A "fingertip business" with a scale of 1 billion is now forcefully controlling a group of young consumers.

If one were to nominate the most popular national hobby of the past year, the cross-stitch "Pin Dou" by young people themselves would undoubtedly be a dark horse among them.

On Xiaohongshu, the number of views on the topic of "Pinduoduo" has exceeded 7.5 billion, and there are 23.42 million related discussion notes. The sales of Douyin group buying have soared by 1,461% year-on-year.

In the "Top 10 Products of 2025" released by Taobao, "Pinduoduo" was included, with its search volume increasing by nearly 500% year-on-year in the past year.

"Pin Dou", which combines the attributes of personalized creation and social sharing, has now become a new type of social currency. What kind of magic does Pindou, which is called by netizens to be able to forget the passage of time and enter a "flow" state, have?

In this article, Yiwu Index will take you to understand "Pinduoduo".

01

Pinduo: Each generation has its own "cross-stitch"

The so-called "piecing together beans" does not refer to real beans but rather a kind of small hollow plastic tube component. Players need to arrange and combine beans of different colors according to the preset drawings, and then heat them with an iron to fuse and shape them into various patterns. Due to its presentation effect being highly close to that of stereoscopic pixel patterns, it is also often called "pixel art".

Beads beads are not a new thing. As early as the 1980s, the American toy company Perler introduced beads beads as a children's educational toy to the North American market, and the name "Perler Beads" has been used up to now. Its gameplay has a low threshold and intuitive rules. At that time, its core selling point was to train children's concentration, color recognition ability and hand-eye coordination. The main application scenarios were concentrated in parent-child interaction and basic education fields.

In the past two years, "Pin Dou" has once again come into the public eye in China in the form of "emotional handicrafts". It has gradually shifted from a relatively niche category of parent-child intelligence products that mainly focused on educational functions to the current interest-based consumption that emphasizes emotional release and personal expression. Due to the fact that Pinduoduo has been endowed with multiple attributes such as stress relief, expression and aesthetic creation, its consumer base has become increasingly broad. Many young people jokingly refer to their state of being addicted to it as "I have picked up Pinduoduo".

In the early days, the market was dominated by bulk bean granules, with the core selling points focusing on color, quantity, particle size and price range. Users could complete their creations by themselves using tools and blueprints. With the continuous increase in the consumer base and novice users, products are gradually moving towards package development. Packaging and selling bean paste granules, boards and drawings has become the mainstream.

Nowadays, the gameplay of Douyin is constantly expanding. From replicating IP characters to original personalized patterns, the aesthetic expression and decorative attributes of Pinduo products have gradually increased. In addition to being made into daily items such as ornaments, keychains, and fridge magnets, some die-hard enthusiasts have also attempted to combine douyin with jewelry, green plants, decorative paintings and other forms, presenting new ways of expression that are more creative and personalized.

The bouquet and jewelry necklace made of patchwork beans. Image source: Xiaohongshu

At present, group-buying bean products can roughly be classified into three categories based on their quality positioning and price range. The first category is high-end quality products, represented by brands such as MARD. They perform well in color representation and particle stability, but are relatively expensive and targeted at die-hard enthusiasts. The second category consists of mid-range quality-to-price ratio products, such as brands like Mi Xiaowo, dodo, and HuangdouDou, which cover a wider range of mass consumer groups. The third category is high cost-performance products, commonly known in the market as "Yiwu beans". With large-scale production and price advantages, they are particularly suitable for entry-level users with limited budgets and procurement needs with high requirements for cost control.

With the rapid growth of the group-buying bean consumption market, the upstream of the industrial chain is accelerating the layout of production capacity. At present, the production of domestic bean curd pellets, boards and related accessories is mainly concentrated in traditional toy and small commodity manufacturing clusters such as Yiwu and Ningbo in Zhejiang Province, as well as Shantou, Chenghai and Dongguan in Guangdong Province. The development of plastic raw materials, color masterbatches and molds is relatively mature, and the degree of process standardization is high, which limits the differences in specifications and quality of the bean granules.

02

Pinduo, the "new favorite for Stress Relief" among young people

When the need to relieve stress has become one of the core demands of contemporary young people, Pinduo, with its lightweight, low threshold and strong healing features, has successfully come into the public eye and become a popular choice for young people to soothe their emotions and relax their leisure time. Behind the small bean lies a blue ocean of emotional consumption.

According to the Yiwu Index, the overall market size of Pinduoduo in China is approximately 1 billion yuan and is still in a stage of continuous expansion.

Data shows that the price of ordinary brand beans is approximately 1.3 to 1.5 yuan per thousand. Take the MARD brand with a relatively high quality positioning as an example. The unit price of its beans is about 5 yuan per thousand, and with a full set of tools, the entry-level configuration cost is usually around 100 yuan. The relatively low entry cost has not only attracted young consumers to give it a try but also enabled many entrepreneurs to sense business opportunities.

The prices of different specifications of sets in a certain Douyin store on Taobao. Source: Yiwu Index

On the Taobao platform, the activity of stores related to douyin has been continuously increasing. Stores such as "MARD Douyin", "Huangdoudou Douyin", and "coco Handicraft Store" are quite popular, and the monthly sales of some best-selling items have exceeded one million pieces. Meanwhile, the supporting ecosystem for bean blending is becoming increasingly complete. Besides the basic beans and sets, tools such as electric bean blending pens and electronic bean blending boards have begun to emerge to enhance the efficiency and convenience of the production process. The maturity of derivative categories, in turn, indicates that consumers have shifted from "trying new things" to "long-term investment", and the industry has entered a mature development period.

Electronic bean paste boards and electric bean paste pens. Image source: Yiwu Index

On Xiaohongshu, the topic "Pin Dou" has received over 7.5 billion views and more than 23.42 million discussion notes. A large number of users share finished product displays, drawing resources and production processes, forming a circular path from content seeding to placing orders and purchases, and then to secondary creation and dissemination, continuously boosting the popularity of Pinduoduo.

The topic popularity image related to "Douyin" on the Xiaohongshu platform is sourced from Yiwu Index

The offline market also performed outstandingly. In DIY handicraft stores in cities like Hangzhou and Guangzhou, patchwork has become one of the main projects. Most stores adopt an hourly charging model, with prices usually ranging from 20 to 30 yuan per hour, which includes materials and tools. Consumers can complete a piece of work in the store and take the finished product away for the price of a cup of coffee. Unlike online sales materials, offline Douyin shopping places more emphasis on social interaction and on-site experience attributes, becoming an important entry point to attract young customers.

The sudden popularity of "Pin Dou" is no accident. The reason for this lies in its alignment with the current shift in the public's consumption psychology - by offering a low participation threshold, it gives young people a definite sense of achievement.

An emotional product. From the perspective of consumption attributes, Douyin is closer to a kind of lightweight DIY emotional consumption. On the one hand, in recent years, "stress relief" and "healing" have become high-frequency consumption keywords. The process of making patchwork beans is slow and repetitive, naturally possessing a certain relaxing attribute. For many young people, piecing beans is more like a controllable emotional outlet - it doesn't require complex skills or long-term learning investment. Just piece them together one by one according to the blueprint, and they can complete a piece of work in concentration. On the other hand, the "sense of certainty and achievement" brought by "Doupin" creation is also its appeal. Unlike many interest projects whose results are difficult to quantify, Pinduoduo can complete a full work within a few hours, and the results are clearly visible. It meets the dual needs of young people nowadays for emotional release and expression.

The resurgence of nostalgia and retro style. The popularity of group buying is inseparable from the trend of nostalgic consumption. Nowadays, the retro aesthetic continues to make a comeback. From pixel art games like "Stardew Valley" to classic game characters such as "Super Mario" and "Contra", the pixel style is once again entering the public eye. The pixel art patterns presented by Pin Dou align with the current young people's aesthetic preferences for retro trends and, to a certain extent, carry a re-experience of childhood joys, evoking emotional resonance. On social media platforms, users' act of sharing their works is not only a display of achievements but also a form of emotional expression and identity recognition.

The amplification of the star effect. Beyond the popularity, the addition of star and fan culture has further magnified this trend. Many celebrities have posted their dou-buying works on social media platforms, integrating dou-buying elements into their support items and star card designs, which has sparked imitation and follow-up from their fans. Making bean puzzle designs and creating exclusive merchandise around idol images has become a popular way of expression among young people. As a result, pinduoduo has transformed from an ordinary handcrafted material into a carrier with a sense of circle identity and participation. On e-commerce platforms, most young people who are "seeking Douyin blueprints" hope to DIY their favorite stars or characters. Some limited edition material packs launched in collaboration with well-known anime ips have shown monthly sales exceeding 100,000 pieces.

The Q-version image source of the Pinduoduo star: Xiaohongshu

03

"Yiwu Bean" has "charged" into the Douban race

As the consumption stratification in the group-buying bean market becomes increasingly clear, "Yiwu beans" have formed a relatively independent product category in the industry and have become a rapidly growing subcategory. At present, the shops related to Pinduoduo are mainly concentrated in the first zone of Yiwu International Trade City and the Global Digital Trade Center, with about 50 business entities currently in operation. It covers different main business categories such as wholesale of bean paste granules, set sales and supporting tools.

In terms of product categories, the Yiwu market mainly supplies basic materials, including bean granules, boards, tweezers, ironing paper, etc. At the same time, some merchants also offer combination sets and theme products. In addition to the sale of finished products, some merchants are also involved in the production of supporting products such as molds and special hot stamping paper.

With the growth of market demand, since 2025, the order volume of some bean curd and related mold and hot stamping paper manufacturing enterprises in Yiwu has significantly increased, and their production capacity has been continuously released. Many production factories are operating at high load.

The image source of the group-buying bean products in Yiwu Market: Yiwu Index

According to the visit and understanding of the Yiwu Index Market, before the demand for group-buying beans fully exploded, some merchants in the market had already captured the signal of an upward trend in the demand for group-buying beans through inquiries. As early as the first half of 2025, they had begun to make early preparations for production and sales. A vendor in Yiwu Market said, "Since the first half of last year, the number of people coming to ask about buying beans has suddenly increased." In addition to the basic bean curd products currently available in the store, we will launch a batch of new items when the market opens after the Spring Festival." The business operator also stated that they will simultaneously adjust the product structure in the store, appropriately increase the proportion of bean curd products, and enhance the research and development investment in related products.

The ability of merchants to quickly seize business opportunities is inseparable from the support of Yiwu's overall industrial system. From the perspective of industrial foundation, the advantages of Yiwu's Doudou market mainly lie in two aspects:

First, relying on its mature small commodity industry ecosystem, Yiwu has provided a stable and low-cost basic supply for the domestic bean market. From plastic pellet production, mold processing, to board assembly, tool accessories and packaging logistics, Yiwu has formed a relatively complete industrial chain structure, providing a fundamental guarantee of "stable supply, controllable price and efficient circulation" for the bean assembly market.

Secondly, at the product level, the product form of Yiwu Pindou has also shown certain innovations. Business operators have also begun to extend their attempts beyond traditional flat collage, such as launching micro-landscape products, three-dimensional multi-layer structure designs, and flower and plant potted plant collage works, to enhance the decorative attributes and scene applications of the finished products. Meanwhile, the increase in special material mosaics (such as luminous, fluorescent, etc.) and thematic templates also reflects that the product structure is developing in a diversified direction.

The micro-landscape and flower and plant potted plant group buying works in Yiwu Market. Image source: Yiwu Index