Pop Mart pummeled after state media criticism

Pop Mart International (9992) dropped by over 15 percent after state media critiqued the boom in the mystery box.

Xinhua News Agency pointed out recently that the mystery box causes overspending as many mystery box lovers spend a lot every month. Mystery boxes contain different styles of dolls, which is Pop Mart International's main product.

To that end, consumers draw by luck, which means that sometimes they get repeated styles, or may get their favorite or hidden ones.

The state media indicated that the mystery boxes bring addiction and gambling problems, calling for further regulation on the business model by the authority, in an article published recently.

This came before the company's shares price dropped today, though its name was not mentioned in Xinhua's article.

The price of a blind box ranges from 49 yuan (HK$58.19) to over 100 yuan, according to Xinhua.

The value of the blind box market in the mainland exceeds 2.5 billion yuan, Xinhua said, citing data from a research company, and the compound annual growth rate from 2014 to 2018 reached 15.6 percent, indicating that it has set off a trend in the mainland.

Taking toy blind boxes as an example, each holds a single figurine which may be a branded product or a character created by designers, including the popular Sonny Angel or Molly.

Except for the common models, some blind boxes come with hidden or rare ones with a different winning probability.

For example, a set of Molly series blind boxes produced by Pop Mart usually has 12 regular models, plus one hidden model. The probability of winning the hidden one is about 1/144.

To get the hidden toys, many players would keep on buying. Some blind box fans even spend thousands of yuan to buy out the whole carton of blind boxes to get rare models.

It is reported that a mainland couple spent 200,000 yuan on blind boxes in four months while a 60-year-old buyer who is crazier than the young people spent 700,000 yuan a year.

Speculation also drives up the trend of blind boxes, as more than 300,000 blind box players are trading their holdings on the online flea market in mid-2019, according to Xianyu, the Chinese version of eBay.

The price of the most-wanted blind box soared reportedly by 39 times.

A museum in the central province of Henan recently launched the archeology blind boxes, containing miniature relics, at between 70 yuan and 90 yuan.

It allows the buyers to participate in and understand the process of archaeological excavation.

The product reported a revenue of over 500,000 yuan via the online channel in five days, the museum's data showed.