Another card company is preparing to go public.

Text by | Lan Jie

Edited by | Qiao Qian

36Kr learned that the trading card company Hitcard is advancing its listing process and may become the "first trading card stock."

Hitcard was founded in 2021 and focuses on creating collectible cards for adults. Since December 2021, it has received investments from institutions and industry players such as Feng Tao, the founder of Shanghai Alliance Capital, Pop Mart, Sequoia China Seed Fund, Qiandao Collectibles, and Yuewen Group. Zhao Yunpeng, the founder of Hitcard, told 36Kr that HitCard also completed a round of financing in the first half of this year.

Zhao Yunpeng is a post - 1995 serial entrepreneur who once worked on the campus O2O project "Zhai Mi." He is also a fan of trendy toys and trading cards. The company's current core team consists of five members, three of whom have previously started businesses with Zhao Yunpeng.

According to a relevant report from Guosheng Securities, the market size of the collectible and exchange - based trading card market in China reached 26.3 billion yuan in 2024, ranking first in the world. It is the fastest - growing category in the pan - entertainment product portfolio, and the market size is expected to reach 44.6 billion yuan by 2029.

With the growth of the trading card market and the increase in its own production capacity, Hitcard achieved revenues of approximately 400 million yuan last year, a year - on - year increase of over 600%. It is expected to have a 100% year - on - year growth this year and has already achieved profitability.

Currently, it is speculated that there are three core issues that will attract attention at the listing level: Who are the main customers of trading cards? How to solve the problem of trading card companies' dependence on a single IP? How to ensure the compliance of the blind - box sales model? Hitcard's differentiated growth path allows them to answer these questions more calmly.

HitCard's Alternative Approach

Currently, Karyu, which occupies over 70% of the domestic trading card market share, has risen and expanded rapidly to some extent because it successfully bet on popular IPs such as "Ultraman," "My Little Pony," and "Ne Zha 2."

However, Hitcard does not adopt this strategy. Zhao Yunpeng believes that each IP has a reasonable consumption value, and over - issuing will damage the IP. Therefore, they choose to sign a large number and a wide variety of IPs to reduce the risk of relying on a single popular IP. At the same time, they ensure the scarcity of products through time - limited and quantity - limited releases and high - frequency new product launches.

Since this year, the number of IPs signed by Hitcard has tripled compared to 2024, reaching approximately 60. This number is comparable to that of Karyu, a much larger company, which has signed approximately 70 IPs. The GMV (Gross Merchandise Volume) of Hitcard's most popular product this year was 50 million yuan. If calculated based on the 100% annual growth mentioned at the beginning of the article, the sales of this product account for only 6% of the total revenue.

Among the IPs signed by Hitcard, there are anime and trendy toy IPs, film and television IPs in the context of the fan economy, and art IPs, accounting for 40%, 40%, and 20% respectively.

Zhao Yunpeng said that it usually takes only about three days for Hitcard to produce a new product, and then it will move on to the next one. "We also won't produce an IP product without limits. The total production volume is determined on the first day of production."

At this pace, Hitcard can maintain an average monthly launch of approximately 10 new products.

Scarcity cannot be achieved solely through time - limited and quantity - limited releases. The craftsmanship of trading cards is also an important part of achieving this characteristic. Hitcard positions itself as a maker of collectible - grade trading cards. Therefore, it has spent a lot of effort on improving and innovating its craftsmanship.

The production process of trading cards can be roughly divided into steps such as printing, adding special processes like embossing and gold stamping, laminating and pressing, cutting, and packaging. Among them, the points of differentiated competition are concentrated on the performance of printing machines, special processes, and anti - counterfeiting processes.

Four months ago, Hitcard introduced a 14 - color printing machine for single - sided printing. In the industry, most manufacturers use 4 - color printing machines, and only a few can use 10 - color ones. Some manufacturers using 14 - color printing machines usually print both sides at once, with only 7 colors on each side. This means that the color richness of Hitcard's trading cards is much higher than that of other products in the industry.

Hitcard has also innovatively adopted the "electroplated crystal" process to facilitate consumers' better viewing and handling of the cards.

Using advanced machines and adapting to the production of rapidly iterated products pose challenges to production, making it necessary to build its own factories. Hitcard currently has four factories in Longgang, Wenzhou, with a total area of nearly 20,000 square meters, and can produce over 95% of its trading cards in - house.

Building its own factories requires a high investment. Zhao Yunpeng revealed that the cost of a single factory ranges from 50 million to 100 million yuan. Currently, this part of the expenditure has become the company's largest cost item, accounting for more than the IP licensing fees.

The most direct result of focusing on craftsmanship is the improvement of product aesthetics, which has brought Hitcard a user profile different from that of the industry. HitCard's core users are young women aged 18 to 28, which has a high overlap with Pop Mart's user profile.

However, this user profile also limits the brand's scale to some extent. Karyu, the leading trading card company in China, had revenues of 10 billion yuan in 2024, and its main users are teenagers.

Becoming the Pop Mart of the Trading Card Industry?

"Card opening" is an interactive consumption game that has emerged in live - streaming rooms in recent years, commonly seen in categories such as trendy toys and trading cards. After consumers purchase blind - box trading cards in the live - streaming room, the anchor opens them on the spot, turning the originally personal box - opening process into a "lottery - winning moment" shared by the whole audience, and then quickly converting the audience's emotions into purchasing behavior.

Douyin live - streaming is becoming the core scenario driving card - opening consumption and is also Hitcard's main sales channel, contributing over 60% of the sales revenue.

Since this year, the brand's offline channels have also been expanding. The sales revenue contributed by Hitcard's offline KA (Key Account) has accounted for 40%, compared with about 25% last year.

Zhao Yunpeng told 36Kr that this change is to provide consumers with a better brand experience. "But overall, we won't easily adjust to offline self - operated stores." He believes that Hitcard currently cannot create stores that satisfy itself.

Why is the offline market important?

There is no need to elaborate on the popularity of Pop Mart. However, perhaps few people have noticed that Pop Mart does not create IPs but only operates them. At the same time, people not only remember Labubu, Molly, SkullPanda, etc., but also remember Pop Mart itself. As a result, the latter is no longer just a trendy toy manufacturer affected by the life cycle of IPs.

When a trendy toy brand and the IP itself come to the forefront, it is hard to say that the brand unilaterally depends on the IP. If you want to achieve this, offline stores that can provide a brand - wrapped experience and directly display the products are essential.

For Hitcard at present, SKU (Stock Keeping Unit), sales volume, and cost are not obstacles to opening self - operated stores. The more important issues are how to unify IPs of different styles and in different fields and how to clearly tell the story of the integration of trading cards and IPs and the brand's own story.

In addition to the changes in channels, Hitcard is also further expanding its user profile. Since the second half of this year, Hitcard has launched products based on IPs such as "Immortal's Reincarnation," "Weird Daoist," and "Lord of the Mysteries." The audience for these IPs is mainly young men aged 18 - 35, which supplements the brand's original user group.

Meanwhile, as industry competition intensifies and IP bidding becomes more intense, almost all brands are vying for new IPs. Although Hitcard has achieved profitability, due to its high investment in craftsmanship and design, its gross profit margin is not as high as that of its peers, and the profit margin it can offer to IP owners is also limited. In response, the company emphasizes its ability to interpret IPs and extend their content, hoping to extend the life cycle of IPs and achieve differentiated competition.

The latest news is that Hitcard has obtained the authorization from Disney. Zhao Yunpeng told 36Kr, "We are Disney's largest licensee in the trading card field this year." This cooperation was achieved "mainly because the company has sufficient cash reserves."

The cooperation between Hitcard and Disney points to its overseas market expansion strategy. Currently, the proportion of its overseas revenue is in the single - digits. In the future, Hitcard hopes to increase this figure to over 10%.

Geographically, Hitcard has previously cooperated with Japan's leading game company CyberAgent (Cygames), game production and IP operation company Akatsuki, and Japan's largest trendy toy channel brand Good Smile Company. It will mainly expand into the North American market in the future. These two markets are relatively mature in the trading card industry and are of great strategic significance for Hitcard's globalization.

In just over three years since its establishment, Hitcard has proven the feasibility of selling trading cards to adults and has gained a foothold in the industry. The next story to tell is how to continuously prove the growth and potential of this path.