Why LABUBU Sold Worldwide: How POP MART Sells Discovery, Not Products

POP MART began in 2010 as a small shop selling select miscellaneous goods in a university district of Beijing. Today it runs more than 500 directly operated stores and more than 2,300 vending-machine-style shops in over 30 countries, and it has become a major presence in the character business.

The turning point came in the early days, when business was hard and it began selling the Japanese-made Sonny Angel figures. It shifted from a shop that lines products up on shelves to a company that creates ways of meeting characters.

What matters about this shift is that it went beyond stocking popular products and linked everything in one line: which shelf you find them on, what size of box you pick up, and how you enjoy it after taking it home. First-timers get an easy way in, and people who already love it get a reason to look for the next series.

Discovery in the select-shop days meant finding "what I like" among the variety of products on the shelves. Even after the company shifted to the character business, that feeling survives as a chance encounter with a single box. Instead of pushing only bestsellers, operators can open up the joy of choosing, even to people with no prior knowledge, by arranging products so first-time viewers can compare expressions and themes.

A small variety store is hard to square with its scale today. It wasn't aiming for global expansion from the beginning; the form emerged as the products it handled changed.

That sequence is not unusual. More often it comes not from a plan but from watching reactions and moving closer to them.

Someone who enjoys unboxing videos, someone who picks one to display and someone who collects the whole series each have a different reason to buy, even for the same product. Not assuming that everyone who buys a popular product is a collector, and making official product descriptions and sales methods easy to understand, also reassures first-time buyers.

The blind box, whose contents you can't see, added the moment of opening without knowing what you'll get to the product's value. From choosing a box to reacting after you open it, the time before and after the purchase becomes one experience.

Chance creates fun, but it also means the burden of not being able to choose the character you want. What matters is to keep regular products, places to trade and clear sales rules alongside, so the fun of opening stays separate from the reassurance of being able to choose.

Before buying, fans can ask themselves whether this is a series they'd enjoy whatever comes out or whether they want only one particular figure, and then choose random boxes as entertainment. In the latter case, buying an already opened item through a legitimate sale or making a trustworthy trade protects both budget and feelings.

Keeping the price low was also a condition of its spread. If one box cost several thousand yen, few people would buy one just to try.

This mechanism is strong because you don't know what is inside before you buy. There's no choosing to agonize over, so it's hard to hesitate. At the same time, it gives you a reason to keep buying until you get the one you were aiming for.

So the format can be fun or a burden, depending on the design. The combination of price and number of types sets the range of play.

Characters like LABUBU add expressions, outfits, companions and fragments of story with every product. Each time you welcome home a different figure, the world comes into view a little more, and one-off cuteness turns into an ongoing collection.

Revenue for 2024 was reported at RMB 13.04 billion, with adjusted net profit of RMB 3.4 billion. Along with the growth in overseas sales, the growth rests on a system that carries the unboxing experience, not just the products, to each region.

A slightly grumpy, not-too-perfect expression leaves room for fans to project their own mood. Because the official side doesn't spell out the whole story, the owner's interpretation lives on in each figure's photos and how it is displayed.

For the operator, adding new releases and protecting the character's outline are both needed at once. If the core of the expression and the world can still be read when outfits and themes change, collectors will see not "the same thing in a different color" but a new scene in the story.

Growing characters is another trait of this company. It doesn't depend on a single hit but grows several lines in parallel.

With stores and ROBO SHOP machines, POP MART's vending-machine-style shops, in shopping malls, airports and stations, fans can meet the characters on their daily travels without heading for a specialty store. Convenient sales equipment also becomes a chance point of contact with new fans.

Going global is not just exporting the same products; you have to understand location, language, payment and each region's collector culture. What's needed is a kind of translation that adapts the way of meeting to the locality without changing the character.

The roles differ: a store is a place to compare series and ask staff questions, while a ROBO SHOP is a place to choose quickly on the way somewhere. Operators shouldn't handle stock placement and guidance identically, and should show first-time buyers at each point of contact where to go next.

A figure found overseas or on a trip is tied to the memory of that place. On the other hand, pushing the phrase "regionally limited" too hard puts the race to obtain it ahead of the experience. Companies should explain the reasons for limits and the sales conditions, and leave ways into the world through permanent products as well. Fans can judge whether it's a way of buying they can enjoy, including travel costs and uncertain stock.

This field is quick to imitate, too. Products in a similar format keep appearing one after another, so the strength of the character itself is put to the test.

Putting stores and vending machines in so many places is a deliberate strategy. With online shopping alone, products reach only people who are looking. Put them where people pass, and they also catch the eyes of people who weren't.

Seeing the real thing also matters for this product, because size and texture don't come across in photos. Creating chance encounters and confirming the real thing at the same time is the role of the storefront.

Once popularity takes off, the hard part is adjusting supply. If stockouts continue, the excitement cools; if too much is made, the value drops.

Soaring secondary-market prices don't work in a company's favor over the long run either. If people who want to buy can't get it at the list price for long, new people don't come in.

A store is a place of sale and also a stage where people share everything from unboxing to trading. Choosing a box with a friend, opening it in the store, trading and posting photos: this chain of actions extends ownership into a community experience.

Limited colors and secret figures motivate buyers, but stress scarcity too much and the resale price becomes the center of conversation. Official prices, restocks and purchase limits need to be made clear, so that the joy of collecting doesn't tilt toward speculation.

In trading, simply confirming in advance whether the box or card is included, any scratches and how the handover will work reduces misunderstandings. Don't decide value by market price alone; hand over a figure both sides are happy with, and contact with strangers becomes a fan exchange you can feel safe in.

POP MART's growth is not just a story of selling figures. It is a case of linking meeting, opening, collecting, trading and displaying, and growing that into a culture that continues after purchase.

Once a fandom forms, the meaning of the product changes. Who has what becomes common knowledge, and trading and showing each other off emerge.

At that stage, it goes beyond what a company can manage. What has spread as a culture no longer belongs to the company.

The culture of sharing the moment of opening also pushed this product up. It's easy to film, and viewers enjoy waiting for the result.

A structure in which buyers become promoters can't be built on purpose. It depends on whether the form of the product itself is easy to share.