The Labubu craze and Pop Mart's rise: how a Chinese toy company built a $55B blind-box empire

Summary

Pop Mart, a Chinese designer toy company, has reached a $55 billion valuation by packaging collectible figurines into blind boxes—sealed containers whose contents remain unknown until purchase. Founder Wang Ning, now China's tenth richest person with $28 billion in net worth, built Pop Mart from a single Beijing mall shop in 2010 into a global operation spanning nearly 600 retail stores, 2,500 vending machines, and $1.8 billion in annual revenue. Year-over-year growth hit 106%, with $700 million coming from overseas markets.

How blind boxes work

Wang began by reselling third-party toy merchandise on thin margins until discovering the blind-box format in 2014 using Japanese figurines called Sunny Angels. The mechanic is straightforward: buyers pay a fixed price for a sealed box containing one of multiple variants, creating both a gambling-like appeal and secondary-market speculation. A figurine costing $10 at retail might resell for considerably more if rare. Unlike loot boxes in video games, Labubu blind boxes retain floor value—buyers avoid total loss. Collectors who want to complete a set of 10 slightly different variants must buy many boxes repeatedly, driving volume purchases.

IP licensing as growth

In 2016, Wang licensed an exclusive deal with artist Kenny Wong to develop Molly figurines and blind boxes. Molly generated $800 million in revenue and signaled Pop Mart's shift from third-party reseller to IP control, licensing exclusive designs from artists while building an in-house Pop Design Center. Pop Mart licensed Labubu from artist Kasing Leung, who originally created the character for a picture-book trilogy called The Monsters, but did not release the modern Labubu doll iteration until 2023.

From IPO to $55 billion

In 2020, Pop Mart raised $100 million at a $2.5 billion pre-IPO valuation before listing on the Hong Kong exchange. The stock jumped 80% on opening day, and Pop Mart's market cap hit $12.5 billion. Wang's net worth nearly doubled from $3.2 billion at open to $6 billion by close. By 2023, Labubu blind boxes went viral on TikTok, fueling explosive growth that pushed valuation to $55 billion.

Vending machines and unit economics

Vending machines, introduced in 2017, proved critical to scale. They reduced rent costs tied to mall locations while expanding reach into new markets and fan bases. This repeatable unit economics allowed Pop Mart to replicate the Molly playbook across multiple IP franchises including Pucky and Sader.

Regulatory pressure

China's regulators have banned sales to children under eight due to gambling mechanics concerns, though enforcement remains unclear since parents are the primary purchasers.

Pop Mart monetized a format invented in Japan and toy collecting that was once niche, then scaled through vertical integration of artist licensing and in-house design, geographic expansion via vending machines, and virality on TikTok. In roughly five years from IPO to present, the company grew from $12.5 billion to $55 billion in market cap, a pace and scale rivaling major entertainment acquisitions except Pop Mart built new IP rather than acquiring it.