Who Is Ah Fu? The FYT Brand Mascot Born in 2015

By 2015, FYT had been running for four years. The platform was growing steadily, the user base was expanding, and the product suite was maturing. But the brand still lacked something — a face that could be recognized at a glance, a personality that users could connect with beyond the interface.

That year, Ah Fu was born.

He is a cartoon character — part boy, part brand ambassador — defined by a head of unmistakable oversized brown swirl hair and a pair of large, expressive eyes that radiate mischief and warmth in equal measure. He wears red suspenders with the Chinese character “富” (wealth/fortune) displayed on his chest. That single character does double duty: it references the brand name 富易堂 (FYT) directly, while carrying the cultural wish for prosperity that runs deep in the brand’s DNA.

The design team gave Ah Fu a personality that feels more like a friend than a corporate symbol. He is not the stiff, polished mascot of a boardroom presentation. He is cheeky. He gets impatient. He strikes confident poses and waves you off with a casual “BYE.” Across more than 40 design iterations, every expression and gesture was refined until the character emerged fully formed — distinctive enough to be instantly recognizable, approachable enough to feel like someone you already know. (For the full design journey, see the Ah Fu Design Archive.)

In the brand’s signature hero image, Ah Fu stands holding a RICHE88 pennant flag beside the original tagline — “Want to win? It’s not hard at all!” (要赢？一点都不难！) — capturing the spirit of confidence and daring that defined FYT’s early identity.

How Many Ah Fu Stickers Are There? 40+ Social Expressions Explained

What transformed Ah Fu from a brand mascot into a genuine cultural shorthand among users was not his design alone. It was the sticker set.

The design team created over 40 expression stickers for Ah Fu, each mapped to a specific emotion or situation that surfaces in everyday digital communication. “No Fear” (没在怕), “Call Me,” “BUSY,” “BYE,” “X TALK,” “GO” — every pose was conceived with a single guiding principle: these stickers had to be something users would actually want to send, not just admire as brand assets.

The strategy worked. Ah Fu stickers spread organically through member networks — appearing in private chats, group discussions, social media reactions, and even sports match commentary threads. No paid campaigns, no push notifications. When a sticker set is genuinely useful, it finds its own distribution.

For those familiar with the sticker collection, Ah Fu needs no introduction. He functions as a form of insider recognition — a visual handshake. Spotting that brown swirl hairstyle in someone’s chat means you are talking to someone from the same community. This kind of identity marker, built through habitual use rather than advertising exposure, creates a depth of brand affinity that no media budget can replicate.

The stickers also served a subtler purpose: they kept the brand present in daily life without being intrusive. Every time a member sent an Ah Fu sticker, the FYT brand appeared in a conversation — not as an advertisement, but as a natural part of how people communicate. This is the difference between a brand that talks at its audience and a brand that becomes part of how its audience talks to each other.

What Ah Fu Merchandise Exists? VIP-Exclusive Collectibles

Ah Fu’s presence extends well beyond the digital screen. Through a carefully curated line of physical merchandise, the mascot has found his way into the everyday lives of VIP members.

The crown jewel of the collection is the anniversary mug series — a set of 10 mugs, numbered 0 through 9, each featuring a comic-strip illustration that tells one chapter of Ah Fu’s growth story. Mug zero shows Ah Fu hatching from an egg in 2015, wide-eyed and curious. Each subsequent mug follows him as he grows, learns, and climbs higher — until the final mug in the series depicts a fully grown Ah Fu looking out toward the horizon. Line the ten mugs up on a shelf, and you are looking at a miniature chronicle of the brand’s own journey, told through the eyes of its mascot.

Beyond the mug series, the brand releases a Lunar New Year zodiac golden Ah Fu figurine every spring — Golden Horse, Golden Goat, Golden Monkey, and onward — each a new edition crafted with attention to detail. These are complemented by gold-plated playing cards, branded watch bands, premium ashtrays, and collaborations with world-class spirit brands for limited-edition gift sets.

Every item in the Ah Fu merchandise line shares one defining characteristic: none of it is for sale. These collectibles never appear on a shelf or in an online store. They are distributed exclusively as gifts to VIP members through the platform — a deliberate decision that transforms each piece from a product into a gesture. The message is unmistakable: you are not an account number; you are someone the brand remembers and values.

This approach to merchandise reflects a broader philosophy. In a market saturated with promotional giveaways and discount-driven loyalty schemes, FYT chose a different path. The Ah Fu collectibles are not about driving transactions — they are about building a relationship where the gift itself carries meaning, and where scarcity reinforces the sense that belonging to this community is something worth holding onto.

What Events Has Ah Fu Appeared At? From Chengshi Cup to Charity T-Shirts

May 2, 2015. Guangzhou. Guangdong Provincial People’s Stadium.

The occasion was the Chengshi Cup Guangdong-Hubei Celebrity Charity Soccer Match (诚十杯粤鄂明星慈善足球赛) — a large-scale charity event organized by the Guangdong Celebrity Football Club, co-sponsored by Chengshi Group and FYT (Riche88). In the day’s most memorable fixture, 33 children from the Guangzhou Social Welfare Institute took the pitch against 11 retired national football veterans from Guangdong and Hubei provinces — a heartwarming 33-versus-11 exhibition match that drew media coverage from Guangzhou television stations.

Ah Fu was there.

As the mascot’s first-ever public appearance, the Chengshi Cup became Ah Fu’s debut on a stage far larger than any screen. Dressed in full costume, the character roamed the sidelines, interacting with guests, sponsors, and spectators. Children from the welfare institute crowded around for photos with the brown-haired cartoon figure, and the atmosphere shifted from formal charity event to something warmer — a celebration where the boundary between brand and community blurred.

That same day, another piece of the Ah Fu story took physical form. Volunteers and staff wore charity t-shirts featuring Ah Fu standing alongside two children, with four characters printed across the front: “Spread the Love” (把爱传出去). These shirts became a lasting visual symbol of FYT’s charitable identity — tying the mascot not just to the brand’s commercial presence, but to its social conscience.

The Chengshi Cup appearance established a precedent. Ah Fu was not going to be a mascot that existed only in pixels and merchandise catalogs. He would show up where the brand showed up — at events, in communities, and in moments that mattered beyond the bottom line.

Why Does FYT Have a Mascot? The Brand Significance of Ah Fu

In an industry where trust is the most valuable currency, brand-building must reach beyond functional communication. Data, licensing credentials, odds margins — these are the tools of rational persuasion, and they are necessary. But the thing that makes a brand liked, remembered, and identified with often comes from something softer.

That is the role Ah Fu plays.

He gives FYT something that no amount of technical infrastructure or regulatory certification can provide: a face with expressions, a character with personality, a presence with warmth. When a member sends an Ah Fu sticker in conversation, they are not just transmitting an image — they are performing a small act of brand identification, a signal that says “I belong here.” When a VIP collects the anniversary mug series, they are not accumulating merchandise — they are preserving a shared history between themselves and the platform.

Since hatching from his egg in 2015, Ah Fu has accompanied FYT through every significant chapter — the rebrand from Riche88 to FYTBET, the evolution of the visual identity, the charity initiatives, the product innovations. Through all of it, the brown-haired mascot has remained the brand’s most consistent visual anchor and its most effective emotional connector.

There is a particular quality that separates mascots that endure from those that are forgotten. The forgettable ones are designed to represent what a company wants to project. The enduring ones come to represent what the community feels about the brand. Ah Fu has crossed that threshold. He is no longer just a character the brand created — he is a character the community adopted.

In Ah Fu, you see something that transcends marketing strategy. You see a brand saying to its members, in the simplest terms possible: we remember you, and we hope you remember us too.