Lei Jun's "fanboy" ventures into Hong Kong stocks, faces "blow" on the first day of listing

Ask AI · How does Yu Guang’s transition from MiHei to MiFen affect the company’s development path?

Radar Finance Production Text | Ding Yu Editor | Meng Shuai

On March 31, the so-called “middle-aged Pop Mart” Master Tong successfully listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

However, on the first day of trading, Master Tong encountered a debut failure. By the close of that day, Master Tong’s stock price was fixed at HKD 30.5 per share, nearly a 50% drop in a single day.

From a market position, Master Tong’s strength should not be underestimated. According to the 2024 total revenue, Master Tong ranks first in China’s copper cultural and creative craft product market, with a market share of 35%.

However, Master Tong is currently facing a situation of increasing revenue without increasing profit. The prospectus shows that last year, Master Tong achieved revenue of 617 million yuan, an 8.1% increase; net profit attributable to the parent was 48 million yuan, a nearly 40% decline year-on-year.

It is worth noting that the founder of Master Tong, Yu Guang, publicly stated that he is a die-hard fan of Lei Jun, self-proclaimed as a “hardcore MiFen.” Capital from the Xiaomi ecosystem also favors Master Tong, providing substantial financial support.

However, the poor performance of Master Tong on its first day in the capital market undoubtedly failed to deliver a promising “good start” for Yu Guang, who was full of expectations, and for Lei Jun, who supported him.

“Middle-aged Pop Mart” listed, revenue increased but profit declined last year

Tianyancha shows that Hangzhou Master Tong Cultural & Creative (Group) Co., Ltd. was established in March 2013, with the actual controller being founder, chairman, and general manager Yu Guang.

The company led by Yu Guang was once regarded as a combination of Pop Mart and Laopuo Gold, mainly focusing on “trendy toys + metal crafts,” with a primary audience of male consumers over 30.

The final offering price and allotment results announced show that Master Tong’s global offering consisted of 7.4068 million H-shares, priced at HKD 60 per share, raising net funds of about HKD 390 million.

On March 31, Master Tong successfully listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange amid widespread attention, opening a new chapter in its capital market journey.

However, on the first day of listing, Master Tong’s stock price fell below the offering price, opening at HKD 35.42 per share, a 40.97% discount to the HKD 60 offering price. By the close of that day, the stock closed at HKD 30.5 per share, nearly a 50% drop.

According to the prospectus, the company plans to use 38% of the net proceeds to enhance product development and design capabilities, supporting the construction of proprietary R&D centers and expanding and enriching its core product portfolio.

It is reported that Master Tong plans to launch approximately 800, 1,000, and 1,550 SKUs in 2026, 2027, and 2028 respectively, covering copper, gold, and silver categories.

Meanwhile, 24% of the net proceeds will be used to improve the company’s internal capacity and strengthen demand forecasting and manufacturing output consistency, thereby increasing fulfillment flexibility and supporting long-term product supply.

Master Tong revealed that the company plans to add about 691k units of design capacity, bringing the total expanded design capacity to approximately 2.21 million units.

Another 24% of the net proceeds will be used to expand and strengthen the company’s retail and marketing infrastructure, focusing on consolidating its direct-operated store network in China, accelerating international expansion, and enhancing digital marketing and content development capabilities.

Of the remaining funds, 4% will be used to strengthen the company’s digital and information infrastructure, and 10% will be reserved for general operating funds and operational flexibility.

Radar Finance notes that after the completion of this global offering, founder Yu Guang remains the largest single shareholder of Master Tong, directly holding about 23.24% of the company.

In addition, Tianyancha shows that in 2017 and 2018, Sequoia Capital and Tianjin Jinmi participated consecutively in Master Tong’s Series A and Series B financing rounds.

Among other major shareholders, Xiaomi ecosystem capital’s shareholding is second only to Yu Guang, with Sequoia holding 11.85% and Tianjin Jinmi 8.76%.

Performance relies on copper cultural and creative products, revenue increased but profit declined last year

Since its establishment, Master Tong has focused on integrating traditional craftsmanship with modern design and usage scenarios, developing copper cultural and creative products.

According to a report by Frost & Sullivan, in 2024, Master Tong ranked first in China’s copper cultural and creative craft product market by total revenue, with a market share of 35%.

It is known that in 2024, China’s copper cultural and creative craft product market accounted for about 6.3% of the broader Chinese metal cultural and creative craft product market, representing a more segmented niche within the wider cultural and creative craft market. Master Tong held about 0.2% of the market share in this niche in 2024.

Currently, Master Tong has four main product categories: copper cultural and creative products, plastic figurines and toys, silver cultural and creative products, and gold cultural and creative products.

Among these, copper cultural and creative products are the main source of revenue. From 2022 to 2025, these products contributed revenues of 480 million, 488 million, 551 million, and 581 million yuan respectively, accounting for 95.4%, 96.3%, 96.6%, and 94.2% of total revenue.

In 2025, Master Tong’s revenue grew by 8.1% year-on-year to 617 million yuan, mainly driven by the continued growth of its core copper cultural and creative products.

However, last year’s annual profit decreased by 39.4% to 48 million yuan.

This was mainly due to listing expenses incurred in 2025, as well as increased raw material costs (primarily driven by copper price rises) and higher sales and marketing expenses related to offline channel expansion plans near the end of 2025.

Specifically, the company’s listing expenses amounted to 20 million yuan; under the influence of rising copper prices, the company’s gross profit margin declined by 1.7 percentage points to 33.7%; sales and marketing expenses increased by 18.9% to 85 million yuan.

Master Tong stated that its product strategy continues to focus on original design and self-developed IP creation, supporting its differentiated storytelling, SKU iteration, and long-term brand value.

The company also claims to have cultivated a broad and diversified IP matrix, ensuring it does not heavily rely on any single IP.

The prospectus shows that in 2022, 2023, 2024, and the first three quarters of last year, the top five IPs accounted for 20.5%, 20.1%, 23.9%, and 23.4% of revenue respectively.

Among these, the Gourd series and the Monkey King series are particularly prominent. During the reporting periods, the Gourd series sold over 784k units, generating about 145 million yuan in revenue; the Monkey King series generated about 132 million yuan.

To keep pace with changing consumer preferences and aesthetic perceptions, Master Tong also regularly launches new SKUs and product series. In 2022, 2023, 2024, and the first three quarters of last year, the company launched 583, 514, 707, and 404 new SKUs respectively.

Yu Guang’s “MiHei” to “MiFen” transformation, “pixel-level” imitation of Xiaomi

Interestingly, Yu Guang, who is now heavily invested by Lei Jun, was once a “MiHei” (a critic of Xiaomi).

Rewinding to 2012, influenced by his younger brother, Yu Guang first encountered Xiaomi’s first-generation phones, but at that time, he was quite dismissive: “It’s just a bit better-looking than knockoff phones, still far from Apple.”

“Later, I kept reading reports about Xiaomi. Its development speed was too fast. I started to think Xiaomi must have many things worth learning,” Yu Guang recalled. “Admire it or not, I wouldn’t buy Xiaomi products back then because I thought they were too cheap. Like many others, I believed cheap meant low quality.”

Notably, Lei Jun has a famous saying — “When standing at the windmill, even pigs can fly,” but Yu Guang once joked that, “I’ve never caught the wind in my life.”

During art vocational school, Yu Guang sold street stalls, couplets, and wholesale T-shirts; after entering society, he also did renovation work but never made a big splash.

Around 2001, Yu Guang and his brother Yu Qing co-founded a company selling bathroom products. By 2013, Yu Guang’s bathroom company had an export value exceeding 200 million yuan.

In 2013, Yu Guang wanted to buy a copper Guan Gong statue but was deterred by the high price. So he decided to make one himself, seizing the niche market opportunity, and officially founded Master Tong.

Two years later, by chance, Yu Guang used Xiaomi’s first-generation power bank. When he picked up the power bank, he was immediately impressed by Xiaomi’s exquisite craftsmanship and shocked by its 69 yuan price.

Since then, Yu Guang gradually “went from black to fan,” becoming a loyal Xiaomi supporter, and began to learn from Xiaomi frantically. After becoming a “hardcore MiFen,” he publicly stated multiple times, “Lei is my idol.”

“Whatever Xiaomi does, I just follow suit,” Yu Guang’s obsession with Xiaomi reached the extreme. He not only browsed all reports and articles about Xiaomi but also bought 70 Xiaomi products in a year and a half.

Besides “madly” buying Xiaomi products, Yu Guang also applied Xiaomi’s model to his company’s management.

In product strategy, he unwaveringly implements Xiaomi’s “cost-performance” philosophy, striving to keep products finely crafted while maintaining lower prices than competitors.

In user operations, Yu Guang also benchmarks Xiaomi: “Xiaomi’s fans are called MiFen, so we call our fans CopperFans; Xiaomi has 100 seed users, I also set up a group with over 60 seed CopperFans; Xiaomi has the Popcorn Festival, we also hold a CopperFan Hero Conference.”

Yu Guang openly said, “Because I learned martial arts by secretly following a master, only grasping a bit of fur, but in our traditional and niche industry, it’s enough to beat those competitors whose products are poorly made and prices are high.”

In 2017, during a roadshow by Sequoia Capital, Yu Guang finally met his idol Lei Jun. At that time, Yu Guang didn’t even know what a business plan was, walking into the meeting room with a PPT titled with the “seven-character formula” of Xiaomi, featuring the words “Dimensionality reduction, Focus, Extreme, Reputation.”

Yu Guang admitted that he didn’t expect Lei Jun to invest in him at that time; he just thought that even gaining a few more “CopperFans” wouldn’t be a loss. But on the evening of the roadshow, after his flight landed, he received good news — Lei Jun decided to invest in Master Tong.

Five years later, Master Tong officially embarked on a capitalized journey, but the road was not smooth. The company started counseling for listing on the ChiNext in 2022 but later abandoned the A-share plan.

In May 2025, Master Tong first submitted a listing application to HKEX, but the prospectus expired. Six months later, it re-submitted, and finally, at the end of March this year, it successfully listed on HKEX.

Radar Finance will continue to follow the subsequent development of Master Tong.