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 Photograph of Pop Mart vending machine inMelbourne, Victoria (2023) | |
Native name | 北京泡泡玛特文化创意有限公司 |
|---|---|
| Company type | Public |
| SEHK: 9992 | |
| Industry | Toy industry |
| Founded | 2010; 16 years ago (2010) |
| Founder | Wang Ning |
| Headquarters | , China |
Area served | Global |
| Website | www |
Pop Mart (Chinese:泡泡玛特;pinyin:Pào pào mǎ tè) is a Chinesetoy company based inBeijing. The company is known for selling collectible toys and figurines in a "blind box" format.[1][2] The company produces toys based on its in-house IPs, such asLabubu,[3] as well as licensed themes, such asDisney,Teletubbies,The Powerpuff Girls,Care Bears andHarry Potter.[4][5][6][7]
TheFinancial 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]
The company was founded in China in 2010 byWang 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 89yuan.[5] Over time it grew to 288 outlets and 1,800 vending machines in China. Its success in the 'blind box' format preceded a $676 million listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2020, valuing the company at around $7 billion at the time. The company's share price later declined below the offer price as revenue growth slowed.[5] However its revenue growth slowed and its shares slid below the offer price.[15]
The company later expanded its growth strategy beyond mainland Chinese markets, with theFinancial 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, 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 first Philippine 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 rival blind box toy companies in China.[25]
Pop Mart develops original characters with independent artists and also establishes collaborations with external intellectual properties. In 2023, original artist IP accounted for about 76.5% of revenue and licensed IP contributed about 16.5%. Pop Mart collaborates with artists such as Kasing Lung (Labubu) and Kenny Wong (Molly), and globally recognized brands such asDisney,DC Comics,SpongeBob SquarePants andHarry Potter.[26]
In China, the toys are sold for typically between 59 and 69RMB 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. artistKeith Haring, and has also collaborated withMoncler.[28]
In 2025, the plush toy category — led by characters such as Labubu and Skullpanda — experienced rapid year-on-year growth and became a significant contributor to Pop Mart's total revenue.[29]
Pop Mart experienced growth and expansion due to itsblind 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]
Artists are listed in the order they are presented on Pop Mart's website:
| Artist[33] | Character or product | Based in |
|---|---|---|
| Coolrain & Labo | Coolabo | South Korea |
| Lang | Hirono | Beijing (China) |
| Xiong Miao | Skullpanda | Mainland China |
| Ayan Deng | Dimoo | Mainland China |
| Kenny Wong | Molly | Hong Kong (China) |
| Philip Colbert | Lobster Land | London (England) |
| Two Clouds | Azura | N/A |
| Pucky | Pucky | Hong Kong (China) |
| Seulgie Lee | Satyr Rory | South Korea |
| Ohkubo Hiroto | Instinctoy | Japan |
| Kasing Lung | The Monsters | Belgium |
| Yoyo Yeung | Yoki | London (England) |
| Libby Frame | Peach Riot | Los Angeles, CA (United States) |
| Molly | Crybaby | Hong Kong |
The company has both staffed outlets, as well asvending machines known as "roboshops".[34][18] In the United States, there are 37 staffed outlets (as of June 2025) and 52 "roboshops".[35]
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 2022, Chinese regulators issued guidance on blind‑box businesses that advise a per‑box price cap of CN¥200[37], and since 2023, bar sales to children under eight and require guardian consent for sales to children over eight.[38][39] In Singapore, a S$100 prize value limit on mystery boxes has been imposed by theMinistry of Home Affairs.[40][41]
On 18 August 2025, the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission released a public notice to American consumers that they had received numerous reports of individuals and businesses selling fake Labubu plush dolls. These knock-off dolls, known online as "Lafufus", are made with inferior materials to their legitimate counterparts and have become notorious for breaking apart and presenting possible choking hazards to infants and small children.[42]
Numerous articles, posts, and videos about how to tell real Labubus apart from their inferior imitators have been released by news publishers, journalists, TikTok and YouTube users, and by Pop Mart themselves. Notable differences in these "Lafufus" can be identified through poorer quality materials and paint jobs, stitching, and misspelling on the keychain tags. Additionally, counterfeit Labubus might have a different number of teeth than the correct number of nine teeth found uniformly across all real Labubus produced and sold by Pop Mart. Labubus produced and sold by Pop Mart also have a QR code attached to the doll's tag that allow product verification.[43] Pop Mart has made several attempts to warn their customers around the globe away from accidentally purchasing counterfeit Labubus from suspicious channels. They encourage consumers to investigate their purchases for different packaging and incorrect branding details and to purchase their Labubus and other Pop Mart products through official channels exclusively to insure their purchase is legitimate.[44]
The company is known for its trademark "blind boxes", which contain an unidentified character and sell for Rmb59-Rmb69 each.
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.
About half of its revenue comes from its shops and vending machines, with most of the rest coming from online sales.
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.
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,
The company's founder and CEO, Wang Ning, saw his own wealth nearly triple in 2020.
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.
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.
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
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.
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".
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.
Pop Mart's typical customers are China's increasingly affluent teenagers and young adults.
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.
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.
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.
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