A friend of mine showed me this paper clipping from a 2013 Hindi news paper. For foreign viewers, this picture has names of toys in Hindi.
This clipping curated, basically shows the year in which the toys were launched in US, Europe and Japan primarily. And may be 70% of them never made it to India. And whatever managed to enter India, launched almost a decade or in some cases a couple of decades later.
Here's the full clipping.
If you noticed the last few years before 2013, it's mostly Digital Engagement.
Now, a little insight. These are toys that were among the ones which were a hit that particular year. This infographic was originally designed by Abby Ryan Design. Here's a much better version that can be found on their website.
The Indian Toys market has opened up only recently. To give you a small snippet.
India's Toy Market is just 0.5% of the world's Toy Market.
We are 1.3 Billion people, with half a million Middle Class people. And we Indians want toys. Toys that we can relate to. Toys that are made for India.
75%-80% of the toys in India are imports.
Through distributors and marketers like Funskool, Hasbro and Mattel. And a ton of Chinese imports, imported by some smaller distributors.
Toys have a major competitor now, digital devices with unlimited digital content to keep anybody engaged for hours.
But toys can never be replaced. Touching, feeling and creating imaginary stories, will never ever die. Every child deserves a toy. And newborns are being added to the Indian population at an exponential rate.
Toys are immortal. Toys are here to stay. We can only enhance them. Build a digital ecosystem around toys. But can never take the toys away from a kids' hand.
This exactly what we at DICE Toy Labs are working endlessly on. Because we have a strong belief that India is at a cusp, and great things are in store in the future. Our country is full of super creative designers and we have everything that we need to make cool toys. And who knows, the world might one day crave for Indian Toys.
India, watch out! Some cool toys launching in just a couple of months.