Overseas revenue soars 899%, and a new chapter unfolds for Bruk.

The Chinese version of Lego has a new story.

Brickoking, the world's third-largest and China's leading building toy company, released its mid-term financial report for 2025. In the first half of the year, Brickoking's revenue reached approximately 1.338 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 27.9%. The profit during the period turned from a loss of 255 million yuan in the same period last year to a profit of 297 million yuan.

On paper, after four consecutive years of losses, Brickoking finally turned a profit. However, excluding the losses from preferred stock changes and the provision for equity incentive expenses, Brickoking had already achieved profitability at the operational level as early as 2023. Its adjusted profits in the first half of 2023 and 2024 were 73 million yuan and 292 million yuan respectively, and the adjusted profit margin in the first half of 2024 reached 27.92%.

The fact is that Brickoking's revenue growth rate in the first half of the year was lower than expected. Compared with the revenue growth rates of 56.1% and 47.1% in the same periods of the past two years, this year's growth rate slowed down to 27.9%. In terms of changes in the domestic market, Brickoking continued to focus on products in the 9.9-yuan price range this year and achieved good results. Since November last year, Brickoking began selling the 9.9-yuan Transformers Star Edition. Within the seven months up to the reporting period, this small toy in the form of a blind box, with its low price, simple assembly, and genuine authorization, quickly sold 48.6 million boxes, contributing over 200 million yuan in revenue.

However, the biggest highlight of this financial report lies in the growth of overseas performance.

In the first half of this year, Brickoking's overseas revenue reached 110 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 899%. North America and Asia (mainly Southeast Asia) contributed to the core growth. In addition, Brickoking is also continuously strengthening its IP matrix. There have been new changes in R & D, mold opening, and new IP signings in the first half of the year. For this young company, whether in the Chinese market or in global operations, IP is the key to whether it can continue to tell the story of cost - effectiveness.

Brickoking's product matrix

The North American market becomes the biggest surprise

Just one year ago, Brickoking's overseas revenue was negligible.

Before 2024, the proportion of Brickoking's overseas revenue had long remained at around 2%. It was not until the second half of 2024 that the overseas growth rate accelerated, but by the end of that year, it still only accounted for 2.9% of the total revenue.

2025 is a year of explosive growth for Brickoking's overseas business. In the first half of this year, the overseas revenue exceeded 100 million yuan, accounting for 8.3% of Brickoking's total revenue. Asia (mainly Southeast Asia) and North America made the main contributions. The revenue in Asia in the first half of the year reached 57.12 million yuan, a 6.5 - fold increase compared with the same period last year, while the revenue in North America reached 42.81 million yuan, a staggering 21 - fold increase compared with the same period last year.

Breaking it down further, according to the financial report, Indonesia and the United States were the two countries with the highest overseas revenues for Brickoking in the first half of the year.

Just as Pop Mart and Miniso chose Thailand as their first stop for overseas expansion, Southeast Asia, with a large Chinese population and close geographical proximity, is the first stop for many Chinese IP companies to go global. As for Indonesia, as the largest country in Southeast Asia and the fourth - most populous country in the world, it is not surprising that it has become a high - ground for Brickoking's overseas expansion.

However, the United States is an exception.

Brickoking has always been known for its Ultraman IP. At its peak, the revenue brought by Ultraman to this company once exceeded half of the total. This Japanese IP, which was first born in 1966, did not become completely popular in China until 38 years later with the TV series "Ultraman Tiga". Even today, behind the question "Do you believe in light?", Ultraman has become a social phenomenon that transcends age, cognition, and social class.

Compared with the Asian population deeply influenced by the Japanese anime industry, the United States, with its leading global cultural industry, prefers family - friendly IPs represented by Disney and hardcore collectibles represented by Transformers. The toy sales data in the United States from January to April 2024 released by the international market research institution Circana shows that the main consumers in the US toy market are concentrated in traditional dominant categories such as Lego, Transformers, and Disney IP co - branded products, and Ultraman - related toys did not appear in the top ten list, which forms a sharp contrast with the Asian market.

Looking at Brickoking itself, in the first half of the year, the company launched 273 new SKUs, including well - known American IPs such as Minions, Sesame Street, Transformers, and Marvel: Infinite Legends, which are very popular among American consumers. Brickoking even held the premieres of new Minions and Sesame Street products at the New York Toy Fair, one of the world's three major toy fairs.

Some of Brickoking's existing IPs

Overseas, Brickoking's greatest competitive advantage still lies in its mid - to low - price positioning as a building toy brand. The global building character toy market has a relatively high degree of industry concentration. In terms of market share, Bandai Namco and Lego rank ahead of Brickoking. However, the mainstream price ranges of both are between $20 and $200, while Brickoking, which focuses on cost - effectiveness, has a price range of $3 to $16.

Different from the domestic market, where offline channels account for more than 90%, industry reports show that the online - to - offline ratio of Brickoking's overseas channels is 3:7. In the United States, online channels represented by Amazon are the main ones, while in Southeast Asia, high - cost - performance products are quickly promoted through the mature offline distribution system and the demographic dividend.

Referring to the overseas expansion space of Pop Mart's IP, and considering that Brickoking itself relies on global IP for monetization, overseas markets may become Brickoking's core business growth point in the future. To some extent, although its overseas expansion is still in its early stage, the coverage of developing and developed countries represented by Indonesia and the United States also validates Brickoking's overseas expansion ability.

However, price - sensitive consumers are like a double - edged sword. On the one hand, they enable Brickoking to achieve differential competition, but on the other hand, high - speed iteration of SKUs is required to maintain customer stickiness. Brickoking has a relatively low proportion of self - owned IPs, not to mention their overseas influence. It is difficult for Brickoking to create a big splash and carry out localized operations like Pop Mart with its self - owned IPs and take control of the story - telling and rhythm. For a long time in the future, how to stand out with authorized IPs and improve channel efficiency will be the core variables for Brickoking's overseas expansion.

Continuously increasing investment in IP

Today's Pop Mart may be the envy of all IP companies, but not everyone can become it. Since officially transforming from building block toys to building toys in 2022, Brickoking's heavy reliance on the Ultraman IP has been the biggest controversy surrounding it.

Ultraman has both contributed to Brickoking's success and trapped it. Since 2024, Brickoking has been reducing the proportion of the Ultraman IP. In 2023, the Ultraman IP contributed 63.5% of Brickoking's total revenue, which dropped to 49% in 2024. Although the latest financial report did not disclose the specific figures, Brickoking revealed that in the first half of 2025, the top four IP products accounted for 83.1% of the total, compared with 92.3% contributed by only the top three IP products in the same period in 2024.

Diversifying risks and expanding self - owned IP have always been what Brickoking most desires to do. However, referring to Lego's story, limited by the long supply chain and high mold - opening costs, the upstream barriers in the building toy market are extremely high, and the cost of trial - and - error in developing new products is very large. The reason why Lego has a strong brand image is not only because it has the most influential and profitable IPs but also because its direct - sales model - based channels play an important role. However, Brickoking currently mainly relies on the offline distribution system and sets up collection stores, so its brand awareness is relatively weak. Consumers' purchasing impulses are more due to the existing influence of popular IPs, and the attention to self - owned IPs is relatively low.

As of mid - 2024, Brickoking only had two self - owned IPs - "Brickoking Heroes" and "Infinite Heroes". The former, as a building block product, made a very small contribution, accounting for only 0.9% of the total revenue. The latter is currently Brickoking's fourth - largest revenue - generating IP, but its contribution to revenue is far behind that of authorized IPs, only accounting for 16.5%.

Currently, Brickoking faces the risk of lacking new IPs. Apart from the three classic and well - established authorized IPs represented by Ultraman, Transformers, and Kamen Rider, it has not yet come up with a convincing and powerful IP.

Brickoking's four best - selling IPs. Among them, "Infinite Heroes" is a self - owned IP, and the rest are authorized IPs.

However, no matter how difficult it is, diversifying the IP matrix, including self - owned IPs, is an inevitable path, and Brickoking clearly understands this. The latest financial report reveals that in the first half of 2025 alone, Brickoking added 13 new IPs. As of 2024, the total number of its IPs was about 50. In addition, Brickoking also increased its investment in self - developed IPs. The R & D expenditure in the first half of 2025 was 129 million yuan, a 69.5% increase compared with 76 million yuan in the same period last year.

Based on IP, Brickoking added 273 new SKUs in the first half of this year, accounting for 53.1% of the total revenue in the same period. One of the purposes is to continuously expand its customer base.

All along, Brickoking's core customer group has been consumers aged 6 - 16, especially the "young boys" who are deeply in love with Ultraman. However, Brickoking has not given up on the "adult" and "young female" markets. In 2024, Brickoking expanded its product line for adult senior players, with product prices ranging from about 100 yuan to 200 yuan. In the first half of this year, the proportion of product revenue from consumers over 16 years old increased from 10.4% in the same period last year to 14.8%. As for the female market under 14 years old, the sales of the Ye Luoli and Pokémon IPs were mediocre before. Brickoking may shift from human - shaped building blocks to scenario - based building blocks this year.

Due to the increase in R & D costs, the increase in mold - opening costs brought by new SKUs, and the launch of products in the 9.9 - yuan price range, Brickoking's gross profit margin decreased by 4.5% compared with the same period last year.

In addition, the financial report specifically mentioned the user experience.

Different from Pop Mart, if the stickiness of trendy toy IPs comes from their ornamental and collectible value, then the core of building toys lies in creativity. This is also the reason why Lego has been focusing on community operation and user co - creation for many years and has even spared no expense in holding theme exhibitions/parks to reach more people - to maximize the concept of "creation".

Therefore, the operation of building toy IPs is far more than just cooperation. How to stimulate users' imagination and playability will be an important part of testing Brickoking's brand and user stickiness. Brickoking mentioned in the financial report that the Brickoking BFC Creation Competition in 2025 will still be one of the key future directions, and this competition will cover 150 cities in China. On social platforms, some parents even travel hundreds of kilometers to take their children to the offline BFC competition. The reason is simple: as long as parents believe that such competitions are helpful for stimulating the fun of creation, they will be enthusiastic.

After its establishment in 2014, Brickoking was a player in the building block track for the next eight years. It was not until the key transformation in 2022 that it began to officially focus on building toys. Since then, it has been on a high - growth path. The high - revenue and high - margin business enabled Brickoking to successfully list on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

Compared with Bandai Namco and Lego, Brickoking's development is quite remarkable. After obtaining the authorization of core IPs, it successfully avoided competing with Lego, which has already become the dominant player in the small - particle building block market, and turned to large - particle building blocks. Thus, it had the opportunity to enter the cost - effective market segment and quickly penetrated the offline channels through a large - scale distributor system. In just a few years, it quickly became the world's third - largest building toy company. As of mid - last year, Brickoking had cooperated with more than 450 distributors, covering all first - and second - tier cities and more than 80% of third - tier and below cities.

The young Brickoking has its own new path to take, but the gameplay of established players is still the key. No matter where the next growth point lies, the most core proposition surrounding Brickoking today is still the continuous monetization ability of IP, which is the core of realizing all its stories.

(Source: 36Kr Future Consumption   Author: Zhong Yixuan   Editor: Qiao Qian)