Gold prices continue to soar skyrocketing, this year during the Chinese New Year, ordinary citizens in mainland China have given up the idea of buying gold jewelry to celebrate the holiday. Among the younger generation, the trend of “gold phone stickers” is becoming popular. In addition, the trend of “blind boxes” has also become a business opportunity, with major animation IPs releasing New Year blind boxes, and even introducing “drawing red envelopes”.
With the soaring gold prices, the public finds it difficult to afford purchasing large amounts of gold. In recent months, the trend of “gold phone stickers” has emerged in mainland China. Gold is made into thin sheets with various designs and placed inside transparent phone cases, allowing the gold to be constantly displayed through the back of the phone.
Some netizens have shared the New Year gifts they bought for themselves before the holiday. They ordered two real gold “gold stickers” named “Splash of Wealth” and “Princess Prosperity” from the jewelry brand “Chow Tai Fook” on Taobao, sticking one on each of their phones along with their spouses.
According to reports from “Yicai,” searching the Chow Tai Fook’s Tmall flagship store reveals that several recently popular products are these types of priced at just over 100 yuan of gold phone stickers or pendants, with weights mostly around 0.1g, some even come with transparent cases. The brand has released multiple styles collaborating with IPs like Zhou Xueshu, Wangwang, and Fortune Cat, selling for 99 to 139 yuan, with over 7,000 orders currently placed.
The gold content, manufacturing process, and market pricing of gold phone stickers of different brands and specifications vary.
In addition to Chow Tai Fook, several jewelry and gold merchants have sensed the business opportunity and successively launched related gold phone sticker products, such as the Chaojuji x Doraemon, Chow Sang Sang x Hello Kitty, and Mankalong x Zhen Huan Zhuan collaborations.
Public data shows that more than 200,000 pieces of pure gold phone stickers have been sold on Taobao, mainly to female consumers aged between 25 and 30. The head of e-commerce marketing for Chow Tai Fook explained that although gold phone stickers have always been popular in the industry, their explosive popularity began at the end of 2024 and early 2025.
On social platforms, many young people share their experiences of buying gold phone stickers, their usage insights, and creative ways of placing them. Discussions on related topics are highly engaging, with over 2 million notes found by searching “how to apply gold phone stickers.”
Merchants have also introduced auspicious patterns with New Year meanings, such as this year’s zodiac snake, Fortune Cat, God of Wealth, etc. Some look like amulets with writings like “Good luck coming,” “Smoothness,” “Treasury,” hoping to bring some good luck during the festive season and expecting better financial luck in the upcoming year.
In addition to gold phone stickers, the trend of “blind box” consumption, which has been popular among young people in mainland China, has now extended to the Chinese New Year market, becoming a new business opportunity. Many businesses have launched “New Year blind boxes” containing snacks, digital products, toys, daily essentials, and even high-value items like gold and jewelry, attracting consumers to experience the surprise of “unboxing” during the New Year.
Furthermore, some brands use blind box marketing strategies to release limited edition or collaborative products, further stimulating consumer desire to purchase. The frenzy of “unboxing” shares on social media has also driven this trend.
During this Chinese New Year, the trend of “drawing red envelopes” with blind box characteristics is also popular. Many merchants on Taobao sell narrow red envelopes and drawstring containers, allowing users to put in cash or prizes of different amounts by themselves, making the distribution of red envelopes more fun and surprising.
This gameplay is similar to the traditional culture of “drawing lots,” combined with the randomness of blind boxes. Some families or companies even set up special rewards, such as large cash prizes, movie tickets, shopping vouchers, and more.