The 2026 FIFA World Cup has drawn to a close in North America, but in Yiwu, Zhejiang Province, the business opportunities generated by the global sporting spectacle are still unfolding.
During the 40-day soccer tournament, Yiwu merchants sold more than 100,000 World Cup-themed footballs of their own design.
Today, signs advertising “original designs” and “officially licensed intellectual property (IP)” are no longer a rarity in the sprawling market. They are prominently displayed above a growing number of storefronts as more merchants develop products and characters of their own.
Long known as the world’s small commodity capital, Yiwu built much of its reputation on speed, scale and the ability to reproduce popular products at short notice. But its business model is shifting. Increasingly, merchants are seeking to compete not only on price and production efficiency, but also on design, storytelling and IP.
Adapting stars and creating stars
The shelves in District 6 of the Yiwu International Trade Market, one of the world’s largest wholesale hubs for small commodities, are packed with designer and collectible toys. Globally recognized characters from Disney, Sanrio and Pokemon are almost impossible to miss.
Manbo Trendy Toys is one of the district’s many wholesale toy stores. According to shop operator Wu Xiaocong, every character-based product sold there is officially licensed. The company is also authorized to adapt designs and independently develop new products within the terms of its licensing agreements.
“We preserve the features that make a character instantly recognizable while adjusting the design in response to target market demand,” Wu said. “This is more than contract manufacturing; it is a form of IP development.”
In addition to adapting established characters, a growing number of Yiwu merchants are trying to create signature IPs of their own.
In the fast-moving designer-toy market, such a time-consuming and costly process may appear commercially unviable. Zhuang sees it differently. In his view, Yiwu can no longer rely on low prices alone. Its businesses must compete through design, cultural appeal and compelling stories.
Zhuang’s handmade products have found buyers in markets including the United States, India and the Republic of Korea (ROK). He adapts their colors and forms to local preferences. “An IP takes a long time to nurture and promote,” he said. “But we need greater variety. We must avoid all crowding into the same market and making exactly the same thing.”
A long and difficult road
The direction of the transition—from contract manufacturing to licensed production and original design—is becoming clear. The journey, however, is anything but easy.
Yiwu’s merchants are accustomed to rapid turnover and quick returns. Official licenses for major IPs can be difficult and expensive to obtain, while transforming an original character into a commercially successful brand can take years. Both paths require massive financial and human capital, with no guarantee that consumer tastes will remain unchanged.
Exporting an original IP abroad is harder still. Sharp differences in consumer preferences create formidable barriers between markets.
“In Japan and the ROK, cuteness wins,” Wu said. Characters such as Hello Kitty and Cinnamoroll require little introduction, with buyers often placing orders as soon as they see them. European and North American consumers tend to favor bolder, more futuristic designs, including mechanized armor and science fiction characters.
Overseas consumers’ loyalty to their own cultural icons makes it even harder for Chinese IPs to break into the market. Japanese and ROK consumers already have strong attachments to domestic animation and comic-book franchises, while many Western consumers are less familiar with East Asia’s culture of meng, or stylized cuteness. “No single IP can appeal equally to the whole world,” Wu said. “You have to identify your target market and design around its preferences.”
Original IPs from Yiwu also struggle with low brand awareness. Unlike established franchises such as Hello Kitty and Pokemon, which come with enormous built-in audiences, new characters must build recognition gradually through social media and other forms of promotion.
Counterfeiting is another persistent headache. “Products involving complex craftsmanship are expensive to reproduce, but cute plush toys can be copied quickly and cheaply, making infringement difficult to prevent,” Wu said.
Empowerment and protection
As more merchants embrace licensed and original products, Yiwu is facing an urgent challenge: lowering the barriers that prevent small and medium-sized businesses from accessing IPs while helping them develop and defend creations of their own.
The IP Service Center at the Yiwu Global Digital Trade Center, opened in April, is part of the solution. Through a centralized procurement model, it pools licensing resources that were once accessible mainly to large companies and makes them available to smaller businesses.
In the past, a small factory seeking an official license often lacked both the necessary industry connections and the financial resources to meet the entry threshold. Today, smaller merchants can select IPs according to their needs, negotiate licenses collectively and share the cost, substantially reducing the burden on individual businesses.
The center also provides design, commercialization and rights protection services, helping businesses turn creative concepts into feasible, market-ready products and defend their IPs in China and overseas. The IP protection agency of the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone has also been brought in to assist with expedited rights registration and legal enforcement.
The government of Yiwu is likewise expanding support for original design and IP protection. The broader aim is to guide merchants away from a business logic based on imitation and toward one centered on innovation.
The Yiwu Customs regularly interacts with market vendors on IP registration and protection procedures. In the first five months of this year, Yiwu recorded 1,146 new IP registrations, accounting for nearly 40 percent of total additions in Zhejiang. The figure was more than double that of the same period last year.
“When competitors copy you, it is also indirect proof that you have made something good,” Zhuang said. “What we can do is keep outrunning them.”
For him, the strongest protection does not come from shutting others out, but from moving faster and continually improving the product. Once a business loses its capacity to innovate and allows its designs to stagnate, he said, the market will eventually weed it out.
For decades, Yiwu earned its place in global trade by putting almost anything the world wanted onto its shelves. Its next ambition is more demanding: to create the characters, stories and brands that will make the world come looking for Yiwu.–The Daily Mail-Beijing Review News exchange item
