How popular is Hello Kitty in the world!

Hello Kitty also known by her full name Kitty White is a fictional character created by Yuko Shimizu, currently designed by Yuko Yamaguchi, and owned by the Japanese company Sanrio. Sanrio depicts Hello Kitty as a young female gijinka of a Japanese Bobtail cat with a red bow and no mouth. According to her backstory, she is a perpetual third-grade student who lives outside of London. Kitty and her twin sister, Mimmy (depicted with a yellow bow), celebrate their birthday on 1 November. (Source from Wikipedia)

In 1962, Shintaro Tsuji, founder of Sanrio, began selling rubber sandals with flowers painted on them. Tsuji noted the profits gained by adding a cute design to the shoes and hired cartoonists to design cute characters for his merchandise. The company produced a line of character merchandise centered around gift-giving occasions. Hello Kitty was designed by Yuko Shimizu and was added to the lineup of early Sanrio characters in 1974. The character’s first appearance on an item was in March 1975 on a vinyl coin purse sold in Japan, where she was pictured sitting between a bottle of milk and a goldfish bowl. She first appeared in the United States in 1976 when Sanrio opened a Gift Gate store in San Jose, California.

Sanrio decided to make Hello Kitty British because foreign countries, including Britain in particular, were trendy in Japan at the time of Hello Kitty’s creation. Sanrio already had several characters set in the US, and it wanted Hello Kitty to be different. Shimizu got the name Kitty from Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking-Glass; during a scene early in the book, Alice plays with a cat she calls Kitty. Sanrio’s motto is “social communication,” and Tsuji wanted the brand name to reflect that by including a greeting. He first considered “Hi Kitty” before finally settling on “Hello Kitty,” her current name.

HELLO KITTY PRODUCTS

Originally aimed at the pre-adolescent female market, the Hello Kitty product range has expanded from dolls, stickers, greeting cards, clothes, backpacks, lunch boxes, piggy banks, pencils, erasers, accessories, school supplies and stationery to purses, toasters, televisions, other home appliances, massagers, and computer equipment. These products range from mass market items to high-end consumer products and rare collectibles. As of 2014, more than 50,000 Hello Kitty product lines were available in over 130 countries.

HIGH END PRODUCT

HELLO KITTY CAFES

GIFT SHOPS

THEME PARKS

HELLO KITTY SHOWBOX

The restaurant is full of Hello Kitty with media art such as the 3D hologram to express the story of realizing the dream of becoming a pianist. The Hello Kitty Dream Gallery and huge size LED screen to let audiences like to in the Hello Kitty’s real world, singing, dancing and performing together. (Hyogo, Japan)

HELLO KITTY HOSPITAL

In 2008, a Hello Kitty-themed maternity hospital opened in Yuanlin, Taiwan. Hello Kitty is featured on the receiving blankets, room decor, bed linens, birth certificate covers, and nurses’ uniforms. The hospital’s owner explained that he hoped that the theme would help ease the stress of childbirth.