Is smart toy really suitable as an early education tool?

In recent years, there has been a wave of intelligent robots in China, and the toy market has actively catered to this trend, launching a variety of dazzling children's robots. However, although many intelligent robots have given themselves the title of children's toys , there are almost no pure toy robots. Most children's robots are expensive, functionally homogeneous, and bloated, wearing a "toy" hat. Instead of focusing on the children's leisure and entertainment, they constantly meet the parents' imagination of the toy – adding more educational features.

This should bring happiness toy accessories has become a spoon-feeding education, toy vendors have eagerly embraced this outlet artificial intelligence, but at the start and ran the wrong way.

The prospect of smart toys is bullish

With the rapid development of AI, a number of domestic and foreign companies such as Tencent, Lego, Xiaomi, and Aofei Animation have been involved in the children's smart toy industry. Smart toys will also become an inevitable trend in the toy industry. "2017-2022 China Smart Toy Market Operation Situation and Investment Strategy Research Report" shows that smart toy products in children's smart products will maintain an average annual growth rate of 75% in the next 5 years, far exceeding the annual average of 6% in the toy industry. The growth rate.

In China, there are two main reasons for the growth of smart toys.

1. China’s second-child policy has been liberalized and the number of children has grown rapidly. In 2016, when the policy was open, the number of newborns in China has reached the highest point since the 21st century: 17.86 million. According to Euromonitor's prediction, by 2030, the number of children aged 0-14 in China will reach 260 million, an increase of 20 million children compared with 2016. According to the average children's consumption of 43.4 US dollars in 2016, the sales of toys added by this new 20 million children will be about 868 million US dollars.

2. Parents pay more and more attention to quality education, and the expectation value of toys “education and fun” is obviously increased. With the development of China's social economy, talent cultivation has entered a stage of intense heat. Parents have begun to pay attention to the early development and cultivation of children's intelligence. Now, more and more parents are willing to spend money on children's intellectual development projects.

Lego bricks have been favored by parents because of their remarkable puzzle characteristics. According to Jingdong 2018 online shopping toy list in the first quarter, the first and third are Lego's products, and the second Fei Xue early education puzzle pedal piano fitness equipment also belongs to educational toys . Nowadays, toys with smart and technological ideas have become a good thing for parents. According to Amazon's sales data, last year's sales of robot toys increased by 40%, amounting to 25 million US dollars, and now become the 25 best-selling toys of Amazon. one.

From this, we can also deeply feel the mentality of parents “seeing the child into a dragon”. Although parents have realized the multi-value of toys, they still regard intellectual value as the first place in the process of choosing toys. In addition, almost all parents have neglected the cultural heritage of toys, and those with strong folk colors are gradually fading out of children's lives.

Lack of brand, IP monotonous, the problem is obviously more than expected

In general, Chinese consumers have high demand for smart toys. The domestic smart toy market has more room for development than overseas markets, but it is puzzling that there is no good news in the industry. .

First of all, from the perspective of financing scale and round-trip distribution, most of the startups in the industry are still in the stage of angel financing, such as Geekplay, a smart toy platform in Shenzhen, and a “small driver” for children's smart toy cars . The industry development is still in its infancy, and no head enterprises have been formed in the market. The number of players is small and the market competition is relatively scattered.

Even the toy giant Lego did not become an oligarch in the market after reaching a cooperation with Tencent in the field of intelligence. According to Euromonitor's data, the market share of the world's three major toy giants in China is less than 10%, the first Lego share is 2.8%, and Mattel is second with 2% share, and " Transformers " "The parent company's children's market share is only 1%.

Second, China's smart toy market still lacks an IP image with sufficient influence. In the field of toys, the importance of IP is self-evident. Take the example of a smart remote-controlled robot in 2015. This robot is blessed by the hot IP "Star Wars", although it sells for as much as $134. Sales still top the list of electronic toys. Needless to say, "IP Empire" Disney's product business is so successful.

The industrial chain of smart toys is very long, including story image, creative design, manufacturing, and channel sales. However, the domestic smart toy industry chain often has problems in the first ring - manufacturers bear the IP image The baggage of early education, "don't want to be a character defect", "do not want to fight the image", "do not look good", thus, domestic toy IP often has the following commonalities - positive, gentle, and not complicated story. Therefore, the IP image on the market is very monotonous and homogenous. Except for the animal images of sheep, bears and dogs, there is almost no anthropomorphic image.

Of course, there are also toy companies that want to change this phenomenon and build their own IP. Take Meisheng culture as an example. In order to realize the strategy of transforming to IP and pan-entertainment industry, at the end of 2016, Meisheng Culture spent 217.5 million yuan to acquire the same parent company 72.5. % equity, but so far, Meisheng has not been able to integrate and digest this national IP, and has not been able to move forward on the road of transformation.

Domestic enterprises are plagued by the monotony of IP, and the intelligent business road of IP toys for foreign companies is also “unacceptable” in China – Barbie ’s parent company, Mattel, has been very active in China, but IP-backed “holographic Barbie” In the name of children's toys, the voice assistants are not uncommon in the smart toy market, and have become an awkward existence.

Finally, there are many deficiencies in smart toys in maintenance and maintenance services. Many smart toy manufacturers still maintain the idea of ​​traditional toy production - one-time trading, after selling the toys, because of the child's strong destructive power, follow-up services can be almost omitted. However, smart toys are equipped with smart chips, innovative materials, etc., and the cost is high. Parents will have higher expectations for their long-term use. The industry has to pay attention to the maintenance and maintenance of smart toys. This is also an entrepreneurial opportunity. I believe that when the industry rapidly develops into a mass, the maintenance market capacity of smart toys will be considerable.

Before the outbreak, smart toys must first torture their own positioning.

According to an article in the Creativity Reasearch Journal, children's IQ scores have been increasing since 1990, but the score of creativity has fallen sharply. When children reach the sixth grade, this decline It reached the lowest point. In this survey, we get the inspiration that an excellent smart toy is not to give smart toys to children, but to let children create their own intelligence. LEGO has produced a set of programming toys and got a good sale. Results.

At present, the more common children's robots have been separated from the traditional, entertainment-oriented functional goals, full of cramming educational functions. Such robots tend to market gimmicks more than the actual value of the product. At present, we see that many children's robots will highlight the role of robots when propagating. However, during the child's growth, family companionship and teacher education can't be replaced.

In addition, in addition to the need for happy children, toy consumers also have a group of specific consumers - the "big boy" group (that is, those who are physically mature but still childlike) and collectors. In the face of such consumers, it is a bit ridiculous to talk about education and talk about companionship.

Of course, it is understandable that enterprises can locate smart toys as "educational products". Compared with traditional toys, smart toys are mostly sold with high technology content, strong playability, rich content, and high prices, so their purchases are more Most are dominated by parents, not real users - the children are proposing to buy. The separation of purchase decision makers and users makes manufacturers only "split-oriented" - obviously a toy, but has become an early education product. At present, manufacturers need to balance the demands of parents and children, and use the lowest possible technology and production costs to make the desired creative concept, so that the product is in a reasonable market position.

In general, the slogan of the smart toy market has become more and more obvious, and in the process of rapid development of the industry, there will inevitably be some problems, which requires the entire industry to work together to solve. However, no matter what, winning by fun is the right path for domestic manufacturers.