Labubu hits auction windfall amid frenzy

A mint-colored first-generation Labubu collectible toy fetched 1.08 million yuan ($150,444) at the Yongle 2025 Spring Auction on June 10, signaling the continuing appeal of what has become a sensational toy amid a global craze that has underpinned toymaker Pop Mart International Group Ltd's stock price.

This not only helps cement the trendy toy's popularity, but also puts toymaker Pop Mart in the spotlight.

According to the Forbes Real-Time Billionaires List, the company's founder, Wang Ning, has emerged as the richest individual in Henan province, boasting an estimated net worth of $20.5 billion, or 147.2 billion yuan.

To meet the rising market demand for the collectible plush toy, Pop Mart, the Beijing-based toymaker, has recently intensified efforts to bolster its workforce and ramp up production amid soaring consumer interest.

Si De, Pop Mart's chief operating officer, said of the production challenges in a recent media interview: "The ramp-up of the supply chain must follow a very gradual curve to ensure both quality and capacity. No one anticipated such an explosive growth in demand."

"As we were scaling up, we went through a very challenging phase. There was no other way but to push through it."

Over the past year, Si has been actively negotiating production expansions and capacity increases with various factories.

Pop Mart's financial report showed that the company's intellectual property under The Monsters series, which includes Labubu, generated an astounding 3.04 billion yuan in revenue last year — an increase of 726.6 percent year-on-year.

This accounted for 23.3 percent of the company's total annual revenue, underscoring the growing significance of the IP within its portfolio. For the first quarter of this year the company reported that the North American market grew the fastest, at 895 percent to 900 percent year-on-year.

The company launched the Labubu 3.0 series in April, igniting a worldwide frenzy among collectors. Created by artist Kasing Lung, Labubu, a Nordic forest elf character, first gained traction overseas before capturing the domestic market.

Pop Mart signed Lung's The Monsters series in 2019, which has since become a cornerstone of its trending toy offerings. As demand for collectible toys continues to surge, Pop Mart remains focused on balancing growth with production capacity, positioning itself for sustained success in this booming market, said the company.

According to Euromonitor International, the toys and games market in China, which is valued at 420.8 billion yuan, grew 7 percent year-on-year in 2024.

But while categories of construction toys, dolls and accessories — valued at 10.6 billion yuan — saw noticeable growth year-on-year in 2024, the more traditional toy demographics such as babies and infants saw declines overall. The demographic is shifting toward electronic forms of entertainment such as video games, according to Euromonitor.

Its senior analyst Clifton Chiu said this growth shift signals a change in the demographic for the overall toys and games market as a whole.

"Pop Mart's sustained success has seen it gain approximately 20 percent market share in the dolls and accessories market in China and 0.5 percent in the world, which is significant considering it is competing in the same space as Barbie," he said.

Meanwhile, a large proportion of Pop Mart consumers value the blind box experience, said Chiu.

wangzhuoqiong@chinadaily.com.cn