■Written by Ye Kefei
, a columnist of city finance and economics, which toys have the highest proportion in Chinese urban households? Many people will think of Lego or cheap plastic building blocks. In fact, there is another thing that has a high sense of existence, and that is the best companion in the bath- little yellow duck .
Don't talk about children, some adults with a childlike heart will take the little yellow duck into the bathtub, and there is a little yellow duck wearing a crown floating in the bathtub of the Queen of England. But do you know that this gadget is not simple at all, let alone the entire sales market, even if it only depends on selling its image, it can earn tens of millions a year!
The little yellow duck who has traveled in the sea for 16 years can only sell for 1,000 pounds.
The little yellow duck is very simple. In fact, it is a duckling-shaped toy made of rubber or polyvinyl chloride. As children's toys in bathing, they are basically yellow, so they are called little yellow ducks. This toy is hollow and light and soft, and sometimes a whistle is installed at the bottom, and there will be ducklings when pressed. The birth of
Little Yellow Duck is purely coincidental, and it all depends on the invention of vulcanized rubber. Vulcanized rubber has the characteristics of high strength, high elasticity, high wear resistance and corrosion resistance, which greatly changed the world. It is worth mentioning that the inventor of vulcanized rubber is Charles Goodyear, the founder of Goodyear Tire. Without him, the car would not be able to go on the road in summer and winter, because ordinary rubber is harder than iron in winter and softer than asphalt in summer. Vulcanized rubber makes car tires able to cope with all kinds of weather. A few years after Goodyear's death, vulcanized rubber began to be commercialized on a small scale and gradually used in the toy industry. In 1886, someone applied for a "rubber duck" in the US Patent Office, which was actually the prototype of the little yellow duck. But at that time it was not a toy, but a bait for hunters. In 1949, the American sculptor Gan Nan designed it as a floating toy and applied for a patent. Since then, it has entered thousands of households. At the same time, two other Americans applied for a patent for another version of the rubber duck toy, which has a rounded image and a shorter bill. These two duck toy patents are combined into one, which is the little yellow duck we see now.
Gannan designed the little yellow duck
to go out of the United States and to the world. It was also an accident. This thing is not only classic, but also interesting, and it has great derivative meaning. This is the legendary "Little Yellow Duck World Drifting".
In 1992, a cargo ship carrying 20,000 little yellow ducks set off from China, but encountered a storm on the sea. The little yellow ducks fell into the sea one after another, and drifted along the ocean currents to Indonesia, Australia, South America, Hawaii, and the Arctic Circle. , Canada and the UK. The length of this trip is beyond many people's imagination, the total duration reached 16 years, the total length reached 35,000 kilometers!
In the first three years, these nearly 20,000 little yellow ducks completed the first round of the Pacific Rim Subtropical Circulation with a total length of 11,000 kilometers, and reached Hawaii, drifting an average of 11 kilometers per day. In early 1993, nearly 10,000 little yellow ducks were thrown out of the Pacific Circulation, drifted north to the Bering Strait between Russia and Alaska, and entered the Arctic Ocean Circulation. They were later frozen in ice floes and could only move slowly towards the North Pole with the ice. After drifting 3,200 kilometers toward the North Pole, they drifted southward for more than 6,000 kilometers to reach Canada. At this time, the ice floes began to melt, and they started a new swim... Until 2008, this group of little yellow ducks ended their 16-year, 35,000-kilometer circumnavigation and arrived on the west coast of England.
small yellow duck drifting map
The derivative meaning of this trip is that scientists can observe ocean currents by this. As early as the 15th century, navigators began to pay attention to the existence of ocean currents. The drifting of the little yellow ducks is more reliable than the drifting experiments that scientists usually use, because they are made of plastic, not easily damaged, and waterproof, which is convenient for long-term follow-up research. It is the drifting of the little yellow ducks that allows scientists to understand the cycle of important circulations. For example, the natural drift speed from the Arctic ice to East Greenland is about 1 mile per day, from the Pacific Ocean toThe Atlantic Ocean will float for five years.
In 2006, the British BBC TV station specially made a special topic for this group of little yellow ducks, and this group of little yellow ducks who had traveled across the ocean became the darling of the collectors. It is said that when the little yellow ducks will drift to a certain coast, there will be "duck chasers" who rush to the beach to fight for them. The most expensive one was sold for a high price of 1,000 pounds.
Hong Kong was the toy production base of the little yellow duck and even the world
In Asia, Hong Kong was the largest production base of the little yellow duck. Lin Liang, a well-known businessman in Hong Kong, started his business with a little yellow duck. This 90-year-old businessman is originally from Nanhai, Guangdong. He went to Hong Kong to live in 1936 and joined Yuanxing Hong Co., Ltd., a plastic raw material business, in 1947. , And persuaded the boss to open a Yongxin Plastic Factory to produce plastic toys. In 1948, the first batch of small yellow ducks appeared in Hong Kong. Because of their tough texture and bright colors, they quickly replaced the fragile yellow ducks produced in Japan. It was from this time that Japanese toy OEMs began to decline in the Hong Kong market, and the local toy industry emerged.
In 1978, after Lin Liang learned the news of the reform and opening up in the mainland, he began to plan to invest in the mainland to build factories. In 1979, Lin Liang's Yonghe Toy Factory was established in Dongguan. Through the production line transferred from Hong Kong, the Hong Kong-style training for local workers ensured production efficiency and product quality, and quickly exported to Japan, Britain and the United States. Since then, Lin Liang has continued to build new factories in the mainland. By 2000, there were eight toy factories.
"Father of Little Yellow Duck" Lin Liang
is also led by Lin Liang. In 1987, the large American toy company "Hasbro" and Yonghe Industrial Co., Ltd. and Foshan Yanbu Town Government jointly established a joint venture Yongnan Toys Co., Ltd. established a factory in Yanbu to produce Transformers toys. Because of this, Lin Liang is called "the father of Chinese Transformers."
also started from the 1980s, the toy manufacturing industry has gradually shifted from Hong Kong to Guangdong, but Hong Kong businessmen still control these mainland factories and OEM most of the products for the top toy companies in the United States and Europe. Statistics show that two-thirds of the world's toys are manufactured by Hong Kong companies operating in the mainland, employing hundreds of thousands of workers. However, over the years, Hong Kong's toy industry has indeed declined, and toy dealers are looking for new growth points, including Lin Liang.
In the past few years, the 91-year-old Lin Liang repackaged the little yellow duck and made a series of products in the image of "classic duck". In addition to toys, there are animations, theme parks, and gold ornaments. Peripheral products such as mobile phone cases, wallets and keychains. The image of
Little Yellow Duck is not only operated by Lin Liang. In Hong Kong alone, Little Yellow Duck has more derivative and "show operations". The IP of
Little Yellow Duck earns tens of millions every year
There is a character licensing company called Deying International in Hong Kong, which creates and manages multiple characters, the most important of which is the Little Yellow Duck family.
role authorization, this concept is not very familiar to many people, but the numbers tell everything-only relying on the role of the little yellow duck, Tak Ying International can earn 53.89 million Hong Kong dollars a year, plus the little yellow duck sister (Buffy) And the little yellow duck (Baby), the income in 2018 reached 69.68 million Hong Kong dollars.
Currently, the Little Yellow Duck family of Deying International has 26 roles. The Little Yellow Duck was born in 2005. The resulting Little Yellow Duck Sister and Little Yellow Duck both focus on subdivided groups. The former is aimed at young women. Those aiming at the infant market.
Deying International's business mainly includes design consulting, product authorization, promotion authorization, live entertainment authorization and content and media authorization. The current 180 customers are mainly concentrated in mainland China, covering multiple consumer sectors, including wholesalers, retailers, promotion agents, live entertainment operators, banks and others.
Deying International developed the little yellow duck family
. According to the data, the little yellow duck team will customize styles for customers and jointly develop products. It will also carry out various designs according to seasons and time nodes to maintain the freshness of IP.
product authorization is Deying InternationalThe main source of income, third-party products are concentrated in clothing and accessories, household and daily necessities, toys and infant personal care, footwear, consumer electronics and others. Among them, the most are clothing and accessories, followed by home and toys. In 2017 and 2018, its largest customer was Lixun Group, a shoe company based in Quanzhou, Fujian.
In addition, gift promotion is also the focus of Deying International. It will provide different customers with clothing accessories, toys and household goods required for various promotional activities. In addition, it also involves credit card gift exchange, welcome gifts and VIP gifts. Key customers in recent years include Watsons, Meiyijia , Mead Johnson, McDonald's and China Everbright Bank. For example, Watsons used to exchange more than 550,000 pieces of yellow duck promotion products in China during the promotion cooperation period, and Meiyijia exchanged 660,000 pieces of promotion products in China during the nine-month promotion period. Mead Johnson China exchanged 60,000 promotional products, McDonald’s Little Yellow Duck theme birthday party distributed more than 280,000 Little Yellow Duck birthday gifts in about a year, and China Everbright Bank applied for distribution of 1.2 million Little Yellow Duck credit cards during the promotion period...
In addition, Deying International’s Little Yellow Duck has also been involved in various online and offline content, including digital entertainment, emoticons and mobile games.
It is worth mentioning that Deying International was originally famous for its design, which is the famous little yellow duck brand B.Duck.
Xu Xialin, who graduated from the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 1997, worked in the design industry after graduation and founded De Ying International in 2001. In 2005, Xu Xialin created his own little yellow duck image, which is B.Duck, and started commercial operations. The first product is the B.Duck waterproof bathroom radio. The uniquely shaped Duck waterproof radio is very popular in Japan and Europe.
is interesting. When the little yellow duck miraculously drifted to England, Xu Xialin was studying in Europe. In his opinion, a little yellow duck completes product design in Europe, produces it in China, and sells it all over the world, but China can only earn a few cents in processing fees in this link, but it can sell for 5 in Europe. Euro, which means a hundred times the price difference. Therefore, Xu Xialin created B.Duck and created a series of bathroom-themed products, which were well received. At present, B.Duck has a huge community on various social network platforms with countless fans. The electronic series and stationery series in the products have a large number of fans.
From little yellow duck to big yellow duck
The big yellow duck trend swept the country in the past few years, but not too many people know its origin, only that the little yellow duck has become bigger.
Actually, the big yellow duck is a giant rubber duck created by the Dutch artist Florentin Hoffman in the classic little yellow duck shape. In 2007, the first big yellow duck was born in Amsterdam. Since then, Hoffman has visited many countries and regions with his works, which has greatly promoted the local tourism industry.
In 2013, the big yellow duck came to Hong Kong and then entered the mainland. During more than a month in Hong Kong, more than 8 million people had close contact with it on the spot. It also launched a large number of peripheral products, and all the sales proceeds were donated to charitable organizations.
was also exhibited in Beijing in 2013. However, there were some problems in the production process. The exhibition stalled on the first day of the exhibition, and the duck's bill became a sharp beak, which was restored overnight. During the two months in Beijing, revenue from derivatives, tourism and catering exceeded 200 million yuan. During the exhibition at the Summer Palace, the first day of the appearance of the big yellow duck was a working day on Thursday, but the number of tourists received increased by 62% year-on-year, showing the charm of the big yellow duck. What's interesting is that because of the 360-degree display of the big yellow ducks, it also drove the boat business in the Summer Palace. The boat rental rate once reached 100%, and there were long queues.
In the same year, the big yellow duck was exhibited in Taiwan, and the fate was quite rough. During the exhibition in Taoyuan, the duck body was broken by strong wind. During the exhibition in Keelung, due to the heat generated by the continuous operation of the inflatable blower, the temperature difference between the inside and outside of the duck became larger, and the duck eventually burst and deflated. During the
exhibition in Guiyang, the big yellow duck was washed away by the flood, which was the first time in a global cruise. During the
exhibition in Shanghai, the big yellow duck was also very popular, but Century Park raised the ticket price from 10 yuan to 40 yuan during the exhibition, which caused controversy.In Hong Kong and Beijing, the display of the big yellow duck is free. It is precisely because of this that a tale appeared-"It costs 120 yuan for a family of three, it is better to buy a roast duck home and add vegetables."
big yellow duck looks simple, but it is not easy to maintain. There is a zipper entrance at its tail, where maintenance personnel can enter the rubber duck for inspection and repair when needed. The large yellow duck has reached 600 kg without inflating, it takes 25 to 30 minutes to inflate, and only 10 minutes to deflate. The air pump in the big yellow duck needs to inflate continuously for 24 hours to ensure that the big yellow duck maintains its shape on the water. The air pump needs to inflate or deflate according to the weather. The big yellow duck also comes with three cement anchors weighing three tons each to ensure that the big yellow duck will not be washed away by the waves. The Yellow Duck’s maintenance team has reached 50 people, and they have to conduct daily maintenance. In places like Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour, where there are heavy winds and waves, the Yellow Duck needs to be towed in front by a medium-sized tug, and it needs to be towed by staff. The laughter that
big yellow duck brings to people is exactly the original intention of Hoffman’s creation. It has no national boundaries, no political meaning, does not discriminate against anyone, and brings happiness wherever it goes, and people’s Childhood memories. The plagiarism wave caused by
big yellow ducks
big yellow ducks cruised in several major cities in the country, which triggered a wave of plagiarism in the country. Soon after the big yellow duck was exhibited in Beijing and Shanghai, similarly shaped big yellow ducks appeared in Tianjin, Wuhan, Chongqing, Hangzhou, Zhengzhou, Foshan and Wuhu. The height of these big yellow ducks is far less than the "genuine", and they are generally placed in the lake in the park. In places such as Yuncheng in Shanxi, Tonghua in Jilin and Urumqi in Xinjiang, big yellow ducks were also placed directly in front of the mall. In Mudanjiang City, Heilongjiang, there was a big yellow duck 22 meters high. It is said to be the largest big yellow duck in the world, with a total weight of 1.3 tons.
During that time, because the big yellow duck was so hot, there were many copies of the big yellow duck all over the country, and the manufacturing plants were overwhelmed. A big yellow duck that is 3 meters high and needs constant inflation only costs a few thousand yuan, and a 6-meter high duck costs more than 10,000 yuan. In addition to plagiarizing the big yellow duck,
also has many variants, many of which are very ridiculous. In contrast, "Green Dream Duck" and "Big White Goose" are relatively normal.
Hoffman, the original creator, was very disappointed that the big yellow duck was plagiarized, thinking it was a naked infringement. In China, this kind of plagiarism is still maintained by people. For example, some people think that the big yellow duck is just an enlarged version of the little yellow duck. The little yellow duck has existed for more than 100 years, so the big yellow duck is not an original work at all. But in fact, the giant yellow duck has originality. The copyright is created on the day of its birth. It is an indisputable fact. The enlargement is the originality of the yellow duck.
This wave of plagiarism has also triggered people's helplessness towards China, thinking that China is always following the culture and creativity of others. Everyone knows how large the potential market demand for the creative economy is. After all, this is an era of individualization. People have more open and diversified values, and they also pursue aesthetic needs and personalized experience. However, the creative economy in China is clearly related to creativity. Not big.
During the time when the big yellow duck became popular, in addition to the copycat ducks everywhere, many unauthorized small yellow duck products also appeared in various subway stalls, such as the half-meter high yellow duck, Taobao There are also many options.
Conclusion
In 2001, the maid who cleaned the bathroom for Queen Elizabeth II discovered that the Queen had a yellow duck toy, and it was still a yellow duck wearing a crown. After the incident was reported, the British who loved the Queen immediately bought the little yellow duck, and sales soared by 80%.
The little yellow duck series of the British Museum has always been the most popular series in the cultural and creative product series. This set of four little yellow ducks is dressed up as an ancient Egyptian sphinx, an ancient Roman warrior, and a Viking pirate And the image of Indians is a favorite of children.
In 2013, the little yellow duck was elected to the American Hall of Fame. This glory is not easy. It will only choose toys that have been tested over time and widely recognized by people. At present, only 63 toys have been selected, including frisbee, hula hoop, skipping rope, plasticine and checkers, which shows the status of the little yellow duck.
It can be said that Little Yellow Duck is a world-class big IP, and its creative road is not the end of Big Yellow Duck, B.Duck, "Classic Duck" and various cultural creations.
This article is the author's independent opinion, does not represent the market's financial position, and does not constitute investment advice.
