The archive · Consumer Apps · Strategic decision · 2018–2025
Pop Mart bets blind boxes can go global: Labubu breakout, overseas revenue +375% in 2024
China's designer-toy maker took its blind-box IP formula worldwide; 2024 revenue doubled to RMB 13.04B, shares rose 370%, and Labubu became a cultural export.
Pop Mart (泡泡玛特)
What the business is
Designer toy company selling blind-boxed figurines, plush and collectibles from in-house and artist IP (The Monsters/Labubu, Molly, Skullpanda) via stores and vending-style roboshops in nearly 100 countries.
How it started
A Beijing designer-toy retailer turned blind-box maker, Pop Mart began its globalization roadmap in 2018 and built a system around artist-signed IP collections (KrASIA). By 2024 it was Hong Kong-listed and dominant at home, with a mainland membership base of over 46 million (KrASIA).
What happened
The 2024 blowout was led by plush toys (+1,289% to RMB 2.83B) and The Monsters IP — Labubu's breakthrough made Pop Mart's original IP the growth engine (SCMP, KrASIA). Southeast Asia was the fastest overseas region (+619.1% to RMB 2.4B); flagships opened at the Louvre in Paris, on Oxford Street in London, and across Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines, Italy and Spain (KrASIA).
How it ended up
Still scaling: in April 2025 CEO Wang Ning announced regional headquarters for Greater China, the Americas, Asia-Pacific and Europe, with overseas revenue already about 40% of the total and a guided 2025 figure of RMB 10B+ overseas (SCMP, KrASIA).
Background
Pop Mart began as a Beijing toy retailer and remade itself around blind-boxed designer figurines: you pay a fixed low price and don't know which figure, or which rare 'hidden' edition, is inside. The package is premium and the artists are the draw — Molly, SKULLPANDA, and Kasing Lung's The Monsters, whose Labubu character became Pop Mart's global breakout. (KrASIA / SCMP)
The company started its globalization roadmap in 2018, and by 2024 the bet was paying off hard: revenue doubled to RMB 13.04B (+106.9% YoY), adjusted net profit rose 185.9% to RMB 3.4B, and overseas revenue jumped 375.2% to RMB 5.07B — 38.9% of the total. Plush toys, led by Labubu, grew 1,289% to RMB 2.83B. Flagship stores opened at the Louvre in Paris and on Oxford Street in London, and Southeast Asia alone grew 619.1% to RMB 2.4B. (KrASIA)
Investors re-rated the stock: shares rose about 370% in 2024 and another 81% into mid-April 2025 (SCMP). In April 2025 Wang Ning announced regional headquarters for Greater China, the Americas, Asia-Pacific and Europe, saying overseas revenue already approached 40% of the total and that the goal was to become 'a truly global enterprise.' (SCMP)
What has to be true
- China's toy market alone could not carry the valuation, so the 2018 globalization bet created a second growth curve as foreign markets discovered Labubu.
- Original IP ownership compounds: Pop Mart's own characters carry full margins, with gross margin hitting 66.8% in 2024.
- The mystery mechanic travels: uncertainty-based purchasing is universal, so the same shelf unit worked in Beijing, Jakarta, Paris, and New York.
- Flagship stores in landmarks like the Louvre and Oxford Street generated earned media that advertising could not buy.
What can be applied
When the product is an emotion — the thrill of the unknown — the IP is the brand, and brand emotions travel across borders better than toys, games or gadgets do.
Aftermath
As of 15 April 2025 Pop Mart was mid-globalization: management was restructured with two co-COOs covering the four new regions, and the company guided 2025 overseas revenue above RMB 10B (KrASIA). Risks stayed visible — US tariffs on Chinese goods (noted by SCMP), China's regulatory attention to blind-box mechanics sold to minors, and the boom-bust history of collectibles — but both the share price and the fandom were still compounding when this record cuts off.
Sources
- Pop Mart's global push pays off as revenue doubles in 2024
- Chinese toymaker Pop Mart's shares jump as global expansion plans take shape
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