Pop Mart doesn't need the next LABUBU

On March 25th, Pop Mart released its report card for 2025. In the past year, Pop Mart's revenue reached 37.12 billion RMB, a year - on - year increase of 185%. Its net profit was 13.01 billion RMB, a year - on - year increase of 293%.

The discussion around Pop Mart has boiled over again. However, compared with the elation when the interim report was released last year, this time, along with Pop Mart's impressive financial results, there is negative sentiment in the capital market.

Pop Mart didn't sit idle. It chose to repurchase shares with a large sum of 1.2 billion Hong Kong dollars over four consecutive trading days, sending a signal to the market about the company's long - term positive outlook.

Behind the roller - coaster stock price are the same old questions: Can Pop Mart maintain its high - speed growth in 2025, and is it relying too much on the single IP LABUBU?

From the perspective of IPs, in the past year, the revenue of LABUBU and its THE MONSTERS series exceeded 10 billion RMB, accounting for about 38% of the company's total revenue. Six IPs, including SKULLPANDA, CRYBABY, and MOLLY, had revenues exceeding 2 billion RMB, and 17 IPs had revenues exceeding 100 million RMB. Together, their revenues are comparable to that of LABUBU.

Among the new IPs, the Star People, launched in mid - 2024, has become a key force in Pop Mart's IP matrix with a 16 - fold growth.

This reflects Pop Mart's operational capabilities as an IP company.

Regarding the recent stock price fluctuations, a senior practitioner in the trendy toy industry said that emotions play a bigger role. "The fundamentals of the company's financial report are fine, and everyone is quite calm."

An investor also said that Pop Mart's CEO, Wang Ning, has been trying to cool down the company. Instead of pursuing scale and growth speed, he aims for high - quality growth. However, LABUBU's shine is so bright that few people pay attention to these remarks.

In a longer - term perspective, high IP concentration is a stage that all content companies must go through. Disney built its fairy - tale kingdom with Mickey Mouse, Marvel established its cosmic era with the Avengers, and Sanrio defined the global "cute economy" with Hello Kitty. No IP company starts with an "even distribution." The key lies in how to keep Mickey Mouse, the Avengers, and Hello Kitty relevant after a hundred years.

Si De, Pop Mart's Chief Operating Officer, once told the media, "The most important thing we learned from Disney is continuous investment and continuous operation." Now, Pop Mart is still investing heavily in LABUBU, an IP that has been around for ten years, to make it a "world - class IP with a long life cycle."

How to make an IP last longer and generate more compound interest is also a question that Pop Mart has to face after becoming a company with an annual revenue of over 30 billion RMB.

 "This LABUBU" Will Live a Long Time

In the past three years, LABUBU has become extremely popular in Southeast Asia, China, Europe, and the United States, with astonishing growth. However, no IP can maintain high - speed growth forever. A good IP will have a longer lifespan, more compound interest, and is more worthy of investment.

Just as Duan Yongping said on an investment platform on March 30th that he "takes back his decision not to invest in Pop Mart" - the "speed" in economics is actually the "acceleration" in physics. When investing, what you buy is the future total, which is the "total length" obtained by multiplying the "speed" by the "time" in physics. Of course, a bit of "acceleration" will make the company go further in a unit of time. What he left unsaid is that Pop Mart can indeed go further in the future, and LABUBU's popularity has just made Pop Mart run faster now.

In 2025, the revenue of Pop Mart's plush products reached 18.7 billion RMB, a year - on - year increase of 560.6%. For the first time, it exceeded the revenue of figurines and became the most profitable category under Pop Mart, telling a new growth story.

The beginning of this story is LABUBU. In 2022, to stimulate creativity and improve production efficiency, Pop Mart's product department was divided into groups such as the MEGA group, the plush group, and the building block group according to product categories, laying the foundation for the explosion of the plush category today.

In 2023, the plush group presented samples of LABUBU in the form of vinyl - coated plush to the senior management again and again. When they saw the first - generation product, Si De commented, "This is going to work."

The subsequent story is well - known. In the financial reports of the past two years, the words "vinyl - coated plush LABUBU" were always accompanied by triple - digit growth and revenues exceeding 10 billion RMB. At the consumer end, they always sold out in seconds.

The perfect combination of the vinyl - coated plush process and the LABUBU image verifies the importance of product categories and design in extending the life of an IP, which is also what Pop Mart has been doing. In the past year, IPs such as SKULLPANDA and CRYBABY have also been updated in the plush form.

The update of product forms, through more intuitive designs such as vision and appearance, can in turn help consumers better understand and love the IP.

To create a good IP and make it resonate with consumers, offline presence is essential. Correspondingly, scenarios with an artistic atmosphere such as theme parks and super stores can better interpret and present the IP.

So, LABUBU in the form of a puppet costume entered the theme park, giving consumers another opportunity to see and feel this little elf.

In 2025 in November, the THE MONSTERS family participated in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, which started in 1924 and is the oldest and grandest Thanksgiving Day parade in the world.

On March 25th, Si De said at the earnings conference that in 2025, the star friends in the theme park carried out 40 special off - site activities, continuously strengthening the emotional connection between the IP and its fans through offline scenarios.

Recently, LABUBU, the popular "female star," has also made it to the big screen.

On March 19th, LABUBU was officially announced as the protagonist of a movie. Pop Mart reached a cooperation with Sony Pictures, and the movie will be directed by Paul King, the director of "Paddington."

After the news was announced, some netizens have started to sort out the relationships among the characters in the THE MONSTERS family. Some people also made wishes, hoping to see Xiao Ye and the Star People on the big screen.

In the new year, a new story of LABUBU has begun.

Looking back at the long history of IPs, how are the "LABUBUs" of the past doing?

Netizens who surf the Internet a lot may have seen a little boy with curly hair, thin limbs, and always wearing a yellow sweatshirt. He is Charlie Brown, a classic character from the "Peanuts" comic strip that was created in 1950. The dog Snoopy also comes from this comic.

"Peanuts" uses daily life to carry universal emotions and has remained vibrant for more than half a century. In 2025, Sony acquired a controlling stake in Peanuts for 460 million US dollars. Even under the challenge of the closure of the live - action entertainment project Wonderverse, Peanuts can still contribute a stable cash flow through its licensing system and support the IP ecosystem.

Similar examples include Pokémon and Sanrio, which are already decades old. The former continues to iterate and update through games, trading cards, and animations; the latter operates through annual character polls and high - frequency limited - edition peripherals. Both have achieved cross - generational longevity through emotional resonance across all ages and a mature licensing ecosystem.

This, to some extent, provides a reference for LABUBU, which has been around for 10 years and is set to go even further.

 Has "The Next LABUBU" Not Appeared Yet?

Besides LABUBU, Pop Mart is also telling stories about new IPs.

In the 2025 financial report, Pop Mart already had 6 IPs with revenues exceeding 2 billion RMB. The number was 2 in the same period last year.

In mid - 2025, the cute puppet costume image of the Star People became a must - visit photo spot in Pop Mart's theme park and even Chaoyang Park. People queued for two hours just to interact with it.

In December 2025, the Star People launched a co - branded product with Heytea, and the co - branded product sold out as soon as it was launched. In January this year, the Valentine's Day limited - edition "Heartbeat of the Stars" series of the IP sold out as soon as it was launched online.

A consumer said, "I thought I wouldn't buy Pop Mart products until I saw the Star People."

In fact, this IP was launched by Pop Mart in August 2024. Now, it has grown into a hit IP with revenues exceeding 1 billion RMB and a growth rate of over 16 times.

There is also the revival of PUCKY. In mid - January 2026, the "PUCKY Knock - Knock Series" plush keychains launched by Pop Mart were jokingly called "electronic wooden fish" and "a cure for office workers" by netizens, also attracting attention on various social platforms.

A small addition of functionality gives trendy toys an additional interactive scenario and meets the needs of the contemporary young generation for low - cost, immediate emotional release and spiritual comfort when facing work and life pressures, thus enabling the PUCKY IP to break through the circle.

Before this, PUCKY was not very popular. However, Pop Mart's logic of operating IPs is not just based on data feedback. Instead, it is like how South Korea trains trainees, accompanying those IPs with potential and good design.

These "old" IPs such as SKULLPANDA and DIMOO also maintained triple - digit growth in the 2025 financial report, which reflects Pop Mart's ability to operate an IP in the long term.

2026 marks the 20th anniversary of MOLLY's birth, and the 20th - anniversary theme exhibition of MOLLY has been touring in many places around the world. Among them, the exhibition held at the Fosun Art Center in Shanghai is the largest offline IP theme exhibition of MOLLY in the world so far. It invited more than 20 artists and intangible cultural heritage craftsmen for cross - border creation, greatly enhancing its artistic and cultural value.

In this process, Wang Ning always emphasizes the need to continuously operate an IP without over - consuming it. At the earnings conference, he voluntarily said that the company will have a growth rate of about 20% in 2026. More importantly, it is to pursue healthy growth rather than expansion with increasing revenue but no increase in profit.

Besides IPs, Pop Mart is also accelerating its steps in theme parks and retail.

Also at the earnings conference on March 25th, Si De said that the construction of the 1.5 - phase of Pop Mart's urban theme park is progressing smoothly and is expected to open to the public this summer. In 2025, even when nearly half of the park's area was closed, the revenue and passenger flow of the park exceeded expectations, and the Star People was successfully created as a star friend.

After the jewelry brand popop, Pop Mart also launched the dessert brand POP BAKERY. Behind these seemingly unrelated businesses, there is actually a consumer base. In many previous brand exhibitions, desserts with the images of its IPs were sold. The Star People ice cream, which needs to be split in half, was once a must - buy for trendy toy enthusiasts.

In addition, Pop Mart's management also said at the earnings conference that the number of new stores and store renovations in the Chinese market will increase this year. The core logic is to improve users' staying time and experience through the "store as a theme park" model. In the past year, after the area of some stores increased by 30% - 40%, the store efficiency doubled.

As Pop Mart's CEO, Wang Ning, said at the 2025 annual report earnings conference, "Many excellent consumer brands have achieved 'Fashion For All' and met the needs of many people. We hope that one day we can achieve 'Fun For All' or 'Happy For All'."