HONG KONG, Apr 9, 2026 - (ACN Newswire) - In recent years, young consumers’ preferences have evolved rapidly, with demand for personalization and experiential consumption becoming increasingly prominent. Young consumers’ choices are profoundly rewriting the inherent logic of industry competition — what they seek is not only products, but emotional value and cultural resonance. This is particularly evident in the spiritual consumption space represented by pop toys. The market’s appetite for high quality products that combine design aesthetics, emotional depth, and social attributes continues to grow.

Among the many emerging brands, TOP TOY targets Gen Z consumers, family customers, and loyal brand fans as its core audience. Backed by a diverse product portfolio, robust IP operation capabilities, and strong financial performance, it is widely recognized in the market as an industry benchmark in the pop toy sector with both high growth potential and significant brand influence. According to Frost & Sullivan, TOP TOY is the largest and fastest-growing pop toy multi-brand store chain in China, with GMV reaching RMB4.2 billion in mainland China in 2025.

Financially, TOP TOY has achieved rapid revenue growth in recent years. Revenue rose from RMB1.461 billion in 2023 to RMB3.587 billion in 2025, representing a CAGR of 56.7%, marking a leap forward in scale. Gross margin improved steadily from 31.4% in 2023 to 32.1% in 2025, reflecting a gradual uplift in overall profitability. Affected by one-off non-cash items such as equity-settled share-based payment expenses and fair value changes on redemption liabilities liabilities, the Company posted a net profit of RMB101 million in 2025. Adjusted net profit reached RMB523 million, up 77.5% year-on-year, demonstrating strong growth momentum.

Full Value Chain Layout: Building Competitive Moats in the Pop Toy Industry

The core competitiveness of the pop toy industry lies not only in IP creation, but also in the ability to turn content into a sustainable business system that maximizes IP value. What makes TOP TOY unique is that it has built an integrated platform covering all key links of the industry value chain. TOP TOY is one of only two brands in the industry that have achieved full coverage of the pop toy full industry chain, from IP incubation and operation to direct consumer interaction, while holding a leading position across the entire chain. This allows the Company to build a distinctive competitive moat.

In the IP incubation and product R&D stage, TOP TOY focuses on self-developed products and adopts a parallel strategy of “proprietary + licensed + third-party” IPs, forming a diverse IP resource pool. As of the end of March 2026, TOP TOY has built an IP matrix comprising 24 proprietary IPs, 42 licensed IPs, and over 660 third-party IPs. Among these, its self-developed products accounted for over 55% of revenue, establishing it as a highly competitive trendy toy brand in the industry.

In terms of product R&D, TOP TOY focuses on three core categories — model figures, 3D building blocks, and vinyl plush toys. Among these, vinyl plush toys have emerged as the most prominent growth category, with its revenue share increasing significantly from 3.5% in 2024 to 31.6% in 2025, generating RMB1.102 billion for the full year. Meanwhile, through its “X-category” mechanism, it develops products across diverse categories to flexibly seize market opportunities.

In the channel sales stage, TOP TOY has constructed an omni-channel network with both depth and breadth, enabling in-depth access to global trendy culture consumers. Offline, it adopts a hierarchical layout of “flagship + mainstream + pop-up”, with the number of stores reaching 334 as of December 31, 2025. By providing immersive interactive experiences, it achieves effective brand exposure and enables the Company to promptly collect first-hand user feedback, providing information for the Company’s product design and channel selection strategies. Online, it covers major e-commerce platforms and distributes products through large retailers such as Sam’s Club and Don Don Donki, as well as other diversified retail channels. This omni-channel layout not only expands the scope of consumer reach but also forms a consumption closed loop of “offline experience - online repurchase”. As of December 31, 2025, the Company had 12 million registered members, making it one of the companies with the largest member base in the trendy toy industry.

Leveraging the integrated operation of full value chain, TOP TOY has achieved synergy across all links — the richness of its IP portfolio ensures product appeal, the extensiveness of its channels expands market coverage and establishes emotional connections with consumers, and the Company has also built strong ecosystem partnerships. The linkage of these three elements drives the maximization of IP value, forming a rare full-industry-chain competitiveness among domestic trendy play enterprises.

Taking the Proprietary IP Matrix as the Core: Building a Core Engine for Long-term Growth

Through its in-house original IP incubation team, TOP TOY has created many popular proprietary IP characters. The Company is dedicated to promoting these proprietary IPs to expand their reach across diverse markets, foster deeper audience engagement, and drive sustained growth. On the other hand, through the acquisition of multiple IP design studios such as Sure Fun and Sugar Pocket, TOP TOY has integrated IPs like “Nommi” and “Ninimo ” into its proprietary IP matrix, accelerating its IP layout process.

As of the end of March 2026, TOP TOY had 24 proprietary IPs. Among them, the “Nommi” IP delivered an outstanding performance, with its 2025 GMV exceeding RMB200 million. Proprietary IPs not only attract consumers through unique designs and cultural connotations but also extend their life cycles and amplify their value through diversified operational strategies, such as the continuous release of new product series, the creation of offline experiential scenarios, and cross-over IP collaborations.

Furthermore, TOP TOY continues to consolidate long-term, stable cooperative relationships with top global IPs such as Sanrio, Disney and Crayon Shin-chan. By creating hit products through IP reinvention, the Company not only rapidly broadens market awareness but also accumulates mature IP operation experience and consumer insights, laying a solid foundation for the development of its self-developed products.

Leveraging the continuous expansion of its proprietary IP matrix and stable licensing cooperation with major IPs, the Company continues to intensify its layout of self-developed products. As the proportion of self-developed products steadily increases, its scale effect continues to be unleashed, driving a continuous improvement in the overall gross margin. Looking ahead, with an increasing revenue contribution from self-developed products and the impact of economies of scale, the Company’s gross margin is expected to rise further, unlocking greater profit elasticity.

Accelerating Global Expansion to Open Up New Growth Space

Notably, while consolidating its advantages in the Chinese market, TOP TOY is extending its business reach to overseas markets. To date, the Company has entered markets such as Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Japan, with the number of overseas stores reaching 39. In terms of revenue, the proportion of TOP TOY’s overseas business rapidly increased from 0.6% to 8.2%, fully demonstrating strong overseas growth momentum.

In terms of market potential, the overseas global pop toy market still has significant growth space. Taking mature consumer markets such as North America and Europe as examples, local consumers have a relatively high per capita consumption amount on pop toy, and their willingness to pay for original IP and cultural recognition are also prominent. However, the layout of emerging pop toy categories in local markets is still relatively limited, and the overall market penetration rate is at a low level, with broad incremental space and potential for exploration in the future. The above market advantages and development opportunities together constitute the core logic and realistic basis for TOP TOY to focus on laying out the above developed country markets. In the future, relying on the advantages of the full value chain synergy and mature IP operation experience, the overseas market is expected to become an important incremental engine for the Company.

The market’s attention to pop toy companies is essentially a consideration of their IP operation capabilities and sustainability. TOP TOY has demonstrated a clear development logic by virtue of its two core advantages: the fully integrated platform and a diversified IP matrix. Amid accelerating consolidation in the pop toy industry and rising consumer demand, if TOP TOY can continue to deepen the synergy effect of the full value chain, strengthen the influence of its proprietary IP, and superimpose the gradual growth of the overseas incremental market, it is expected to seize opportunities in the fragmented market pattern, further solidifying its industry leadership and unlocking long-term potential.

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