Mini Labubus are coming after your mobile phone, as Pop Mart aims to double 2025 sales

Pop Mart’s founder and CEO Wang Ning holds up a mini Labubu plush toy during the company’s post-earnings press conference in Hong Kong, Wednesday. Courtesy of Pop Mart

Pop Mart said it would be able to easily double this year's revenue from its 2024 record sales, as it prepares to launch a mini version of the Labubu plush toy to extend its phenomenal success and conquer more hearts beyond mainland China.

The company, founded in 2010 in Beijing, could double its 2025 revenue to 30 billion yuan ($4.2 billion) from last year's sales of 13 billion yuan, said Pop Mart's founder and CEO Wang Ning, citing the bigger-than-imagined worldwide market for its plush toys and figurines.

"I think hitting 30 billion [yuan] this year will be easy," Wang said during a post-earnings press briefing in Hong Kong on Wednesday, a day after reporting an interim net profit that quintupled to 4.57 billion yuan from a year ago. "In the past, Labubu figures were often seen attached to bags, but as early as next week, people [can] start attaching them to their phones."

The bullish forecast underscores Pop Mart's rise from obscurity as a toy seller in Beijing's Zhongguancun technological zone to the world's most valuable toymaker, with a market capitalisation larger than the sum total of Hasbro, Mattel and Sanrio.

A Labubu toy is placed at a host stand of a restaurant serving dessert in the shape of Labubu monster figurine, in Moscow, Russia, June 27. Reuters-Yonhap

Pop Mart's shares extended their gains on Wednesday, surging 12.5 percent to HK$316, giving the company a market capitalisation of over HK$424 billion.

The company's revenue quadrupled to 13.88 billion yuan in the first six months of the year, beating analysts' estimates. Its profit margin, which widened to 33.9 percent in the first half from 22.3 percent, could further widen to 35 percent this year, Wang said.

Pop Mart is best known as a seller of figurines and toys in so-called blind boxes, where the contents are sealed in opaque bags, forcing customers to keep buying until they get their hands on their target.

The star of Pop Mart's portfolio is Labubu, an elfin figure with a toothy grin designed by Hong Kong-born artist Lung Ka-sing. Its popularity received a boost from celebrity endorsements on social media by Rihanna, Kim Kardashian, David Beckham, Awkwafina, and Lisa of the girl group Blackpink since April. Labubu alone accounted for 35 percent of Pop Mart's interim sales.

Labubu's global success has propelled Pop Mart overseas. For the first six months of the year, its operations outside China and Taiwan soared fivefold to 5.59 billion yuan, making up about 40 percent of the total.

A man walks with two Labubu plush toys of Pop Mart hanging from his backpack straps along a pedestrian street on The Bund in Shanghai, China, July 4. AFP-Yonhap

North and South America made up the second-biggest overseas market for the company, which saw revenue jump more than tenfold to 2.3 billion yuan. That was second only to the Asia-Pacific region, where sales rose 258 percent to 2.85 billion yuan. Europe's contribution surged sevenfold to 477.7 million yuan.

"Actually, our overseas business has grown even faster than we expected, and the market is bigger than we imagined," said Wang. In an interview with People's Daily, he said that he expected he expects Pop Mart's international revenues to surpass the domestic business by the end of this year.

The company is also exploring opportunities in the Middle East, Europe, as well as Central and South America. It will open its first store in Doha, Qatar, later this year.

Labubu's popularity has created a shortage, leading to a surge in reselling and counterfeiting. Long queues have become normal outside Pop Mart shops across the world when new products are released. At Pop Mart's first store in Germany last month, some people queued up for six hours to get in.

Yuan Junjie, the president of Pop Mart's supply chain centre, said the company has been increasing its supply. "We are now producing over 30 million units a month, more than 10 times our capacity in the same period last year," said Yuan.

The company was also planning six major production bases worldwide, with four in China and two overseas, said Yuan, without specifying the locations. "We aim to further enhance our ability to match production capacity with market demand."

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