Pop Mart doesn't need to create another LABUBU

Ask AI · How does Pop Mart make LABUBU a world-class long-lifecycle IP?

High-speed growth may not last, but LABUBU will live a long time.

On March 25th, Pop Mart delivered its 2025 report card. Over the past year, Pop Mart’s revenue was 37.12 billion RMB, up 185% year-over-year, with a net profit of 13.01 billion RMB, up 293% year-over-year.

Discussions around Pop Mart have once again heated up, but compared to the excitement when the mid-year report was released last year, this time, alongside its impressive financial results, is the negative sentiment in the capital market.

In response, Pop Mart did not sit idly by. It consecutively bought back shares over four trading days, spending 1.2 billion Hong Kong dollars, to convey confidence in the company’s long-term prospects.

Behind the rollercoaster in stock price are the same old questions: Can Pop Mart sustain its high-speed growth through 2025? And is it relying too heavily on a single IP, LABUBU?

From an IP perspective, over the past year, LABUBU and its THE MONSTERS series generated over 460M RMB in revenue, accounting for about 38% of the company’s total income; including six IPs like SKULLPANDA, CRYBABY, MOLLY, each exceeding 2 billion RMB, and 17 IPs exceeding 100 million RMB, collectively comparable to LABUBU.

Among new IPs, the Starry Man, launched mid-2024, grew 16-fold and has become a core part of Pop Mart’s IP matrix.

This reflects Pop Mart’s operational capability as an IP company.

Regarding the stock price volatility, industry veterans say the main reason is more emotional: “The company’s financials are solid; everyone’s mindset is stable.”

Another investor stated that CEO Wang Ning has been cooling the company’s growth, focusing on high-quality rather than scale and speed. But LABUBU’s halo is so dazzling that few pay attention to these remarks.

Looking at a longer time horizon, high IP concentration is an inevitable stage for all content companies—Disney started with Mickey Mouse to open its fairy tale kingdom, Marvel built its universe with the Avengers, Sanrio defined the “cute economy” globally with Hello Kitty. No IP company “starts evenly”; the key is how to keep Mickey, the Avengers, and Hello Kitty visible after a hundred years.

Pop Mart COO Sid once said, “The core lesson we learned from Disney is continuous investment and operation.” Today, Pop Mart is still heavily investing in LABUBU, a 10-year-old IP, aiming to make it a “world-class IP with a long lifecycle.”

How to make IP last longer and generate more compound interest is also a challenge Pop Mart faces after becoming a company with over 30 billion RMB in annual revenue.

“This one LABUBU” will live a long time

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Over the past three years, LABUBU has exploded in Southeast Asia, China, Europe, and America, with astonishing growth. No IP can sustain high-speed growth forever, but good IPs have longer lifespans and more compound interest, making them more worth investing in.

As Duan Yongping stated on an investment platform on March 30, “The ‘speed’ in economics is actually ‘acceleration’ in physics.” Investing is about the future total, which is the physics of ‘speed’ times ‘time’ to get the ‘total length.’ Of course, some ‘acceleration’ can make you go farther in a unit of time. The unspoken meaning is that Pop Mart can indeed go further in the future; LABUBU’s popularity is just making Pop Mart now run faster.

In 2025, Pop Mart’s plush products achieved revenue of 18.7 billion RMB, up 560.6% year-over-year, surpassing figurines for the first time and becoming Pop Mart’s most profitable category, illustrating a new growth story.

And the beginning of this story is LABUBU. In 2022, to stimulate creativity and improve production efficiency, Pop Mart’s product department split into categories like MEGA, plush, and building blocks, laying the groundwork for the plush category’s explosion.

In 2023, the plush team repeatedly presented soft vinyl LABUBU samples to executives until the first-generation product was approved, with Sid commenting, “This is a success.”

The subsequent story is well known. In the past two years’ financial reports, the words “soft vinyl LABUBU” are accompanied by triple-digit growth and over 10 billion RMB in revenue. On the consumer side, it always sells out instantly.

The perfect combination of soft vinyl craft and LABUBU’s image validates the importance of category and product design in extending an IP’s life, which is what Pop Mart has been doing. Over the past year, IPs like SKULLPANDA and CRYBABY have also iterated into plush forms.

Updating product forms through visual and design elements helps consumers better understand and love the IP.

From creating a good IP to touching consumers, offline is essential. Correspondingly, art-filled scenes like parks and super stores can better interpret and showcase the IP.

Thus, LABUBU in costume form has entered parks, giving consumers more opportunities to see and experience this little sprite.

In November 2025, THE MONSTERS family participated in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade—the oldest and most grand Thanksgiving parade since 1924.

At the earnings call on March 25th, Sid said that in 2025, there will be about 40 outdoor activities for park star friends, deepening emotional connections with fans through offline scenes.

Recently, LABUBU, the popular female star, also appeared on the big screen.

On March 19th, LABUBU was announced as the lead in a movie, with Pop Mart partnering with Sony Pictures to produce a live-action animated film directed by Paul King, known for Paddington.

After the announcement, netizens began to explore the characters within THE MONSTERS family. Some hope to see characters like Little Wild and Starry Man on the big screen.

A new story for LABUBU begins this year.

Looking back at the long history of IPs, what happened to the “LABUBUs” of the past?

Netizens who surf the internet intensively have probably seen a curly-haired, small-limbed boy in a yellow hoodie—Charlie Brown from the classic comic strip Peanuts, born in 1950. Snoopy also originates from this comic.

Peanuts uses everyday life to carry universal emotions and remains vibrant after more than half a century. In 2025, Sony acquired a 4.6 billion USD stake in Peanuts—despite challenges like the closure of the live entertainment project Wonderverse, Peanuts still generates steady cash flow through licensing, supporting its IP ecosystem.

Similar cases include Pokémon and Sanrio, both decades old—Pokémon relies on games, cards, and animations for continuous updates; Sanrio depends on annual character polls and high-frequency limited merchandise, both achieving cross-generational longevity through emotional resonance and mature licensing ecosystems.

This somewhat reflects the current situation of LABUBU, which has already been around for 10 years and still has a long way to go.

“Has the next LABUBU appeared yet?”

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Beyond LABUBU, Pop Mart is also developing new IP stories.

In its 2025 financial report, Pop Mart has six IPs with revenue exceeding 2 billion RMB, up from two last year.

By mid-2025, the adorable costume character Starry Man became a must-visit spot at Pop Mart’s parks and even Chaoyang Park, with people queuing for two hours just to interact with it.

In December 2025, Starry Man collaborated with Heytea on a co-branded product, which sold out instantly. In January this year, the Valentine’s Day limited “Heartbeat Star” series launched online and sold out immediately.

Some consumers said, “I originally thought I wouldn’t buy Pop Mart, but then I saw Starry Man.”

In fact, this IP was only launched in August 2024. Now, it has grown into a blockbuster IP with over 1 billion RMB in revenue and a growth rate over 16 times.

There’s also PUCKY’s revival. In mid-January 2026, Pop Mart launched the “PUCKY Knock Series” plush keychains, jokingly called “Electronic Wooden Fish” and “Workplace Healing Artifact,” which also gained attention on social media.

A small functional addition created an interactive scene for the潮玩, meeting young people’s needs for low-cost, instant emotional release and spiritual comfort amid work and life pressures, helping PUCKY break into new circles.

Previously, PUCKY was relatively low-profile, but Pop Mart’s IP operation logic is not just about data feedback; it involves nurturing potential and well-designed IPs, similar to training trainees in Korea.

Old IPs like SKULLPANDA and DIMOO also maintained triple-digit growth in 2025, demonstrating Pop Mart’s long-term IP management capability.

2026 marks MOLLY’s 20th anniversary, with a touring exhibition held in multiple cities worldwide. The Shanghai Fuxing Art Center exhibition is the largest MOLLY offline IP exhibition to date, featuring over 20 artists and intangible cultural heritage artisans, greatly enhancing its artistic and cultural value.

Throughout this process, Wang Ning emphasizes the importance of continuous IP operation without overexertion. During the earnings call, he stated that the company aims for about 20% growth in 2026, focusing on healthy growth rather than reckless expansion.

Outside of IP, Pop Mart is accelerating its efforts in parks and retail.

In the same earnings call, Sid said that Phase 1.5 of the city parks is progressing smoothly and is expected to open this summer. Despite closing nearly half of its areas, the parks’ revenue and visitor numbers exceeded expectations, successfully establishing Starry Man as a star friend.

After the jewelry brand popop, Pop Mart launched a dessert brand, POP BAKERY. Behind this seemingly unrelated business is a consumer base—its IP characters have appeared in desserts at various exhibitions, like the Starry Man ice cream that can be split and eaten, a must-have for潮玩 enthusiasts.

Additionally, Pop Mart’s management said during the earnings call that this year, store openings and renovations in China will increase, aiming to enhance user engagement through the “Store as Park” model. Last year, some stores expanded by 30-40%, doubling their performance.

As CEO Wang Ning said during the 2025 annual report earnings call, “Many excellent consumer brands have achieved Fashion For All, satisfying many needs. We hope one day to achieve Fun For All or Happy For All.”