Hello Kitty has made 88.5 billion dollars.

To put that into perspective.

Spider-Man has made 31.8 billion.
The Peanuts have made 16 billion.
The Simpsons have made 15 billion.
Star Trek has made 11 billion.
Pirates of the Caribbean has 7.8 billion.

Those five franchises have made combined less than Hello Kitty has as a franchise primarily focused on girls with a primary audience focus of age 6.

It is the second biggest franchise of all time, behind Pokemon at 110 billion and ahead of Mickey Mouse, Disney Princess, Marvel and Star Wars by billions.

The big question though is what about Hello Kitty makes it so profitable that it’s now making 6 billion dollars every year.

Did some research and found a few reasons.

Number One - Japan itself

Hello Kitty was created in 1975 and at the time, Japan was in the process of a culture change.

Most people say the true end of World War 2 for Japan happened during the 1964 Olympics, where after decades of stigma after the war, Japan was reopened to the world in a new way.

That cultural change had an impact on Sanrio, which is the parent company to Hello Kitty and was a startup in the 60s that gained popularity selling rubber sandals and flip flops with characters for kids designed on them.

The company itself grew heavily with the economy in Japan, where Japan was a 4% average GDP growth during the 60s, which boomed the children’s toy market.

This made Sanrio the leader in apparel designed for kids in Japan and in 1975, Hello Kitty when introduced quickly became a winner.

The other benefit was Hello Kitty started in 1975, when Japan became a center of culture around the world.

Japan in 1988 was 50% of the global microchip market.
Japan owned the video game market for the 80s/90s, with the Nintendo NES selling over 60 million units and Sega/Sony both being based in Japan.
Japan also defeated the American comic market, where manga sells 5.6 billion a year in Japan versus 1.2 billion for comics in the US and manga is 27% of the comic market in the US.

Japan had this massive wave of imports to the US and Europe, but the big issue is despite Mario, Zelda, Dragon Ball and more being popular, very little was offered to girls.

Hello Kitty before other anime’s and manga like Sailor Moon came to the US was already here and dominating in stores.

Number Two - Merchandise and just merchandise

Most large franchises see merchandise as the largest revenue channel, but most have other sources.

• Pokemon has made 82 billion off merchandise, but 28 billion off games, movies, cards and shows.
• Star Wars is 42 billion off merchandise, but 25 billion off movies, games and shows.
• Disney Princess is 40 billion off merchandise, but 14 billion off movies.

Hello Kitty is in the rare category, where over 98% of revenue is just merchandise.

It has had some manga, anime and an amusement park, but those aren’t a big piece of the picture.

This normally is a bad thing, but it is sort of similar to Mickey Mouse.

Mickey Mouse is intentionally sheltered by Disney as a property, with very few theatrically released movies, cartoons being carefully done and a policy in Disney where Mickey can’t appear in any shows unless Mickey is the title character.

The reason was Mickey was meant to be special and serve as a face and idea, versus as a character which would do content people sometimes don’t like and reduces sales.

Hello Kitty ultimately is a cute image for merchandise and lets kids create their own take on the character, versus having shows and movies flood it.

Number Three - 50,000 products

Hello Kitty has been licensed to the extreme, where the franchise has in over 100 countries over 50,000 different branded around it.

Candy
Toys
Apparel
Breast pumps
Lighters
Microwaves
Quesadilla makers
Retainers
Contacts

Hello Kitty has sold almost everything, to the point I googled and found sex toys and firearms, which I couldn’t confirm if they were or were not actually licensed by the company.

Benefit here to Hello Kitty being put on everything is the Flinstones effect.

Cocoa & Fruity Pebbles came out in 1971.
Flinstone’s vitamins were made in 1968.

Are the Flinstones still relevant to kids or adults in the US?

Besides memes showing them advertising Winston cigarettes in 1961, not really.

The key is they were an early kids franchise, being the first to go on TV and while the comedy and animation is clearly dated, the vitamins and cereal still sell extremely well to this day.

For Hello Kitty, they have the same thing going on in Japan and other parts of the world.

They licensed to so many products that a handful were good enough people go for the product over the brand.

It’s why I’m confident in 50 years, kids will be eating Cocoa Pebbles and just know the Flinstone’s similar to how they’d know the Trix Rabbit or Lucky from Lucky Charms, versus knowing the full history.

Hello Kitty has products in candy, clothing and toys which kids clearly like and work beyond just being a logo on a product.

Final thoughts

I asked people today which media franchise would be making the most in 100 years and Hello Kitty came in last at 4%, while Marvel won at 53%.

I don’t think people are aware of the power of the Hello Kitty brand and exactly what has been built here.