22.10.2003, New Zealand Herald
...in her home market, where she is known as Kitty-chan, Hello Kitty is under siege from Walt Disney's lovable bear, Winnie the Pooh. Pooh has a fanatical following among children and hordes of 20- to 30-something Japanese females renowned for their love of anything "kawaii", or cute. Last year Pooh stole Hello Kitty's title as most popular character in Japan.
Market research firm Character Databank estimates Pooh had a 16.2 per cent stake in the 1.6 trillion ($2.4 billion) annual character goods market in Japan as of August, followed by Kitty at 9.8 per cent.
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