How the Pop Mart dolls conquered the world

Whether you think they are cute, ugly or strange only, you may have heard about the fresh dolls that have become a global feeling – Labubu.

A monster was born, the creature that resembles a dwarf of Chinese game maker Pop Mart is now a viral purchase. He has no scarcity in celebrity advocates: Rihanna, Dua Lipa, Kim Kardashian and Blacknka Lisa. The ordinary people are equally obsessed with Shanghai to London, and long waiting lists have topped the doll’s headlines, Sometimes it comes to the battles even.

“You get this feeling of achievement when you are able to get it from such a fierce competition,” says Viona Zhang.

The magic of the world with Lapopo has almost doubled the profits of Bob Mart last year – and according to some, even the active, soft Chinese power, which were bruises by the epidemic and a tense relationship with the West.

So, how did we get here?

It is a question that still disturbs a lot – and even those who know the answer are not quite sure that they can explain madness.

Labubu is a fictional and brand. The word itself does not mean anything. It is a character name in the “Monsters” games series created by the artist Hong Kong.

Vinyl faces are attached to the most luxurious bodies, and they come with a distinctive appearance – pointed ears, large eyes and a harmful smile that shows exactly nine teeth. The curious and divided Internet cannot decide whether it is great or strange.

According to its official location for retail stores, Labubu “is” kind -hearted and always wants to help, but it often achieves the opposite by mistake. “

Labubu dolls appeared in several series of “The Monsters”, such as “Big in Energy”, “Have a Seat”, “Exciting Fools” and “Fall In Wild”.

The Labubu brand also contains other characters from her world, which inspired her popular dolls – such as the Zimomo tribe, her friend Tycoco and her friend Mokoko.

For unacceptable eye, it is difficult to distinguish some of these dolls from each other. The connoisseurs will be known, but Labubu’s reputation has definitely left, with other samples in the family that also fly on the shelves.

A large part of Pop Mart sales were the so -called blind boxes – where customers only discovered what they bought when they opened the package – for several years when they tied with Kamp Lung for Labubu rights.

That was the year 2019, that is, nearly a decade after businessman Wang Ning Bob Mart opened as a variety, similar to the Pound store, in Beijing. When the Blind Boxes became successful, Pop Mart launched the first series in 2016, selling statues that resemble children created by Hong Kong Kenny Wong.

But Labubu’s sales were the ones that fed Pop Mart growth and in December 2020, she started selling stocks on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. These shares increased by more than 500 % last year.

Pop Mart itself is now major retail stores. It runs more than 2000 selling machines, or “Roboshops”, all over the world. You can now buy Labubu dolls in stores, material or virtual, in more than 30 countries, from the United States and the United Kingdom to Australia and Singapore, although many of them have recently stopped sales due to overwhelming demand. Sales from outside the mainland of China contributed to nearly 40 % of its total revenue in 2024.

In a sign of the popularity of Labubus, Chinese customs officials said this week that they had seized more than 70,000 fake dolls in recent days.

The demand has not increased overnight. In fact, it took a few years to storm Elfin’s main current monsters.

Before the discovery of the world, Lapopo, their fame was limited to China. They began to become just a great success as the country came out of the epidemic in late 2022, according to Ashley Dudinoc, the founder of the China China’s research company.

“After birth, many people in China felt that they wanted to escape emotionally … and Abo had a very charming but chaotic personality,” she says. “This embodies the hostility of the object.”

The Chinese internet, which is huge and competitive, produces many viral trends that do not become universal. But this is the one who did it and its popularity quickly spread to Southeast Asia.

Fiona, who lives in Canada, says she has first heard about Labubu of Philippine friends in 2023. That is when she started buying it – she says she finds her nice, but her growing popularity is a great lot: “The more popularly, the more you want it.

“My husband does not understand the reason for installing me, someone in his thirties, for something like that, like caring for the colors to get.”

She adds that it also helps the cost. Although the increasing demand has risen on the high prices in the used market, Viona says that the original price, which ranged between $ 25, Canadian ($ 18; 14 pounds) to $ 70 for most Labubu dolls, was “acceptable” for most of the people you know.

“This is to a large extent the amount of the cost of the bag’s supplement in any case these days, most people will be able to withstand its costs,” she says.

Labubu’s popularity increased in April 2024, when a Thai-born K-POP star began publishing photos on Instagram with various Labubu dolls. After that, other world celebrities have turned the dolls into an international phenomenon this year.

The singer Rihanna was photographed with Labubu, which was cut into the Louis Vuitton bag in February. The influencer Kim Kardashian shared her group of 10 Labo dolls with her Instagram in April. In May, the former football captain in England, Sir David Beckham, also to Instagram with a picture of La Pubu, gave him his daughter.

Now the dolls feel everywhere, and I have been ill regularly not only online but also on friends, colleagues or passers -by.

Simply, we don’t know. Like most viral trends, it is difficult to clarify the attractiveness of Labubu – as a result of timing, taste and randomness that are the Internet.

Beijing is definitely happy with the result. Government News Agency, Shinachua, says Lapopo “shows the attractiveness of Chinese creativity, quality and culture in a language that the world can understand,” while giving everyone the opportunity to see “wonderful China.”

Xinhua has other examples that show “Chinese Cultural IP Gollow”: legendary legendary video game: Wukong and a successful animated movie Nezha.

Some analysts seem to be surprised by the fact that Chinese companies – from EV makers and artificial intelligence makers to retailers – are very successful despite Western discomfort for Beijing’s ambitions.

“Byd, Deepseek, all of these companies have something very interesting, including Labubu,” Chris Pereira, the founder and CEO of Consulting Company, told BBC News.

“They are so good that no one is interested in China. You can’t ignore them.”

Meanwhile, Labubu continues to raise social media followers with millions who watch new owners who cancel the purchase of valuable purchase. One of the most popular videos, published in December, shows American airport security staff wandering around the non -open Labubu box for the traveler to know the doll inside.

Desmond Tan, a long -term mosque, is wandering around the Bob Mart store in Singapore in Singapore, shaking blind boxes strongly before anyone decided to wander. This is a common scene in Bob Mart.

Desmond collects “chase” characters, special editions of the various Pop Mart games series, which include Labubu. On average, Dizmond says, he finds a chase in one in 10 boxes that he buys. It is a good strike rate, as it claims, compared to typical possibilities: one in every 100.

“To be able to get a chase of shaking the square, and learn how to feel the difference …”, very satisfactory to it.

“If I can get it in two or two attempts, I am very happy!”