ShenzhenApril 23, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — From April 9 to 11, 2026, the three-day 7th International Licensing and Derivatives (Shenzhen) Exhibition Licensing CHINA (referred to as “Shenzhen International Licensing Exhibition”) was grandly held at the Shenzhen World Exhibition & Convention Center.
Concurrently, on April 10, the “IP x Candy & Toy Matchmaking Exchange Meeting,” hosted by Litong Frankfurt Exhibitions and co-organized by Safe Food Daily and Food Exhibition Network, was successfully held at the Play Innovation Hub in Meeting Room 14AB, 2nd Floor, Hall 16 of the Shenzhen World Exhibition & Convention Center. The matchmaking meeting brought together high-quality IP parties, candy and toy manufacturers, channel distributors, and industry experts from both domestic and international markets, building an efficient communication bridge between the candy and toy industry and the IP licensing field, injecting new momentum into high-quality industry development.
As a key concurrent event of the 2026 Shenzhen International Licensing Exhibition, this candy and toy matchmaking meeting precisely aligned with the current “IP + Candy & Toy” industry trend. Leveraging the overall resource advantages of the exhibition, it achieved deep integration of IP resources and the candy and toy industry. The matchmaking meeting was orderly conducted from 13:30 to 15:00 on April 10, with a lively atmosphere. It attracted IP parties from diverse fields such as animation, gaming, cultural heritage, and trendy toys, as well as nationally renowned candy and toy manufacturers, supermarket channel distributors, and representatives, including Lele Shun Animation, Xi’an Mo Dui Men Food, Nanjing Qiao Pin Tang, Guangdong Jinwang Food Co., Ltd., Xiao Zhang Tong Xue Guangdong Food Co., Ltd., Shenzhen Jinjiulong Trading Co., Ltd., Nick Bao Shandong Cultural Creativity Co., Ltd., Huizhou Shun Lai Xin Coffee Co., Ltd., Shenzhen Oulaideng Food Co., Ltd., and Jindao Gu • Cartoon Food, all actively participating in this exclusive cooperation feast for the candy and toy industry.
As a highly influential IP licensing event in South China, the 2026 Shenzhen IP Licensing Exhibition was held in conjunction with the 38th International Toys & Trendy Toys (Shenzhen) Exhibition and the 17th International Baby Carriages & Mother, Baby & Children’s Products (Shenzhen) Exhibition, covering an exhibition area of 130,000 square meters and bringing together over 1,400 exhibitors and tens of thousands of professional visitors, providing abundant resource support for the candy and toy matchmaking meeting. At the meeting, IP parties showcased popular IP resources, including internationally renowned IPs such as Pokémon, Alpine F1 Team, My Little Pony, Godzilla vs. Kong 3, Inter Milan, The Legend of Zhen Huan, B.Duck, and Monkey King, as well as numerous trendy new Chinese IPs covering categories like cartoon characters, traditional culture, and trendy art, offering candy and toy companies diverse licensing options.
Candy and toy companies, in turn, presented their latest product development achievements, including IP co-branded blind box candies, educational candy toys, and creative collectible candy toys, fully demonstrating the industry’s potential in IP integration and product innovation. The matchmaking meeting adopted a “precision matching + on-site negotiation” model, pre-sorting the needs of both parties to establish one-on-one negotiation channels between IP parties and candy and toy companies, effectively reducing cooperation communication costs and improving matchmaking efficiency. Many companies reached preliminary cooperation intentions on-site, covering multiple dimensions such as IP licensing, joint R&D, and channel sharing, achieving a two-way empowerment of “IPs finding manufacturers, manufacturers finding IPs.”
This candy and toy matchmaking meeting not only built an efficient cooperation platform for participating companies but also precisely grasped industry development trends, promoting the transformation of the candy and toy industry from “product competition” to “IP competition.” It helped companies tap into the core value of IP licensing and expand diversified development paths. Many participating companies expressed that the meeting accurately matched the needs of both sides, solving the pain point of IP resource scarcity for candy and toy companies while providing IP parties with broad commercial monetization channels. They look forward to more such matchmaking events in the future to further deepen the integration of the candy and toy industry with the IP licensing field.
The successful conclusion of the 2026 Shenzhen International Licensing Exhibition Candy & Toy Matchmaking Meeting not only established a cooperation bridge between IP and the candy and toy industry but also highlighted Shenzhen’s industrial vitality as a cultural innovation hub, injecting new energy into the high-quality development of the candy and toy industry in South China and nationwide. Looking ahead, as the IP licensing industry continues to heat up, the “IP + Candy & Toy” integration model will usher in broader development space, helping more high-quality IPs achieve commercial implementation and driving the candy and toy industry toward a new stage of branding, innovation, and internationalization.