Businesses woo 'adult kids' with toys, other nostalgic goods

Published : Mar 2, 2017 - 11:44 Updated : Mar 2, 2017 - 11:44

Businesses are developing toys, figures and other nostalgic products to woo men in their 30s, referred to as adult kids, as they have emerged as a strong consumers group, industry sources said Thursday.

7-Eleven, one of South Korea's three biggest convenience store chains, said all 220,000 sets of toy figures for the 1990s Japanese animation "One Piece" have recently been sold out. 7-Eleven launched the products last April.

(Yonhap)

The franchise operated by Lotte Group affiliate Korea Seven also enjoyed a whopping 34.1 percent surge in the sale of umbrellas since last July from a year earlier with the introduction of the umbrellas carrying flagship "Kakao Friends" characters of the online messenger KakaoTalk.

Seoul Auction Blue Inc., an online auction company, said men in their 30s accounted for 63 percent of the successful bidders of toys and figures last year.

The number of users of the augmented reality game "Pokemon Go," based upon the Japanese animation and game series "Pocket Monsters" in the 1990s, reached 6.49 million since its release in South Korea a month ago.

"The market for adult kids is growing as male clients in their 30s have emerged as major consumers of related products," an industry source said. (Yonhap)