Discovery is the toy industry superpower. TikTok Shop has become the most powerful toy discovery engine on the planet, and the brands that understood that first are rewriting what success looks like in our industry. Not just the global giants either - Craft Buddy Ltd, a UK independent, has reached the top three sellers on TikTok Shop in the Toys and Hobbies category. The playing field has genuinely changed. I've been watching this shift closely for the past couple of years, talking to brands at every fair from London to Shenzhen, and the pattern is remarkably consistent. The toys that win on TikTok tend to share four characteristics almost without exception: - they're visually demonstrable in under 40 seconds - they have an unboxing or reveal moment - they build collectibility and community - they tap into the extraordinary growth of the kidult market, which Circana confirms grew 18% in 2025 alone. The numbers behind this shift are extraordinary: * TikTok Shop reached $64.3 billion in global GMV in 2025, up 94% year on year. * Influencers now generate 60% of TikTok Shop's total GMV globally. * Pop Mart experienced an 819% increase in UK TikTok Shop orders in just 12 weeks. * Jellycat grew revenue 66% to £333 million in 2024 driven almost entirely by community and creator content. * Squishmallows has accumulated over 6.3 billion TikTok views and sold 200 million units. * And NeeDoh, a squeeze ball from a family toy company most people hadn't heard of, sold six months of inventory in six weeks with zero planned campaign behind it. A great success story for Bigjigs Toys Ltd in the UK. What connects every one of these stories is 'discovery'. Regardless of size, the right product, shown by the right creator, to the right audience, at the moment they're most open, is the secret sauce. And the UK opportunity right now is significant and still wide open: > 200,000 UK businesses are already on TikTok Shop. > 34% of UK consumers use TikTok for daily product searches. > TikTok Shop was the UK's fastest growing online retailer in 2024, with 27 items sold every second on Black Friday 2025. Social commerce is forecast to reach $8 trillion globally by 2030 and toy social commerce is one of the fastest growing verticals within it. The brands building their discovery infrastructure now, finding the right creators, getting their operations ready and connecting their products to communities who genuinely love them, will be the ones defining this space for the next decade. That is exactly what Shout About Shop is built for. The first social commerce marketplace built exclusively for toys and family brands. Discovery Town is open. Congratulations to Gary Wadhwani and the whole Craft Buddy team on being pioneers in this space. A brilliant example of what's possible for UK independent toy brands who embrace this opportunity. May many actors follow :)