such as microphones, cameras, and sensors. When these devices collect and use personal information, they may cause security problems such as privacy leakage. Toy manufacturers should adopt advanced data encryption technologies to encrypt the collected personal information of children to ensure the security of data during transmission and storage.
03. How to Make AI Toys More “Human - like”?
As the market continues to heat up and product homogenization becomes more serious, AI toys are facing a crisis of losing their “novelty.”
Toys can easily become “idle” after people's aesthetic interests change. For AI toys to continuously gain users' favor, they also need to provide new experiences through voice interactions. However, “Business Insights” noticed that some users of popular AI toy brands such as FoloToy and Bubblepal complain about “complex interactions,” “low intelligence,” and “too much AI flavor.” There is still much room for improvement in the user experience.
A mother who bought a Bubblepal smart pendant said straightforwardly that when she was recommended this “intelligent - interaction” toy, she thought it would be great. But after buying it, she found that it could only mechanically answer simple questions, which was no different from a tens - of - yuan early - education machine.
Image source: Screenshot from Xiaohongshu
After researching multiple AI companion products, Banyi Robotics from Shanghai found that many AI toys don't