One day in 2019, a young entrepreneur named Derrick reached out to us at IFunPark by email. At that time, he had no background, no store, and no industry experience—everything began from zero. And back then, we were also just a small factory with fifty workers, a few hundred square meters of office space, and a simple belief: do the product well.

Six years later, the story took an astonishing turn:

By 2025, Funny Kids had grown into one of Vietnam’s Top 2 indoor playground chains, opening more than 50 stores—over 20 of which were equipped by us.

Meanwhile, IFunPark had expanded from a small workshop into a 20,000-square-meter manufacturing powerhouse, offering high-quality products and building a strong global presence.

This “from 0 to 50+” expansion journey was shaped by entrepreneurial instinct, market timing, team ability, and the right partnership. We witnessed it, took part in it, and accompanied it—making the Funny Kids case especially precious to us. It is not only our story; it is a textbook example about industry opportunities, entrepreneurial judgment, supply-chain collaboration, and chain expansion—one that everyone planning to open an indoor playground should study deeply.

I. Huge Demand Gap Created by Vietnam’s Consumption Upgrade

Behind every high-growth chain brand lies one critical macro factor. Funny Kids’ explosive rise was essentially built on Vietnam’s decade-long wave of consumption upgrading.

1. Rapid economic growth and higher disposable income

For Chinese readers, this environment feels familiar—much like China twenty years ago:
With fast economic development, accelerating urbanization, newly built shopping malls, and modernizing parenting perceptions, young families gained both the ability and the willingness to provide richer entertainment options for their children.
Yet the market offered almost no professional or standardized indoor playground brands.

What does supply-demand imbalance mean?

2. An “early-stage” market with immature competitors

Although Vietnam had demographic advantages, most indoor playground operators were “family-run parks,” lacking competitiveness in operations, hygiene, safety, and equipment quality.

In such a market—high demand, no strong competitors—whoever offers a cleaner, more professional, and more fun playground first will take the lead.

3. Strategic judgment: not starting in big cities, but in new mall of counties

Many entrepreneurs start in major cities to build a reputation, but Funny Kids Team made a completely different choice:

“Go to places that have consumption power but have not yet been developed.”

This was a remarkably sharp business insight.

Whenever a new mall in a small town had a good vacant storefront, Funny Kids would secure it quickly, invest quickly, and open quickly. This brought three major advantages:

1. No competitors, zero exposure cost, instantly becoming the local hottest spot

2. Much lower rent than big cities, resulting in faster ROI

3. Higher density of children, leading to strong, stable, long-term demand

This is why Funny Kids achieved a “nearly every new store becomes a success” growth curve in the early stage.

It is a classic “market-gap occupancy” strategy.

For anyone planning to invest in an indoor playground, this model is highly instructive.

II. A Strong Financial Backbone: Powerful Partners, Strong Funding Endurance

Many entrepreneurs are right about the market—but fail at only one point:

Not enough money to buy good equipment, expand, or resist risks.

We’ve seen it many: They have ambition, capability, and market demand, but without investors or partners, they get stuck after the first store. A cash-flow disruption during a slow season forces them out. Some cannot even open the first store.

But Funny Kids was completely different. From day one, Derrick was not alone—his team included several partners who believed in the project. This gave the brand stable and diversified funding at the very beginning.

A stable financial chain means no fear of cash-flow breaks—allowing them to build two, three, or even five stores simultaneously, achieving faster payback and stronger reinvestment.

Here, IFunPark also needs to share a  insight: In most cases, from finishing design, paying the deposit, production, shipment, to installation, an indoor playground requires 2–3 months. If it opens during peak seasons (summer, holidays), the initial investment returns very quickly.  While for moderately populated cities, ROI often happens within 6–12 months, depending on investment size and marketing. Unlike fast-moving consumer goods, this is a one-time investment with long-term stable revenue and low maintenance. Therefore, early-stage financial pressure is high.

A stable cash flow compensates for this weakness—and captures its strengths.

This is exactly why Funny Kids, with its strong capital structure, achieved the leap from 0 to 50 stores in six years, with funding that never dried up.

III. The Agile Giant: The Core Strength of a Chain Brand

For a chain brand, the core is not opening the first store, but whether the success of the first store can be replicated in the 10th, 20th, or 50th store.

For our summary，Funny Kids did two things extremely right:

1. Exponential learning: Success becomes repeatable, failure becomes avoidable

Derrick reached Vietnam’s top tier not only through good location and equipment, but because each store made them faster and stronger.

Running multiple stores is not just copying the same playground fifty times—its strategic advantage compounds, that each store teaches them more than their competitors. A single store can only rely on experience, but multiple stores can compare, analyze, and optimize.

Funny Kids can reviewed each store’s foot traffic, revenue, seasonal performance, and equipment popularity, then applied these insights to the next store.

And the result is, each stores is better than the next one, this “snowball effect” is something a single store could never achieve.

2. IFunPark provides stable, high-quality equipment with decreasing long-term cost

The more stores a brand opens, the more familiar our factory understand what the brand’s needs. This makes design more efficient and more precisely aligned—this is one advantage. The other is that cost reduction over time.

As a large, experienced playground manufacturer, IFunPark has economies of scale, and as a gesture of loyalty, always offer better pricing to returning clients. Meanwhile, any issues or improvements found from previous orders are addressed and upgraded in the next orders—providing continuous support.

For a brand planning to open around 10 stores per year, the stability of its supply chain becomes decisive. With stable supply, Funny Kids achieved consistently on-time openings and predictable payback.

From 200 Square Meters to a Chain Empire: Six Years of Mutual Success

Besides Derrick humbly conveyed the grattitude toward our factory, from our perspective, we'd love to say, that it's old customers like Funny Kids who support our factory grow faster.

We help you build your first, but  your continuous trust and purchase build IFunPark today’s production capacity and industry position. And you pushed us to upgrade our research and production. This mutual growth is rare and we cherish the most.

Outsiders call this a “Customer case.”

Internally, we call it a partnership.

Who Can Replicate THIS degree of Success?

The purpose of this article is not simply to show off praise a success story, but to help more entrepreneurs reflect:

If you want to build a chain like Funny Kids, ask yourself whether you have:

✔ 1. A fast-upgrading market with weak competition
✔ 2. A reliable, professional indoor playground equipment manufacturer
✔ 3. A stable financial chain, with at least three months of rent in reserve
✔ 4. A growth-oriented team that learns fast and summarizes well

Not everyone can reach 50 stores.

But you can become the Top 1 that fits your city’s size.

The indoor playground industry’s golden window is still open—Central Asia, the Middle East, India, Latin America, Africa, and even some U.S. states all have huge market gaps (as of 2025).
If you are in a country or city with “big market gaps and rapidly upgrading family spending,” you may just be standing in your own 2019 moment.

Meanwhile, the world doesn’t lack opportunities. It lacks people who act immediately.

At IFunPark, we are honored to have participate and contributed to thousands of projects—helping numberous founders build the playgrounds of their dreams, creating joyful spaces for hundreds of thousands of families around the world.

We firmly believe: running an indoor playground is not just a business, it is creating a city’s family entertainment culture.

If you, like Derrick, want to build your own indoor playground brand from zero, feel free to contact us anytime.

The next success story may be yours.