"Funding Fandom"... Money Flows into IP Goods

Wadiz IP-Based Character Goods Funding Increases by 212%
Cultural Content IP Funding on Tumblbug Also Grows by 30% Annually on Average

Money is pouring into merchandise utilizing content intellectual property (IP). Fans are increasingly willing to open their wallets to buy goods featuring character IPs from various content fields such as comics, animation, movies, and games.

On the 18th, funding platform Wadiz announced that the scale of character merchandise funding from January to April this year increased by 212% compared to the same period last year. Last year, character merchandise funding grew by 64% compared to the previous year, indicating an even steeper growth trend this year.

Animation Suzume's Door Locking Goods

On funding platforms, IP-holding companies receive pre-orders through funding to gauge demand and produce merchandise, reducing inventory burdens. The industry explains that this structural characteristic has solved problems in the existing merchandise market, which had low quality relative to price and poor purchasing environments. Limited edition sales that increase the collectible value of products are also facilitated smoothly.

In fact, the funding amount for animation 'Suzume no Tojimari' merchandise on Wadiz reached 1.5 billion KRW. Merchandise for 'Woitoli THE ROCK!' also achieved funding results of 150 million KRW, which is 8410% of the target. Not only animation merchandise but also character-related projects such as Loopy, Jinro Toad, and Playmobil are gaining popularity. Since the beginning of this year, the average goal achievement rate in Wadiz's character merchandise category has approached 4000%, and the number of funding payments increased by 93% compared to the same period last year.

Due to the popularity of IP merchandise, Wadiz formed a strategic partnership with Korea's largest content specialist company Daewon C.I., achieving cumulative funding of 840 million KRW in just eight months. This collaboration connects the content and comic IPs owned by Daewon C.I. with Wadiz's small but strong manufacturers. A Wadiz representative said, "Through collaboration with brands, we plan to showcase a variety of IP merchandise and idea products that fans have wanted," adding, "We will match IP companies with manufacturers and act as a bridge between fans and content companies through fandom marketing."

Passionate Hero Goods Funding on Tumblbug

On another funding platform, Tumblbug, merchandise funding utilizing cultural content IP is growing at an average annual rate of about 30%. It increased from 21.5 billion KRW in 2021 to 35.7 billion KRW last year. This year, the official merchandise funding for the webtoon 'Magical Girl Isekai Idol' surpassed 4.1 billion KRW in January alone. More than 30,000 people participated over about a month, setting a record.

The project on Tumblbug where a domestic developer is remaking the nostalgic game 'Princess Maker' has raised 300 million KRW in less than a month. The recently closed funding for the 30th anniversary merchandise of the comic 'Yeolhyeol Gangho' amounted to 135 million KRW. In addition, Tumblbug is conducting funding for various secondary productions of IPs ranging from nostalgic animations to Kakao emoticon characters. Kim Dong-hwan, CEO of Backpack, which operates Tumblbug, said, "We have confirmed a passionate response to various IP projects," adding, "We will continue to serve as a stepping stone connecting creators and supporters and open new benchmarks for crowdfunding."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.