Don't ask where the next LABUBU is.

Ask AI · Can Pop Mart’s ecosystem keep IP fresh and enduring?

Reporter Zhang Yanan

From where the next MOLLY will be to where the next LABUBU will be, this question has been perennial, almost becoming Pop Mart’s fate question.

In early 2026, after delivering the best annual performance in history, Pop Mart’s stock price plummeted. Excellent performance but falling stock prices indicate that the market’s concern isn’t how much Pop Mart is earning now, but how long it can continue to earn in the future.

Actually, Pop Mart is not lacking the ability to create the next hit product. From the annual report, the Starry Man has already begun to stand out. For Pop Mart, the real test isn’t in creating incremental growth but in managing existing assets. How those already successful IPs can still maintain value in five or ten years is much more difficult than creating a LABUBU.

Why say Pop Mart isn’t worried about the next hit? SKULLPANDA, CRYBABY, MOLLY, DIMOO, Starry Man, HIRONO, and other 7 IPs all generated over 1 billion yuan in revenue in 2025. They didn’t appear out of nowhere; they grew from Pop Mart’s ecosystem. LABUBU is currently the most dazzling, but it’s no longer the fastest-growing one.

With limited resources across the company, the incubation and operation of IPs must have priorities and rhythms. LABUBU is at its peak, while other IPs are in cultivation or stabilization phases. Like a sports team, some are star players, others are veterans or rising stars. Judging whether this team can continue to win depends on training methods, talent pipelines, and tactical discipline.

Pop Mart’s core strength lies in establishing such a system: mastering the industry’s top artists and designers, having an operational team experienced in taking multiple IPs from zero to one, honing a system that can transform art into scalable products, and building a global sales network.

Pop Mart doesn’t innovate from the source; the play methods of blind boxes and lucky bags weren’t invented by it, nor are the 400% and 1000% large dolls original. These play styles have long existed in Japan and Hong Kong’s trendy toy markets. What makes Pop Mart special is its full utilization of the Chinese market and manufacturing, leveraging these proven methods and pushing them to China and the world with top operational capabilities, turning trendy toys from niche hobbies into mass consumer products.

This capability is once again reflected in its performance. In 2025, revenue from THE MONSTERS series, led by LABUBU, exceeded 14 billion yuan, a 3.6-fold increase. But even faster growth came from Starry Man, with revenue reaching 2 billion yuan, a 16-fold increase, quickly ranking sixth on the sales list, closely behind DIMOO and MOLLY.

Creating hits is just the first stage of IP operation. The next step—making an IP jump out of blind boxes into theme parks, movies, or combining with accessories and small appliances to continue releasing commercial value—requires entirely different capabilities. But in the realms of commercial real estate, film and television, retail, and home appliances, which industry isn’t a gamble of life and death? Pop Mart has explored multiple tracks for a long time but has yet to produce a convincing result.

The theme park has operated for two and a half years and remains a trial project within a city park; raising ticket prices would spark controversy. In film, over six years, Pop Mart has continued investing in animation and film, co-producing classics like Nezha Reborn and White Snake. It wasn’t until March 2026 that it announced a joint development of a live-action LABUBU movie with Sony Pictures.

Caution also stems from another consideration. Pop Mart founder Wang Ning believes that once an IP becomes too functionally strong, it ceases to be an emotional carrier and becomes a tool that must be evaluated for usability. Therefore, Pop Mart’s jewelry, electric kettles, coffee machines, electric toothbrushes, blow dryers, and refrigerators are chosen because they carry higher emotional value and have less obvious functional attributes. People don’t demand much from refrigerators’ functions, but appearance must be attractive. When taking out a mask or a slimming injection from it daily, a sense of ritual makes the mood more joyful.

Having only hits will lead to the endless question of “where is the next hit?” The real liberation for Pop Mart is to ensure that after an IP becomes popular, it can continue to generate commercial value.

Mickey Mouse is already 98 years old this year and remains Disney’s most important symbol, supported by a complete content ecosystem. Harry Potter also continues to attract people to Universal Studios repeatedly. These IPs possess enormous brand assets and remain fresh over time.

MOLLY has been commercialized for ten years, contributing 2.9 billion yuan in sales in 2025, a 38% increase. It’s the only one among the 1-billion-yuan IPs that didn’t see its growth double.

The essence of the trendy toy industry is trendiness; trends are volatile. Today’s hit may be forgotten tomorrow. Clearly, creating IP doesn’t equal making hits, nor does it mean just opening blind boxes.