Recently, I have been researching the consumption trends of young people, especially after the explosive popularity of Pop Mart. We have also invested in some Generation Z consumer stocks. Today, let's take a look at a soon-to-be-listed Hong Kong stock company supported by 100 million post-2010 elementary school students: Card Game.

🧐 Today, we will study: "The pocket money harvesting machine" Card Game, can it become the next Pop Mart?

When you think that young people rushing for #Labubu and crazily playing blind boxes is the final chapter of contemporary consumption's "magical film," don't forget—post-2010 elementary school students have long had their own "financial toys," which are card games.

With a pack costing 1.7 yuan and each card costing 0.07 yuan, this company, "Card Game," is expected to earn 10 billion in 2024, with a net profit of 4.466 billion, and a year-on-year performance surge of 277%. Now, it is also sprinting towards a Hong Kong stock listing. This data 📊 is not about "selling cards," it's about printing money.

🏭 First, let's take a look at Card Game's business model.

Card Game focuses on IP card games, targeting the elementary school market. Simply put, it turns various IPs (Ultraman, Nezha, Yeloli, My Little Pony, Naruto, etc.) into cards and sells them in blind box formats. Back in our childhood, we collected 'Water Margin cards' and got a bag of instant noodles as a gift. Now, collecting cards doesn't even come with noodles; they just sell the cards directly, and it can still generate a hundred billion company—it's incredible.

The gameplay mechanics are very familiar:

· Each pack contains 8 cards, with a cost of only a few dimes.

· There are over 30 rare levels (R → SR → SSR → XR, etc.)

· Drawing cards is like buying a lottery ticket, competing for rarity and coolness.

· Elementary school students buy frantically for bragging rights/battles/socializing.

· Card Game continuously launches new products and holds offline competitions to stimulate repurchase.

In simple terms: it captures children's "addiction psychology + social bragging + lottery excitement" in a triple kill.

💰 The data is astonishing: profits comparable to a money printer.

Let's look at some key numbers (according to the prospectus):

Single pack price: 1.7 yuan, single pack cost: 0.4 yuan (gross margin 71.3%), annual sales: 4.8 billion packs, annual revenue: 10.22 billion yuan, annual net profit: 4.466 billion yuan, main consumer base: 108 million elementary school students nationwide.

I roughly calculated that, on average, each elementary school student buys about 44.4 packs of cards a year, contributing nearly 100 yuan each. Card Game achieves such profits with just paper, ink, and IP licensing, with production efficiency far exceeding that of Pop Mart (which requires 3D modeling, mold opening, and assembly). Don't be fooled by how thin the cards are; Card Game's gross margin (67.3%) is even higher than Pop Mart's (66.8%).

🆚 Card Game & Pop Mart: Different tracks, same harvesting.

Project: Pop Mart: Card Game

Target audience: Generation Z youth: Post-2010 elementary school students

Product form: Blind box toys: Blind box cards

Unit price: About 69 yuan: 1.7 yuan

Cost: ~15 yuan: ~0.4 yuan

Addiction mechanism: Collection + hidden versions: Collection + levels + battles

Sales channels: Mall stores + e-commerce: Stationery stores, supermarkets, and small shops near schools

Core IP: Molly, Labubu, etc.: Ultraman, Nezha, My Little Pony, etc.

It can be seen that Pop Mart harvests the wallets of working people, while Card Game harvests the wallets of children. One is "emotional consumption," and the other is "social consumption." But the business logic is consistent—using IP + probability mechanisms + human weaknesses to create products with extremely high repurchase rates.

🤔 As a future benchmark against Pop Mart, here are some of my investment views:

1️⃣ Light assets, high gross margin

Essentially "printing money + copyrights," with no heavy asset investment. The production model is extremely standardized, and the replication cost is low.

2️⃣ Large and stable user base

There are 100 million elementary school students nationwide, with new "incremental customers" every year. The child demographic has very low resistance to "cards + IP," with almost zero psychological defenses.

3️⃣ Strong product repurchase power

Driven by both collection and competition, children are willing to keep buying. The low probability of rare cards and multiple levels create a mechanism of "never being able to collect them all."

4️⃣ Ubiquitous sales channels

Not relying on offline stores, but rather "penetrative distribution," with small shops, stationery stores, and school surroundings everywhere. It approaches a "rural encirclement of cities" sales logic.

5️⃣ High premium IP licensing

Card Game currently holds 70 popular IPs, which means it has a strong copyright barrier for card images.

However, there are also some risk points:

1️⃣ Moral and public opinion pressure may lead to regulatory scrutiny.

Blind boxes + elementary school students + comparison = media attention hotspot. If news arises about "children going bankrupt buying cards," it can easily be attacked by public opinion and become a direct target for departments like the Ministry of Education.

2️⃣ Difficult to form overseas traffic.

The popularity of Pop Mart is largely due to its successful overseas expansion, with IP popularity abroad far exceeding that in China. However, Card Game faces many uncertainties, and the enthusiasm of overseas users for card games and domestic IPs remains to be examined.

3️⃣ High dependency on IP.

Card Game lacks its own original IP and heavily relies on external licensing. Rising licensing fees or broken partnerships could impact gross margins.

Nonetheless, this company remains on our key observation list. Once it goes public on the Hong Kong stock market, we will intervene at a reasonable price, and we must participate in the IPO! 🧐

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