Pop Mart: Has Its Glory Faded?

Text | Lan Jie

Editor | Qiao Qian

In 2025, Pop Mart had grown into a behemoth.

On March 25th, Pop Mart released its 2025 financial report. Its revenue reached RMB 37.12 billion, a year - on - year increase of 185%, and the net profit was RMB 13.01 billion, a year - on - year increase of 293%. Among them, the overseas market became the main driver of growth, accounting for over 40% of the revenue.

This was a remarkable financial report result, but the capital market was not convinced. After the opening on the day the financial report was released, Pop Mart's stock price once dropped by more than 20%.

On March 26th, Pop Mart announced that it would spend HK$599 million to repurchase 3.94 million shares, with the repurchase price per share ranging from HK$148.4 to HK$157.8. As of the close of trading on that day, Pop Mart's stock was quoted at HK$150.7 per share. This move was intended to stabilize market sentiment and continuously convey the company's long - term positive confidence to the market.

In addition to the fact that part of the growth did not meet expectations, there was also an existing problem: the over - reliance on a single hit product. In 2025, LABUBU and the THE MONSTERS behind it contributed over 38% of the revenue, further increasing from 34.7% in the first half of the year. It also drove the plush product category to become the product category with the highest revenue contribution for the company, surpassing blind boxes. In 2025, Pop Mart's plush product category achieved a revenue of RMB 18.7 billion, a year - on - year increase of 560.6%, far exceeding the market expectation of RMB 14.1 billion.

Pop Mart's stock price

Such concerns are not unfounded.

At Pop Mart's 2025 annual meeting, a set of data was revealed - 49% of the brand's new members only recognized the LABUBU 3.0 product. The hit product showed a huge siphon effect, making many consumers who didn't even know what Pop Mart was hang the colorful and classic - looking LABUBU on their bags. It also made people in the industry more afraid of the end of the cycle that every hit product has.

At such a juncture, Pop Mart has also been repeatedly emphasizing the importance of "long - term operation". This is a common means for a company facing growth difficulties, and to some extent, it is also a story that all companies on the upward slope must tell.

The next LABUBU has not emerged yet

Even at the 2025 mid - year performance meeting, when the performance was at its peak and there was a lot of celebration, there were still investors asking "Where is the next LABUBU?" The company's management had to prove themselves and respond repeatedly with their product and operation capabilities.

But in March, Pop Mart's proud operation ability "failed".

At the end of February, Pop Mart officially announced a new IP, "KeyA". Different from the sweet and lovely IP images in the past, KeyA is a long - haired girl, and its main concept is "a girl who is always generating herself", which conforms to the current popular self - centered concept.

(Image source: Pop Mart official)

As soon as the new IP was announced, it received a lot of negative reviews. Currently, there are still over 8,000 doubts on Pop Mart's official Xiaohongshu account. One of the hottest comments was, "The life of a rich second - generation is really so easy."

The mismatch in the promotional content was one of the reasons. In the official narrative, the creator of this IP is a "genius girl" born in 2005. She started painting independently at the age of 3, engaged in illustration creation at the age of 13, and entered the School of Manga at Kyoto Seika University in Japan to study manga at the age of 16... However, consumers didn't want to hear the story of the genius girl. They cared more about the narration and design of the IP itself.

An An, a senior trendy toy industry practitioner, told 36Kr that emphasizing the resume of the creator during the promotion process is a common means for small and medium - sized trendy toy companies. After all, an IP starting from scratch doesn't have many stories to tell. But this method often comes with potential public opinion risks, and for a company of Pop Mart's scale, the risks will undoubtedly be magnified.

After that, Pop Mart didn't make many adjustments and still launched new products and held exhibitions as planned. As a result, the media once captured the scene where the sales of the new IP blind box products on the e - commerce platform were dismal.

Pop Mart has not failed to deliver good IP answers.

In 2025, Pop Mart had 7 IPs with revenues exceeding RMB 1 billion, while in 2024, there were only 4. The fastest - growing one was Xingxingren (Star People), with a revenue of RMB 2.06 billion, a year - on - year increase of over 16 times. Xingxingren was a new IP launched by Pop Mart in August 2024. It originally had a small audience and was an IP promoted by Pop Mart.

The problem is that the scale of these IPs is far from that of THE MONSTERS where LABUBU belongs. In 2025, THE MONSTERS' revenue was RMB 14.16 billion. In contrast, SKULLPANDA, which ranked second, contributed RMB 3.54 billion in revenue, which is less than a quarter of the former.

In addition, in An An's communication with Pop Mart's investors, the latter did not regard Xingxingren as a supplementary substitute for LABUBU. "It's more like a family - friendly animation character rather than a trendy toy IP." The growth of other IPs was also regarded as the increase in sales brought about by the company's expansion, which was an expected growth.

Although it may seem greedy, investors still hope to see an IP with explosive growth like LABUBU.

What matters more is the present

Facing continuous doubts and setbacks, how will Pop Mart respond?

Looking back at Pop Mart's 2025 financial report, how to make LABUBU last longer and further develop this IP is a proposition that is repeatedly mentioned.

In the performance review, there is such a statement: We believe that becoming a world - class IP is just a new starting point. In the future, our group will continue to operate with dedication, continuously launch high - quality products, and deepen the connotation of the IP through content innovation, enhancing its cultural depth and market breadth. We will jointly explore more possibilities in the present and future, making THE MONSTERS a world - class IP with a long life cycle.

In other words, before the emergence of other hit IPs, how to make LABUBU last longer has become a more important thing.

The company's management, including Wang Ning, has emphasized more than once that an old IP can be rejuvenated again and again through category iteration, star - style operation, etc. There's no need to always focus on "the next LABUBU".

In 2025, the number of announcements for the star LABUBU only increased. It collaborated with luxury car brands like Porsche, and the THE MONSTERS family it belongs to also participated in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade - the world's oldest and most grand Thanksgiving Day parade, which started in 1924.

CEO Wang Ning once said, "The most core thing we learned from Disney is continuous investment and continuous operation. If no investment is made in Mickey Mouse for 50 years, this IP will cease to exist. This investment may last for 20 years, 50 years, or 100 years for the IP to continuously generate value."

At the same time, LABUBU is also making up for its "weakness" - content.

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

Long Jiasheng, the artist of THE MONSTERS (right), communicates with Paul King, the director of the "Paddington" series of movies (left) at the Paris stop of the 10th - anniversary global tour of THE MONSTERS

An An said that this is a positive signal for investors. With the filming and release of the movie, not only can the life cycle of LABUBU be extended, but the members of the THE MONSTERS family behind it will also be brought to the fore, and Pop Mart will have new stories to tell.

Around the same time last year, Pop Mart also announced that it would produce animated shorts themed on LABUBU and Xingxingren, but they all ended up without results. In mid - April of the same year, the product video of LABUBU it launched was also questioned by netizens for plagiarizing movies and TV shows such as "Soul". To some extent, this exposed Pop Mart's weakness in content. This time, Pop Mart decided to leave the content to professionals.

IPs lacking content are more likely to be disliked by consumers due to product design and quality issues, but IPs with stories are not. People won't stop liking "Tom and Jerry" just because their blind box products are of poor quality. As Pop Mart's supply chain is under pressure and quality control issues have occurred multiple times, the task of filling in the IP content has become more necessary and urgent.

The similarity between the trendy toy industry and the content industry is that they are difficult to monopolize completely. Where the next hit product will be is a question that even industry leaders like Tencent in the game industry, Tinghuadao in the short - drama industry, and Pop Mart in the trendy toy industry find difficult to answer. However, operating an IP that has become popular worldwide is a definite thing. Before this, through the perfect combination with the vinyl and plush product category, LABUBU has created a traffic myth once again.

At the performance meeting, Wang Ning actively said that the company would have a growth rate of no less than 20% in 2026. This is a conservative figure. "This year, we won't pursue overly radical growth that increases revenue without increasing profit. How to make the company grow more stably, healthily, and in the long - term remains our core goal."

Now, both LABUBU and Pop Mart have to take a step forward. This is an exam that this star company must face.

(At the request of the interviewee, An An is a pseudonym)