Started in 2010 by then-23-year-old entrepreneur Wang Ning as a small shop selling toys in China, Pop Mart has grown into a giant with a market cap of US$40 billion thanks to the popularity of its Labubu character.
The Beijing-based toymaker is riding a wave of global success fueled by blind boxes, toys featuring Labubu—a Nordic mischievous, monkey-like forest elf with a wide grin, and other designer collectibles.
The brand is particularly trending in the U.S. as its Labubu toys are drawing long lines of shoppers and reselling for anywhere from $40 to $200.
“In the U.S., we’ve had families queuing at 6 a.m. for store openings and first-time collectors grabbing blind boxes alongside seasoned fans,” Emily Brough, the firm’s head of intellectual property (IP) licensing for the Americas, told
Fortune
magazine.
“With a goal of 50 U.S. store openings this year, Pop Mart’s community is only growing.”
According to
Caixin Global
, the company now ranks as the world’s third-most-valuable intellectual property brand, behind only The Walt Disney Company and Nintendo.
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The Labubu dolls on display at the Pop Mart store, Chongqing, China on June 20, 2025. Photo by CFOTO via AFP |
Though Pop Mart now operates more than 530 stores worldwide, runs an amusement park in Beijing, and boasts 46 million shopping members in China, its success began with a modest shop opened by a young entrepreneur.
Just a year after finishing his advertising degree at Zhengzhou University in 2009, he opened Pop Mart’s first outlet in Beijing’s Zhongguancun area—a tech hub often called China’s Silicon Valley.
Inspired by Hong Kong’s Log-On retail chain, which sells a range of stationery, cosmetics and gadgets, his shop initially sold toys, comics, and phone accessories.
By 2014, Wang saw bigger potential in the world of collectibles. He began reaching out to artists to create exclusive toys and soon made a breakthrough when he partnered with Kenny Wong, the Hong Kong-based creator of “Molly”—a doll with wide turquoise eyes and a bob haircut that had already built a niche following. Wang offered to bring Molly to a larger platform under the Pop Mart brand.
“I told Kenny you need a bigger stage,” Wang shared with
Forbes
, which
ranked him as the 10th richest billionaire in China with $22.7 billion in net worth earlier this month
when Pop Mart’s market cap peaked at over $46 billion.
But the product line came with a twist: it was sold in “blind boxes,” meaning buyers would not know which character they were getting. The element of surprise struck a chord with buyers.
“Blind boxes are so much different from what I have seen in the past,” said Nicole Song, 38, a devout fan of Pop Mart. “I like the toys’ design, and when I open the boxes, the experience is a bit of a gamble.”
While analysts have attributed much of the toymaker’s success to this packaging format, founder Wang Ning believes the appeal runs deeper.
“What really matters is the designer toy, the IP, and the story behind blind boxes,” Wang told
Xinhua News Agency
.
“It’s not the blind box that hooks people — it’s the characters inside, which represent some of China’s most attractive consumer IPs.”
Pop Mart made its market debut in Hong Kong in late 2020, raising $676 million in an IPO that valued the company at $12.5 billion, before setting its sights on the global market.
While Molly remains Pop Mart’s most recognizable figure at home, it is Labubu that has taken the global stage by storm with its “ugly-cute” design. Created by Netherlands-based artist Kasing Lung, the character has become the brand’s best-selling IP internationally.
The character shot to global fame last year, helped in part by
Lisa of Blackpink
. The K-pop star last April shared an Instagram story with her 100 million followers where she hugged a giant Labubu plush and showed a Labubu bag charm.
Celebrities like Dua Lipa and Rihanna have also been photographed with Labubu accessories attached to their designer handbags.
The viral character has driven Pop Mart’s explosive international growth. In 2024, the company recorded about 13 billion yuan (US$1.8 billion) in revenue, with overseas sales surging nearly fivefold to reach 5 billion yuan, driven by demand in Southeast Asia, Europe, and the U.S., according to
Nikkei Asia
.
Its THE MONSTERS blind-box series, of which Labubu is the star character, alone generated over 3 billion yuan—nearly a quarter of total sales.
While the company’s stock slid a few days ago after a Chinese state media commentary urged for tighter regulation of blind-box toys and trading cards, it remains the top-performing on the MSCI China Index this year, according to Bloomberg. It was also among the index’s biggest gainers in 2024.
By the end of last year, the company had opened 130 overseas stores, many in high-profile locations such as London’s Oxford Street and the Louvre museum in Paris, where it became the first Chinese toy brand to secure a retail presence.
To some, Pop Mart looks like it is surfing a rising tide. But others might say it is the one generating the waves.
Even as China’s broader
economy slowed and youth unemployment surged
last year, the guzi market, which refers to merchandise and collectibles related to anime, games, idols and other copyrighted works, defied the downturn, with Pop Mart in the lead.
The country’s designer toy sector is on track to surpass $15 billion in retail sales by 2026, a giant leap from $890 million in 2015. Globally, the market for figurines and toys is expected to grow from $26 billion last year to $49 billion by 2034.
Ashley Dudarenok, who operates a consumer research consultancy based in China and Hong Kong, told
TIME
magazine that what gives Pop Mart an edge over rivals, both at home and abroad, is its ability to tap into its audience’s mood.
The company’s products resonate deeply with fans, who often see certain aspects of their lives in the toys, be it their desire for escape, exhaustion or rebelliousness.
Ashley Jane Leow, a 25-year-old filmmaker in Singapore, said she collects characters like Hirono, a moody boy with messy hair, and Nyota, a shy girl with wide eyes and short bangs, because they are similar to her and her boyfriend.
Likewise, Carillo, a 24-year-old digital marketing consultant from the Philippines, sees herself in the CryBaby line—which explains her draw to the character.
“It’s something that makes me happy, like it’s a treat to myself,” she said.
