--- title: "Another overheated consumer sector" type: "News" locale: "zh-CN" url: "https://longbridge.com/zh-CN/news/270403702.md" description: "The Central Economic Work Conference has designated \"maintaining domestic demand as the main driver and building a strong domestic market\" as the top priority among the eight key tasks for next year. Under this tone, the concept of \"reward economy\" has been proposed and has sparked a market frenzy. Stocks related to BAIDA GROUP, Profit C&C, Guangbo, and other concept stocks have hit the daily limit, with some stocks nearing a doubling in price. The reward economy refers to economic activities where consumers derive pleasure from purchasing non-essential goods or experiencing services, involving multiple sectors such as entertainment, tourism, and dining. It is expected that by 2025, the proportion of \"reward-type\" consumption among young people will significantly increase, becoming a long-term consumption trend" datetime: "2025-12-21T11:44:42.000Z" locales: - [zh-CN](https://longbridge.com/zh-CN/news/270403702.md) - [en](https://longbridge.com/en/news/270403702.md) - [zh-HK](https://longbridge.com/zh-HK/news/270403702.md) --- > 支持的语言: [English](https://longbridge.com/en/news/270403702.md) | [繁體中文](https://longbridge.com/zh-HK/news/270403702.md) # Another overheated consumer sector Previously, the Central Economic Work Conference designated "maintaining domestic demand as the main driver and building a strong domestic market" as the top priority among the eight key tasks for next year. Under this tone, "expanding domestic demand" is bound to become an important topic in the market. Recently, the Learning Times published an article titled "What is 'Reward Economy'," introducing a new term - "Reward Economy." Subsequently, stocks related to Baida Group, Profit C&C, Guangbo, and others surged to their daily limit, with some even nearing a doubling in less than a month. After the brief hype around the concept, what kind of market trend will the "Reward Economy" follow? 1 Although the concept is fresh, at its core, the Reward Economy is still a branch of the new consumption concept. To some extent, the Reward Economy is very similar to previous emotional consumption concepts such as IP economy, millet economy, and self-pleasure economy, but it goes a step further. According to the official definition, the Reward Economy refers to an economic activity where consumers, facing work-life pressures or specific psychological needs, purchase non-essential goods or experiential services within an affordable price range to gain immediate pleasure, self-affirmation, and psychological healing. Therefore, compared to the self-pleasure economy, the Reward Economy encompasses more service-oriented consumption. In addition to cultural entertainment and trendy toys, travel, dining, and even beverages can be included in the scope of the "Reward Economy." It is also not difficult to find in daily life that more and more industries are beginning to incorporate emotional elements such as "healing" and "stress relief," and are starting to mimic the emotional consumption models of blind boxes and millet. According to data from the Ministry of Commerce, by 2025, the proportion of "reward-type" consumption among young people will significantly rise, with those born after 1995 and 2000 being the main force. Observing the development of new consumption brands in the past, it can be seen that this is no longer a short-term trend; rather, when consumers feel hesitant about large-scale consumption, small "rewards" become the main direction of consumption and gradually evolve into a long-term sustained consumption mentality. This type of consumption aligns well with the direction of "expanding domestic demand," as compared to large-scale consumption that requires policy support, this type of consumption is characterized by autonomy and frequency, having already formed a stable market increment within social consumer goods. In the visualization chart of the Reward Economy released by Tonghuashun, it can be seen that the sectors involved in the Reward Economy are quite numerous. Represented by Guangbo, Profit C&C, and Aofei Entertainment in the cultural and entertainment trendy toy category, as well as food and snack categories including Zhuangyuan Pasture, Laiyifen, and Yanjinpuzi, along with retail, apparel and jewelry, and service experience categories, etc. Currently, the A-share consumer sector has experienced a long period of adjustment, and valuations are at historically low levels. In the context of low sector valuations, many consumer stocks have undergone a prolonged valuation digestion over the past few years, with the sector index oscillating at the bottom for an extended period, thus accumulating significant technical rebound demand So, are there any companies that can replicate the market performance of the former Hong Kong stock new consumption concept stocks? The ultimate focus may still be on the trendy toy category. Although catering to the concept of "reward economy," the essence of the food and snack industry, as well as the apparel and jewelry industry, has not changed, and there has not yet been a complete reversal of the fundamentals. After a brief speculative surge, valuations will gradually return to fundamentals. However, the trendy toy category can quickly bring about performance improvements in a short period. Taking Profit C&C as an example, Profit C&C initially started with cultural and creative home exports and has gradually entered the low-priced blind box development amid the blind box craze in recent years. During the pandemic, Profit C&C's revenue continued to decline, but since 2024, Profit C&C's performance has almost maintained double-digit year-on-year growth. In 2020, Profit C&C's annual revenue was only 560 million yuan, but by 2024, Profit C&C's revenue had grown to 907 million yuan. As of the third quarter of 2025, both revenue and net profit of Profit C&C had achieved double-digit year-on-year growth, with net profit in the third quarter reaching 14.25 million yuan, exceeding last year's total net profit. It is evident that the trendy toy IP provides significant empowerment to companies. However, despite this, can trendy toy IP fundamentally change these companies? It may still be difficult. In terms of performance, Alpha Animation, as a leading player in this sector, is facing challenges. Since the beginning of this year, Alpha Animation has seen a decline in both revenue and net profit. Despite holding popular national IPs like Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf, the commercial monetization ability of its low-priced IP peripheral products needs improvement. Moreover, most companies in the trendy toy category in the A-share market are still adopting a development model that integrates IP operation with traditional business. This also poses higher challenges to the company's operational capabilities. II Recently, the new consumption sector of the Hong Kong stock market has experienced a continuous correction. However, it is undeniable that the "three golden flowers of new consumption," represented by Pop Mart, Mixue Bingcheng, and Laopu Gold, have disrupted traditional consumption models. Data shows that the scale of China's trendy toy market is expected to reach 87.7 billion yuan by 2025. This hot sector has also attracted a surge of diverse capital, with Wanda Film investing in 52TOYS, Quantum Song acquiring Letsvan, and Lehua Entertainment incubating WAKUKU IP through joint ventures. Various companies are crossing over to layout, trying to get a share of the pie. Among them, Guangbo is the most typical. Guangbo started with stationery manufacturing and has firmly shifted towards the trendy toy field in recent years. Based on its traditional business of cultural and creative products and regular stationery, the company has begun to gradually incubate and develop trendy toy-related categories such as badges, cards, and plush toys, which are highly compatible with the current popular category structure of the domestic trendy toy market Not only that, the age demographic of the company's basic audience is highly aligned with that of the trendy toy sector, which also provides the company with more convenient transformation conditions. Similarly, Morning Glory Co., Ltd., which started with stationery, has utilized nearly 70,000 traditional channel outlets to turn its cultural and creative retail brand "Jiumu Miscellaneous Society" into the best way to explore new consumption. In the first half of 2025, the revenue of the Jiumu Miscellaneous Society business reached 756 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 9.49%, with the sales proportion of IP products continuously rising. However, compared to Pop Mart, A-share companies face more severe challenges. Pop Mart's core competitiveness lies in its complete IP ecosystem. Pop Mart already owns classic IPs such as Molly and Labubu. In the first half of 2025, the sales of the Labubu series alone exceeded HKD 3 billion, a year-on-year increase of 68%. In addition, Pop Mart has mastered the full chain capability from IP incubation and operation to commercialization, with its IPs primarily being self-developed or co-developed, giving it a higher say in development. As a result, Pop Mart's gross profit margin has gradually increased in recent years as its scale expanded, reaching 70.34% in the first half of 2025. However, most A-share companies are still in the stage of introducing and productizing IP. For example, Guangbo Co., Ltd. has several externally licensed IPs such as "Zhu Xian," "Detective Conan," and "Sanrio," as well as its own IPs like "Xixi Sauce" and "MIMO," but has yet to form a strong IP matrix. Guangbo's IP strategy adopts a three-dimensional matrix similar to Miniso, where top IPs ensure traffic, niche IPs explore segmented value, and self-owned IPs cultivate long-term momentum. However, in comparison, Guangbo is still in an earlier stage. Currently, the existing IPs in China generally face serious IP aging issues. For example, classic IPs like "Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf" have a relatively high recognition but are difficult to develop and attract new audiences. This also exposes a fundamental problem for many trendy toy companies: the lack of mature experience in trendy toy brand operation and user community management. The core of trendy toys lies in their emotional experience and social currency attributes, which are fundamentally different from the sales logic of traditional toys The fundamental issue is that for some A-share trendy toy companies, traditional businesses dominate, leading to insufficient strategic positioning and resource investment in the trendy toy business. As a sideline, whether the trendy toy business can receive sustained resource allocation remains a significant question. In fact, with the wave of "Ne Zha 2," the value of domestic cultural IP is gradually becoming prominent. For example, the national IPs like Pleasant Goat owned by Alpha Group, once effectively developed, can also become popular topics in the domestic trendy toy IP market. Therefore, there is still considerable potential in the domestic trendy toy sector, but the question is, who can seize the opportunity. III. Conclusion Under the dual drive of the "expanding domestic demand" policy tone and the wave of emotional consumption, the reward economy may gradually evolve from a short-term concept catalyst into a sustainable consumption trend. However, referencing the previous trends of new consumption in the Hong Kong stock market, after a short-term speculative boom, the A-share reward economy sector and trendy toy sector may ultimately return to a valuation system dominated by profitability. The correction of new consumption in the Hong Kong stock market is due to the gradual adjustment of overly optimistic expectations in the capital market, which will also directly transmit to the A-share market. This also means that relying solely on concepts and cross-border narratives will be difficult to achieve a premium, and the capital market will more calmly assess the profitability growth of A-share trendy toy companies in their trendy toy business, as well as the sustainability of their business models. Under such expectations, after nearly half a year of explosive growth, the valuation of Profit C&C has already exceeded 200 times, which may be relatively overheated. Looking ahead, differentiation within the sector will be inevitable, and only those companies that truly build an IP ecological moat and can convert emotional value into stable cash flow are likely to traverse the cycle and achieve sustainable growth. If breakthroughs cannot be made in IP autonomy and user stickiness, the space for valuation repair will be relatively limited, and it may even decline due to performance fluctuations ### 相关股票 - [Profit C&C (300640.CN)](https://longbridge.com/zh-CN/quote/300640.CN.md) - [Guangbo (002103.CN)](https://longbridge.com/zh-CN/quote/002103.CN.md) - [BAIDA GROUP (600865.CN)](https://longbridge.com/zh-CN/quote/600865.CN.md) ## 相关资讯与研究 - [08:31 ETPERIPHERII'S "AUDIO COUTURE" TAKES MANHATTAN: The New Intersection of High Fidelity and High Street](https://longbridge.com/zh-CN/news/281524587.md) - [09:08 ETMichaels® Partners with Designer Jonathan Adler to Launch Exclusive Collection Featuring Iconic Styles and DIY Creativity](https://longbridge.com/zh-CN/news/281530169.md) - [Maersk Using Alternative Routes to Supply Essentials in Gulf Region](https://longbridge.com/zh-CN/news/280632490.md) - [Cairn Homes Executives Boost Stakes Through Bonus Deferral and LTIP Awards](https://longbridge.com/zh-CN/news/281484841.md) - [Fed's Logan says so far private credit risks are contained](https://longbridge.com/zh-CN/news/281546734.md)