The hot search ranking has risen by 50,000+. Is this product going to be popular again?

“oh my god, I can practically hear the mahjong tiles.”

In the classic sitcom "Friends" that is popular all over the world, Rachel also mentioned "mahjong", which is the Chinese "quintessence" that has been mentioned most in Europe, the United States and other places in recent years.

Some people say that if you walk along the streets of New York and hear the sound of "hu le" coming from an outdoor cafe, please don't be too surprised and don't doubt that you are still in China. Overseas, such sounds have become the norm.

Even NBA superstar O'Neal could not resist the charm of mahjong. He was a big shot on the court and dominated the mahjong world in private . It was said that his accuracy rate in picking cards was as high as 99% , and he was called the " Los Angeles Mahjong God " .

As mahjong, a national quintessence, has been popular overseas for many years, the consumer market for related products has also been thriving.

Keywords are rising rapidly in the ranking of the hot search list in the US and Asia

Open the Amazon e-commerce website and enter "mahjong" to search. There are only 707 listings for sale on the platform . Compared with other popular items with tens of thousands of listings, mahjong seems "unpopular".

Moreover, the number of reviews for these listings is not high, and the sales in November were also “average”, basically a few hundred. One of the listings is a mahjong set priced at $59.99, which sold more than 1,000 pieces last month and had more than 2,000 reviews, ranking 41st in the BS list of the sub-category of Amazon US.

Is Mahjong not popular in the United States? Not at all.

Through keyword search on Amazon US hot search terms, the ranking of mahjong has been rising recently. Consumers are using related terms such as "mahjong tiles set", "mahjong game set", "mahjong set", "mahjong table", "mahjong sets", " mahjong mat", " american mahjong set ", "mahjong game" to search for products.

Among the above keywords, " american mahjong set " has the fastest rising hot search ranking, up 52,960 places .

Not only has the ranking of Amazon's hot searches risen, but Google's search trend data can also prove its popularity.

In the past year, the global search popularity of the keyword "mahjong" has remained high, reaching the highest peak many times, and the hot search areas cover Southeast Asia, Europe and the United States. In terms of specific keywords, the popularity of "mahjong video game" soared by 2100%, and the popularity of "mahjong 138" and "slot demo mahjong 3" also soared.

In the United States, the search popularity of the keyword "mahjong" has also been at a high level for a long time. Recently, related searches such as "fingertip mahjong" have soared by 4,300%, and "mahjong cards 2023" have soared by 3,000% .

Today, many countries around the world have established mahjong leagues. According to statistics, the American Mahjong League alone has attracted more than 3.5 million members. Even in Las Vegas and other places, mahjong world championships are held , with prize money ranging from 100,000 to 5 million US dollars, and more than 100,000 participants every year .

National Geographic magazine once took a photo showing a group of American Jewish women and black women sitting around a table playing mahjong in a club in Queens, New York . Some international students said that this is not a rare scene.

Through other social media platforms, we can also see the popularity of mahjong around the world.

For example , on TikTok, the topic #mahjong has been viewed more than 2 billion times , the topic #Mahjong Games has been viewed more than 300 million times, the topic #How to Play Mahjong has been viewed more than 84 million times, and the topic #Chinese Mahjong has been viewed nearly 60 million times.

On YouTube, multiple mahjong-related videos have been viewed in the millions, with a single video even reaching over 48.8 million views.

The trend of traditional Chinese culture has spread overseas, creating endless business opportunities for small poker tables. Both top luxury brands and small and medium-sized overseas sellers have seized the opportunity.

The popularity of niche products has soared, and even "sky-high prices" can trigger a buying spree

"Mahjong has become a daily entertainment game in Florida," a blogger shared a video of playing mahjong at a community event on YouTube, which received thousands of likes and a wave of approval in the comment section below:

“——The Chinese who invented this game are really amazing;

——I can’t leave Chinese Mahjong;

——Chinese Mahjong, the greatest invention in the world;

..."

Annelise Heinz, author of the best-selling book "Mahjong: A Chinese Game and the Making of Modern American Culture," once said that mahjong has been popular in the United States for as long as in China.

In the 1920s, American businessman Joseph P. Babcock brought mahjong back to the United States after visiting China, and quickly made it a new fashion in the U.S. At that time, a set of mahjong cost as much as $500, but it was still quickly sold out in shopping malls, and 1.5 million sets were sold in less than a year .

The world's top luxury brands Hermès, LV, and PRADA have all launched high-priced mahjong set designs, which have also won the competition of the wealthy circle to buy. For example, in 2020 , LV launched a jade-carved mahjong set, which was reportedly priced at NT$2.3 million ( equivalent to RMB 523,400 ) . Later, the hand-carved wooden mahjong set was priced at 89,500 New Taiwan dollars (equivalent to RMB 478,500) .

This design is of course only suitable for the consumption level of a few people. Most cross-border sellers target customers with middle-income levels, after all, this group of people accounts for the majority of the consumer market.

Therefore, when searching for "mahjong" on Amazon , you can see that the price of mahjong sets ranges from double-digit to triple-digit dollars, from as low as a dozen dollars to as high as hundreds of dollars, and the equipment is also different. For example, some sets include storage boxes, playing manuals, etc., and the production materials are also more advanced.

At the same time, there are mahjong sets of different types and different ways of playing, such as "professional Chinese mahjong" and "American mahjong". As mentioned above, in the hot search list of the Meiya website, the ranking of " american mahjong set " has risen by more than 50,000 ; Google search trends also show that in recent times, the keyword search popularity of "American Mahjong" has been increasing, among which the search popularity of "american mahjong card 2023" has soared by 650% .

In a listing for American Mahjong on Amazon , the seller introduced it this way: Since its introduction to the United States in the 1920s, Mahjong has become the game of choice for generations of classic game fans. American Mahjong is based on the Chinese version and is a four-player game of strategy , skill, and luck suitable for players over the age of 8 .

Extraordinary popularity brings extraordinary sales and gross profits.

Earlier this year, China Daily reported that among the "Top Ten New Year's Goods Most Loved by Overseas Consumers", in addition to floor scrubbers, gaming chairs, Hanfu costumes, spicy noodles, and snail rice noodles, mahjong was also on the list.

According to media reports, in the Amazon store of a certain overseas chess and card seller, the mahjong set priced at around US$100 is the store's hot-selling item, with an average gross profit margin of 71% , ranking high on the Amazon BS list in the sub-category .

In fact, it is not just mahjong, it has also driven the popularity of many related products: for example, mahjong machines are hot-selling overseas, and the mahjong game "Soul of Mahjong" has achieved a stable annual income of over 5 billion yen, of which 92% comes from Japan . Searching for "mahjong" on Google will show a number of mahjong game websites.

There are even industrial combinations, such as mahjong + outdoor camping. Some RVs are already equipped with electric lifting mahjong machines . This may become a major trend in the future. After all, the outdoor trend has been getting stronger and stronger in recent years.

In summary, although mahjong as a single product seems to be a niche product, and as an entertainment product it is not suitable for daily use, and the consumer demand is slightly lower than other products, it has the opportunity to be made into a high-priced product and obtain higher profits, and at present, there is less competition for this product.

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