Three-month countdown to betting; behind the high growth in the online gaming industry, compliance doubts have arisen

(Source: Caiwen)

          The performance surge of Card Game has greatly increased the fortune of its founders, Li Qibin and his wife, to 60 billion yuan.            

Last year, they made it onto the Hu Run Rich List with a fortune of 60 billion yuan, and this March, they reappeared on the 2026 Hu Run Global Rich List, which has not alleviated the concerns of Card Game founders Li Qibin and Qi Yan. As a leading company in the domestic collectible card market, Card Game has been striving for a listing on the Hong Kong stock market since 2024 but has failed to achieve this despite two submissions, now facing the impending deadline of their agreement.

In June 2021, Card Game accepted over $100 million in Series A preferred stock investments from Sequoia China and Tencent. The agreement included terms for a listing gamble, which stipulated that if they failed to go public, they would need to buy back shares, with the original time limit set for five years, expiring this June.

Currently, there has been no new public information regarding Card Game’s listing, which seems to have stagnated, and the market is closely watching as the deadline for their listing gamble approaches.

Card Game has faced numerous doubts, primarily because its core product, the cards, mainly targets minors. The incorporation of blind box elements and the hype around certain scarce cards have frequently led to accusations of enticing minors to spend.

The original deadline for the listing gamble is approaching.

In October last year, Li Qibin and his wife ranked 90th on the Hu Run Rich List, even ahead of Liu Qiangdong and Li Yanhong.

54-year-old Li Qibin was born in Quzhou, Zhejiang. After graduating from a vocational school, he worked in a government position in his hometown, later venturing into entrepreneurship due to family reasons. Initially, after noticing the huge business opportunity in the card market, Li Qibin chose not to create his own card brand but started with OEM business, producing cards for other companies, earning his first pot of gold.

In 2003, Li Qibin and his wife co-managed the Yiwu Beetle Toy Factory, engaging in the sales of generic entertainment toys. In 2008, Li Qibin established Zhejiang Beetle Printing and Packaging Co., Ltd., beginning his foray into the printing business.

In 2011, Card Game (Shanghai) Cultural Communication Co., Ltd. was established. In 2014, he planned to invest 1.2 billion yuan to build the Beetle Animation Cultural Industry Park in his hometown, but the project later failed.

A new turning point came in 2018. That year, Li Qibin and Card Game obtained the Ultraman IP license, which remains a significant source of revenue for Card Game.

From 2018 to the end of 2024, Card Game launched a total of 320 collectible card series and 42 stationery series based on over 50 Ultraman hero characters. It is reported that Card Game has collaborated with over 70 domestic and international IPs. In addition to globally renowned overseas IPs like Ultraman and My Little Pony, Card Game has over 30 “Guochao” IPs, which are still growing.

Card Game’s performance has rapidly increased in recent years. In 2024, the company’s total revenue reached 10.057 billion yuan, an increase of 277.8% compared to 2.662 billion yuan in 2023, with an adjusted net profit of 4.466 billion yuan, up 378.2% year-on-year.

At the beginning of 2024, Card Game also started its IPO journey on the Hong Kong stock market, submitting its application for the first time, but it automatically expired six months later. In April 2025, Card Game made a comeback with a second submission, and it even passed the hearing, but then there was no further news.

As Card Game strives for a listing, it is also facing the agreement to gamble on going public with its investors.

In June 2021, Card Game accepted A-round preferred stock investments from Sequoia China and Tencent, with Sequoia investing $105 million and Tencent contributing $30 million. According to media reports, both parties agreed that from the issuance of the preferred stock, Card Game must complete its listing by the fifth year, which is June of the following year. If they fail to meet this requirement, they will have to buy back the shares at an annualized interest rate of 8%, including principal and interest.

Caiwen noted that Card Game’s prospectus last year showed that Li Qibin and his wife controlled 83.5% of the company’s shares, while Sequoia and Tencent held 10.5% and 3%, respectively.

However, as of now, there has been no new progress on Card Game’s listing, and the original deadline for their listing gamble is approaching, leaving it uncertain whether Li Qibin and Card Game will take any further actions.

High growth in performance faces compliance doubts.

At this year’s Spring Festival Gala, Card Game appeared as the exclusive card partner, gaining considerable exposure once again.

With IPs like Ultraman, My Little Pony, Egg Party, Naruto, Detective Conan, and Harry Potter, Card Game’s products are extremely popular among elementary school students.

Data shows that by the end of 2024, Card Game had numerous IPs, including Ultraman and Harry Potter, with Ultraman alone contributing 73% of its revenue that year. The five major IPs—Ultraman, My Little Pony, Yeluo Li, Naruto, and Douluo Dalu—accounted for 98.4%, 89.9%, and 86.1% of revenue from 2022 to 2024, respectively.

In 2024, Card Game sold a total of 4.8 billion packs of cards. However, Card Game has faced criticism in recent years for its business model being similar to “quasi-gambling” or “basic gambling.” Card Game has been accused of artificially controlling the appearance probabilities of different types of cards to determine the rarity of different tasks within various series.

According to media reports, for example, in the Card Game My Little Pony Huitian Pack - Fifth Wave, the probability of the “rarest” card appearing is 1:216, meaning that 1 out of 216 packs contains a rare card. The related products in the Shanghai area had a release volume of over 10,000 boxes, with only about 50 rare cards available.

Media criticisms claim that Card Game’s blind box design can trap adolescents in a “Skinner box”: generating anticipation through random rewards, stimulating the brain to secrete dopamine, leading children to continuously repeat their purchase behavior.

In July 2024, CCTV Finance’s “Finance Investigation” program specifically called out Card Game: through the design of blind card scarcity levels, it attracts minors to spend money recklessly on cards.

In January 2024, Card Game submitted its prospectus to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, but the China Securities Regulatory Commission subsequently required Card Game to prove that it has established an effective data security management system and data security protection measures in accordance with the “Data Security Law,” “Measures for the Security Assessment of Data Export,” “Interim Measures for Data Security Management in the Industrial and Information Technology Fields,” and “Regulations on the Protection of Children’s Personal Information on the Internet.”