Pop Mart

Last updated

Pop Mart International Group Limited
Native name
北京泡泡玛特文化创意有限公司
Company type Public
SEHK:  9992
Industry Toy industry
Founded2010;15 years ago (2010)
Founder Wang Ning
Headquarters
Beijing
,
China
Area served
Global
Website www.popmart.com

Pop Mart (Chinese name: 泡泡玛特 Pào pào mǎ tè) is a Chinese toy company based in Beijing. The company is known for selling collectible toys and figurines in a "blind box" format. [1] [2] They offer toys of their in-house IPs, such as Labubu, [3] in partnership with co-branded promotions, such as Disney characters, The Powerpuff Girls or Harry Potter.[ buzzword ] [4] [5] [6] [7]

Contents

The Financial Times described the company as having "elevated toy-buying to an act of trendy connoisseurship among China's young affluent consumers", [8] and as having been 'credited with creating the market for so-called designer toys'. [2]

Around half of its sales are made at physical outlets, with the rest made online. [9] The company additionally operates a social media and toy-trading app as part of its marketing strategy. [10] Its toys are known for selling to collectors on the second-hand market; venture capital firms have been known to invest in its second-hand products. [11]

History

The company was founded in China in 2010 by Wang Ning. [12] Its first store opened near Beijing’s Zhongguancun in 2010. [13] In 2014, the company discontinued other product lines and focused on toys. [13]

The brand's initial marketing strategy engaged with youth culture trends in China, [14] selling toys in prices in a range between 29 and 89 yuan. [5] Over time it grew to 288 outlets and 1800 vending machines in that country. Its success in the 'blind box' format drove a $676m USD listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2020 giving it a market capitalisation of $7b at the time, and doubling its shares value after the first day of going public. [5] However its revenue growth slowed and its shares slid below offer price. [15]

The company later expanded its growth strategy beyond mainland Chinese markets, with the Financial Times reporting on plans in 2022 to open between 40 and 50 overseas outlets. [16] It first expanded to the U.S., New Zealand, Australia, South Korea, and Taiwan, and the U.K. in 2022. [17] [18] [19] In 2023 it expanded to Malaysia and France. [20] [21] In 2024, it opened its Philippines store. [22] Some equity analysts have expressed scepticism at the company's ability to expand into the West, [23] while executives of the company have described developing that growth market as the company's 'most important development focus'; and argued that the company's product offering is differentiated from existing western markets. [24]

The success of the company has spawned multiple imitating blind box toy companies in China. [25]

Products and stores

Business model

Pop Mart develops original characters with independent artists and also licenses external intellectual property. In 2023, original artist IP accounted for about 76.5% of revenue and licensed IP contributed about 16.5%. Collaborations include artists Kasing Lung (Labubu) and Kenny Wong (Molly), and licensed series with DC Comics, SpongeBob SquarePants and Harry Potter. [26]

Blind boxes

In China, the toys are sold for typically between 59 and 69 RMB each, in a "blind box" format credited with "driving repeated purchases from customers seeking to secure the rarest collectables". [1] [14] Its customers in China are typically affluent teenagers and young adults. [27]

The company works with designers and artists to develop characters. In 2021 it released a collection themed around the U.S. artist Keith Haring, and has collaborated with Moncler. [28]

In 2025, the plush toy category—led by characters like Labubu and Skullpanda—saw a year-on-year sales growth of over 1,200%, contributing more than 21% to Pop Mart’s total revenue. [29]

Pop Mart experienced growth and expansion due to its blind boxes. Research has shown that scarcity results in increased competition; the "blind" aspect of Pop Mart's most popular products creates an "artificial scarcity" environment that has been inferred by researchers to contribute to the global success of the company. [30] In 2023 alone, Pop Mart revealed to have made $165m in net profits, with the main revenue coming in from the blind boxes of popular characters such as Skullpanda, Molly, and Dimoo. [31] Researchers have attributed the success behind blind boxes to psychological factors such as "herd mentality" and "gambler's mentality". [32] Success is also attributed to the fact that the majority of consumers are Millennials and Generation Z, with researchers speculating that younger generations hold greater attachment to material objects and, as a result, are the target demographic for blind boxes. [32]

A Pop Mart store in Zhenjiang, Jiangsu, China. Pop Mart Store.jpg
A Pop Mart store in Zhenjiang, Jiangsu, China.

Artists are listed in the order they are presented on Pop Mart's website:

Artist [33] Character or productBased in
Coolrain & LaboCoolaboSouth Korea
LangHironoBeijing (China)
XiongmiaoSkullpandaMainland China
Ayan DengDimooMainland China
Kenny WongMollyHong Kong (China)
Philip ColbertLobster LandLondon (England)
Two CloudsAzuraN/A
PuckyPuckyHong Kong (China)
Seulgie LeeSatyr RorySouth Korea
Ohkubo HirotoInstinctoyJapan
Kasing Lung The MonstersBelgium
Yoyo YeungYokiLondon (England)
Libby FramePeach RiotLos Angeles, CA (United States)
MollyCrybabyHong Kong

Stores

The company has both staffed outlets, as well as vending machines known as "roboshops". [34] [18] In the United States, there are 37 staffed outlets (as of June 2025) and 52 "roboshops". [35]

Diversification

In December 2021, Pop Mart launched Pop Mart Global in the United States. [36] The company launched an official mobile game in May 2023. Pop Mart opened Pop Land, a branded amusement park in Beijing, in October 2023. [26]

In 2023, Chinese regulators issued guidance on blind‑box businesses that advise a per‑box price cap of ¥200 and restrict sales to children under eight without guardian consent. [37] [38] In Singapore, a S$100 prize limit on mystery boxes has been proposed by the Ministry of Home Affairs. [39]

References

  1. 1 2 Langley, William (4 May 2022). "Pop Mart: toymaker behind China's collectibles craze looks to the west". Financial Times . Retrieved 11 July 2023. The company is known for its trademark "blind boxes", which contain an unidentified character and sell for Rmb59-Rmb69 each.
  2. 1 2 Langley, William (4 May 2022). "Pop Mart: toymaker behind China's collectibles craze looks to the west". Financial Times. Retrieved 11 July 2023. Launched in 2010, Pop Mart has been credited with creating the market for so-called designer toys and last year made gross profits of Rmb2.8bn ($424mn). The company has 288 outlets and more than 1,800 vending machines known as "roboshops" in China and earned Rmb4.5bn in revenue last year.
  3. ↑ Li, Xiaolong; Yuan, Chunhui; Kent, John (27 June 2023). Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Economic Management and Green Development. Springer Nature. p. 191. ISBN   978-981-19-7826-5.
  4. ↑ Magdalena, Radulescu; Majoul, Bootheina; Singh, Satya Narayan; Rauf, Abdul (23 July 2024). Proceedings of the 2024 9th International Conference on Social Sciences and Economic Development (ICSSED 2024). Springer Nature. p. 49. ISBN   978-94-6463-459-4.
  5. 1 2 3 Jin, Andrew Teoh Beng; Kandel, Bijay Kumar; Bhattacharjya, Aniruddha (2 August 2023). ICIDC 2023: Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Information Economy, Data Modeling and Cloud Computing, ICIDC 2023, June 2–4, 2023, Nanchang, China. European Alliance for Innovation. p. 654. ISBN   978-1-63190-417-2.
  6. ↑ "Chinese toymaker Pop Mart's shares jump as global expansion plans take shape". South China Morning Post. 15 April 2025. Retrieved 11 June 2025.
  7. ↑ Pelletier, Ashley (8 March 2024). "Cute, Confident, and Collectible: Celebrate Girl Power with Powerpuff Girls Crybaby Figures". The Pop Insider. Retrieved 25 July 2025.
  8. ↑ Langley, William (4 May 2022). "Pop Mart: toymaker behind China's collectibles craze looks to the west". Financial Times. Retrieved 11 July 2023. Pop Mart has elevated toy-buying to an act of trendy connoisseurship among China's young affluent consumers. Now it wants to emulate fellow domestic brands such as social media platform TikTok and online fashion retailer Shein by capturing the attention of western consumers.
  9. ↑ Langley, William (4 May 2022). "Pop Mart: toymaker behind China's collectibles craze looks to the west". Financial Times. Retrieved 11 July 2023. About half of its revenue comes from its shops and vending machines, with most of the rest coming from online sales.
  10. ↑ Langley, William (4 May 2022). "Pop Mart: toymaker behind China's collectibles craze looks to the west". Financial Times. Retrieved 11 July 2023. Pop Mart spawned a frenzied market for its toys by successfully navigating China's powerful but fickle youth culture trends, even launching a social media and toy-trading app where toy hunters can show off their latest hauls and swap tips on the newest trends.
  11. ↑ Langley, William (4 May 2022). "Pop Mart: toymaker behind China's collectibles craze looks to the west". Financial Times. Retrieved 11 July 2023. Some of the most desirable smaller Pop Mart toys often sell to avid collectors for Rmb1,000 or more on the second-hand market, a space that has seen investment from prominent venture capital groups including Sequoia,
  12. ↑ "Video | Explained: Pop Mart, the company behind 'blind box' toys". KrASIA. 10 February 2021. Retrieved 11 July 2023. The company's founder and CEO, Wang Ning, saw his own wealth nearly triple in 2020.
  13. 1 2 Wang, Yue (2 July 2020). "Master Of Mystery: The New Billionaire Who Made A Fortune Selling Toys In Blind Boxes". Forbes. Retrieved 22 September 2025.
  14. 1 2 Langley, William (4 May 2022). "Pop Mart: toymaker behind China's collectibles craze looks to the west". Financial Times. Retrieved 11 July 2023.
  15. ↑ Langley, William (4 May 2022). "Pop Mart: toymaker behind China's collectibles craze looks to the west". Financial Times. Retrieved 11 July 2023. The trend catapulted Pop Mart to a $676mn listing in Hong Kong in December 2020, giving it a market capitalisation of $7bn.
    But the group's revenue growth slowed in the six months to December 31, with sales 60.3 per cent higher year on year compared with 116.8 per cent growth in the previous six months. Its shares are now trading below their offer price.
  16. ↑ Langley, William (4 May 2022). "Pop Mart: toymaker behind China's collectibles craze looks to the west". Financial Times. Retrieved 11 July 2023. Pop Mart opened its first European store in London in January and has plans to reach a total of between 40 and 50 overseas outlets this year. Including the London store, it already has 18 outlets outside China.
  17. ↑ Dong, Irene (13 September 2022). "Pop Mart opens its first Taiwan store". Inside Retail. Retrieved 11 July 2023.
  18. 1 2 Pandaily (20 June 2022). "Pop Mart Opens First Pop-up Store in the U.S." Pandaily. Retrieved 11 July 2023.
  19. ↑ Langley, William (4 May 2022). "Pop Mart: toymaker behind China's collectibles craze looks to the west". Financial Times. Retrieved 11 July 2023. Pop Mart opened its first European store in London in January and has plans to reach a total of between 40 and 50 overseas outlets this year. Including the London store, it already has 18 outlets outside China
  20. ↑ Dong, Irene (23 May 2023). "Pop Mart opens its first physical store in Malaysia". Inside Retail. Retrieved 11 July 2023.
  21. ↑ Van, Tong (27 February 2023). "Pop Mart expands into France". Inside Retail. Retrieved 11 July 2023.
  22. ↑ Tunac, Hermes Joy (3 November 2024). "Marian Rivera graces Pop Mart's pop-up launch in Pasay". GMA Network . Retrieved 3 November 2024.
  23. ↑ Langley, William (4 May 2022). "Pop Mart: toymaker behind China's collectibles craze looks to the west". Financial Times. Retrieved 11 July 2023. Gaujacq said that while there was a market for Pop Mart's toys outside China, it was hard to tell how far a growth model based on spurring a consumer trend could fuel the company's expansion in the west.
  24. ↑ Langley, William (4 May 2022). "Pop Mart: toymaker behind China's collectibles craze looks to the west". Financial Times. Retrieved 11 July 2023. International growth was Pop Mart's "most important development focus", said Moon, the vice-president, adding that while he acknowledged the "massive challenge" of convincing foreign consumers to buy into a Chinese trend, strong sales at the UK store gave him reason to be confident.

    Moon said that while consumer "tastes are completely different" in the west, "you can't find anything like our products in these places. To local people these things are really fresh." He added that while initial uptake of Pop Mart characters was quicker in east and south-east Asian countries, where the group is also opening outlets, ultimately "our products don't have national borders".
  25. ↑ jknotts (23 February 2022). "The Rise of Pop Mart Closely Resembles the Rise of Crypto – Coincidence?". www.thebeijinger.com. Retrieved 11 July 2023. Just about every major company operating in China – from Xiaomi to McDonald's – has attempted a blind box marketing ploy in one form or another. But certain brands build their entire business model around blind boxes, and chief among these is the toy brand Pop Mart.
  26. 1 2 Li, Jasmine (18 May 2024). "This millennial-founded Chinese company scored a $6 billion valuation selling mystery toys. Now it wants to cash in on America's cuteness craze". Fortune. Retrieved 22 September 2025.
  27. ↑ Langley, William (4 May 2022). "Pop Mart: toymaker behind China's collectibles craze looks to the west". Financial Times. Retrieved 11 July 2023. Pop Mart's typical customers are China's increasingly affluent teenagers and young adults.
  28. ↑ Langley, William (4 May 2022). "Pop Mart: toymaker behind China's collectibles craze looks to the west". Financial Times. Retrieved 11 July 2023. The company works with designers and artists to develop its characters, ranging from wide-eyed alligators to canine astronauts. It released a collection last year themed around the work of US artist Keith Haring and recently launched a collaboration with designer skiwear label Moncler.
  29. ↑ "Pop Mart's Global Push Pays Off as Revenue Doubles in 2024". KrASIA. 28 March 2025. Retrieved 5 August 2025.
  30. ↑ Asis, Chyna De (10 January 2025). "Pop Mart is latest craze among millennials and Gen Zs; here's why". INQUIRER.net. Retrieved 14 March 2025.
  31. ↑ Faithfull, Mark. "How Pop Mart Became China's Latest Brand To Target U.S. Growth". Forbes. Retrieved 14 March 2025.
  32. 1 2 Liu, Feier; Lyu, Linfeng; Yang, Kaize (15 December 2021). "Analysis of Success Factors and Developing Potential of Pop Mart". Proceedings of the 2021 3rd International Conference on Economic Management and Cultural Industry (ICEMCI 2021). Vol. 203. Atlantis Press. pp. 2901–2906. doi: 10.2991/assehr.k.211209.470 . ISBN   978-94-6239-483-4.
  33. ↑ Pop Mart (13 March 2025). "Meet Our Artists". Pop Mart. Retrieved 14 March 2025.
  34. ↑ Langley, William (4 May 2022). "Pop Mart: toymaker behind China's collectibles craze looks to the west". Financial Times. Retrieved 11 July 2023. The company has 288 outlets and more than 1,800 vending machines known as "roboshops" in China and earned Rmb4.5bn in revenue last year.
  35. ↑ "POP MART Store List – United States". Pop Mart. Retrieved 11 June 2025.
  36. ↑ Pandaily (20 June 2022). "Pop Mart Opens First Pop-up Store in the U.S." Pandaily. Retrieved 11 July 2023. In December of the same year, Pop Mart's app "Pop Mart Global" was officially launched in the U.S. with its main functions including an online shopping mall and community. Users can purchase products directly through the application and share their experience while interacting with the community.
  37. ↑ "China draws regulatory bottom line on blind-box businesses". Xinhua. 16 June 2023. Retrieved 22 September 2025.
  38. ↑ Stonestreet, John; Cameron-Moore, Simon (15 June 2023). "China issues rules on mystery boxes, regulates sales to children". Reuters. Retrieved 22 September 2025.
  39. ↑ "#trending: TikTok users awed by granny with 'super powers' in choosing desired toy from Pop Mart mystery boxes". TODAY. Retrieved 11 July 2023.
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