From collectible toy to international status symbol

She was the sunny evening in Washington Square Park in New York. People are gathered there for one reason, and only one reason: LaPobo’s fashion show.

On June 12, Labubu fans blocked the sidewalks with the monsters of the small games that were cut into their governor, their bags, and their belt – even their dogs. The model with the best taste won a new game, and of course, a wallet to hang it.

The evening gave a glimpse of an obsession around the sudden world, with blindly stuffed animals, which is sold for about $ 30 and is followed by the collected Chinese Pop Mart. Labubu is a “small, pointed ears, toothed teeth” and a “harmful” smile, according to Bob Mart site.

Pop Mart sells hundreds of different versions of Labubu – vary in colors and scarcity of scarcity – and no fans know which of them bought until their chapter, such as a package of baseball cards. More than a million video clip Tiktok mentions strange small monsters, often selling in minutes.

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Fans from adult fashion designers and gathering games ranges to parents who buy strange crawling dolls for their young children. They may line up in Pop Mart stores and selling machines for hours, until they travel abroad to get their hands. Some Labubus goes to hundreds, or even thousands, from dollars on the residence markets like Stockx or EBay.

Pop Mart made about 13.04 billion yuan ($ 1.8 billion) The latest announcement of the annual results. The advertisement said that this included about $ 460 million of profits.

Emily Pro, the head of intellectual property licenses at two Americans, says nearly $ 423 million of the company’s global revenues came from LaPobo dolls alone. This is an increase of 729 % of 2023, and adds.

“We have seen incredible growth in revenues and interest in all of our IP address,” says. “Certainly, Labobo hit astronomical numbers last year.”

Here is how Labubu moved from a simple, accessible game to a virus feeling of money.

Pop Mart was founded in 2010 as a small diversified store in Beijing, China. Its founder, Wang Ning – is now 38 years old – has a retail talent as a college advertisement student, where he was selling accessories for his classmates, According to Bloomberg.

The company has grown steadily, as it opened another retail store in a commercial center in 2011 and an online store in 2016. Pop Mart regularly with artists to design and create different games and statues, and in 2019, this deal was built with the artist Kamp Lung, who shows a series of video books called “The Monsters”.

Labubu is a character from “The Monsters”, and she broke the first wave of Pop Mart from Labubu’s dolls ” [business’] Sales record in the technical games category. ” According to the company’s website. A year later, POP Mart started circulating publicly in Hong Kong with a value of $ 6.9 billion, putting the company within the scope of international game makers such as Mattel and HASBRO.

In 2023, POP Mart began selling versions of Labubus with their connected keys. Then, in April 2024, Lalisa “Lisa” Manoban, a member of the K-Pop BlackPink, was seen with Labubu on a wallet as a bag magic.

It started in a state of frenzy, as people flocked to get an accessory to the game of their monster – they soon turned Pop Mart into a fashion attachment and a symbol of the social situation. Celebrities such as LISO and billionaire Rihanna Lapos on their governor, which increases the circulation of the game.

People allocate their dolls, give them hats, “designer” clothes, solar glasses and their right. Some people even put the real tattoo on their faces. The maximum Pop Mart market is now $ 43.28 billion, as of Monday afternoon – exceeding $ 6.44 billion from Mattel and $ 10.63 billion.

Pop Mart stores, which have an area of 500 people all over the world, include more than 90 retail sites in the United States, including sales machines, According to its website. The company’s success pushed Ning net value 21.6 billion dollarsForbes says.

Some Labubu fans say that their emotion of luxurious monsters goes beyond the effect of celebrities: they love unique games, and the characters created by the lung for them and stir an attempt to obtain a specific father of their groups.

According to what was reported, Pop Mart supplies, Ltd. Customers who fight on Labos. He has created a high -sales prices for Knockoff Labubus, known as “LAFUFUS”, on platforms like Amazon and Aliexpress.

Do not tend to fashion and pop culture forever, which means that Labubu dolls may fade in popularity over time. Currently, POP Mart plans to continue to expand internationally – take advantage of madness while he is – and develop her artists list to create and sell more characters, says Brough.

“Pop Mart was 15 years ago and we really build a longevity,” she says. “As we continue to diversify our artists’ portfolio and diversify the ways that people can really interact with our personalities, we will continue our mission to light emotion and make joy for years to come.”

Transformations from CNY to USD using Oanda converting rate from 1 CNY to 0.13923 US dollars on June 16, 2025. All amounts are brought to the earliest dollar.

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