Inside China's Mystery Box Craze is something unexpected that catches anyone by surprise; open the package, and there might be a dead cat or puppy. This has drawn outrage from netizens for its sheer inhumanity.
Mystery Box Craze in China is not so pleasant
According to Love Home, an animal rights organization, who taped the raid last May 3 in Chengdu, central China, in which it opened 156 packages of months-old puppies and kittens, not all were alive when the group tried to save them, reported CNN.
All the pictures made Chinese social media users belch in horror at what they witnessed inside these boxes. It is a shopping fad called 'Mystery Boxes' with something more in store for the buyers.
When someone buys a small box with a hidden gift, you would imagine that there would be a collectible figure or something artsy, but others have been finding something else altogether.
Ding Ying, a professor who majors in Marketing and based in the Beijing's Renmin University, spoke to the state-run newspaper People's Daily about these online packages. He called them addictive when something of interest like the prizes, part of a collectible series. Most of the consumers are after completing whatever series they got, she said.
By December last year, the business boomed and got bigger, can reach as big as 30 billion yuan ($4.7 billion) by 2024, based on an industry report. The mystery box maker Pop Mart had raised $676 million in its first public offering. Most of the time, Pop Mart has figurines its Mystery Box Craze. It is not always a collectible inside as the fad has a grim side to it, not just fun and games.
Read also: Mountain Lion Viciously Attacks 6-Year Old Girl in Park, Saved by Man With Hard Punch in Ribs
Animals are the gifts
Live animal delivery via mail is illegal in China, but according to state-run media, the law is inadequately enforced. Several mystery box companies take advantage of such a loophole and deliver surprise pets to buyers' doors for as little as 32 yuan ($5).
Animal rights organizations find it cruel that animals are sent inside boxes as a cute, cuddly pet could end up dead. It is shocking to those receiving such packages and has garnered condemnation as a barbaric practice.
Love Home founder Chen Yunlian said in an interview that she spoke to a young man who sends animals in these mystery boxes and told him that he was earning by endangering these pets. CNN Business tried to contact Chen, but he was not interviewed.
What is in the box?
As the trend has been hot with consumers the last few years, more companies have added costly items and even smartphones, watches, and sunglasses, as mentioned by BiliBili.
It became popular with many international brands, including Starbucks, Sephora, and Converse, which have developed an offering for the Chinese market. Even social media influencers have jumped on the bandwagon by doing videos of unboxing these blind boxes, then reviewing what is inside.
A catchphrase sums up what the fad is all about, stating anything can be a mystery box; there's no limit.
There are presently no overarching, national policies in place to protect these animals from cruelty. This mystery box craze might have laws made to regulate it and protect animals.
