Why is it More Optimistic About The Southeast Asian Market?

Since launching its global business in 2018, Bubble Mart has always focused on the Southeast Asian market, and the layout of the Southeast Asian market in the past two years has been particularly obvious. In May of this year, Bubble Mart opened its first store in Malaysia in the center of the Golden Triangle in Kuala Lumpur. It is a major concentration of commercial and entertainment venues in the area, with a total of more than 700 merchants, mainly international luxury brands, attracting more than 30 million visitors every year. This move also means that after Singapore, Bubble Mart has opened up another major market in Southeast Asia.

At the 23rd Annual General Meeting of Shareholders of Bubble Mart, there was also information revealed that the expansion order of Bubble Mart's overseas market will focus on developing Asia, Southeast Asia, and then the United States, Europe, and Australia. Overseas decoration operation costs will be higher than those in China, and the gross profit will be slightly lower, but the company is also gradually improving and reducing costs. Foreign business accounted for 50% is the goal of recent efforts.

In terms of attacking the Southeast Asian market, as early as 2021, Bubble Mart took Singapore as the first battle to test the water. Compared with Thailand's population of nearly 80 million, Singapore's population of 6 million is not very eye-catching, but Singapore has outstanding geographical advantages. It is an international trade center with a developed economy and open policies. Most importantly, it has a strong ability to radiate neighboring countries. In other words, if the Singapore market is opened up, it will be easier to capture other countries in Southeast Asia.

At present, Bubble Mart has launched 8 offline stores in Singapore, 5 of which are pop-up stores. At the same time, it has laid dozens of robot stores all over Singapore and established official e-commerce channels.

When it comes to exploring overseas, many people are curious about why everyone pays attention to the Southeast Asian market?
First of all, from the perspective of demographic dividend, the Southeast Asian market has a huge user base of mothers and babies and a considerable number of newborns. According to the per capita births of Southeast Asian women surveyed by Statista in 2020, Filipino women have 2.49 births per capita, Indonesia 2.27, Vietnam 2.05, and Malay 1.97. This also means that each couple will have at least two children on average, and the huge newborn will bring a huge demand for early education toys, which also lays the foundation for the growth of the toy market for children under the age of 9.

At the same time, trendy play is popular among Generation Z consumers, and the audience fans are highly similar to those in China, which is one of the advantages of Pop Mart in developing overseas markets. Justin Wendeyi (Justin), President of Bubble Mart International, once said: Southeast Asian countries have a high degree of cultural integration, and the Chinese community is also very large, and they have a high degree of acceptance of trendy games and IP. In terms of localization and integration, the North American market is relatively difficult. In terms of the acceptance of blind boxes, North American consumers like open boxes and are not familiar with the gameplay of blind boxes.

In other words, for products like Chaowan, if the culture is similar, consumers are more likely to accept it, and it is easier for brands to build trust with users.