Hu Jian of Pop Mart: Profit is not the most important thing for the theme park at this stage.

Author | Li Xiaoxia

Editor | Qiao Qian

After the official announcement of the LABUBU movie, Pop Mart City Park has also made new developments.

Recently, Pop Mart officially announced that the new area of the City Park located in Chaoyang Park, Beijing, will open to tourists on April 30. This domestic first immersive trendy toy IP theme park, covering an area of about 40,000 square meters, has just completed more than a year of upgrading and renovation since its opening in September 2023.

This upgrade focuses on two popular IPs: THE MONSTERS (LABUBU) and DIMOO. Three brand - new areas and five large - scale amusement facilities have been opened, and large - scale amusement equipment, including a drop tower and a pirate ship, has been introduced for the first time.

In its first year of operation, the park achieved profitability. Pop Mart's management disclosed at last year's mid - year performance press conference that "both the number of visitors and the revenue in the first half of 2025 have exceeded the whole of last year."

Different from the operation ideas of traditional parks, Pop Mart City Park regards the park as a "work" rather than a simple profit - making project. Hu Jian, the vice - president of Pop Mart International Group and the general manager of the City Park, emphasized that "although profitability and revenue are important in the long run, they are not the most important things at this stage."

It is worth mentioning that Pop Mart has also found an unconventional customer profile for the park: non - parent - child family tourists account for up to 59% in the park, and non - local tourists account for 58%.

Recently, when some new areas of the park were opened, 36Kr and other media had a chat with Hu Jian. The following is an excerpt from the conversation (edited):

 Polish the park as a work

Q: At the 2024 performance meeting last year, you said that due to lack of experience, there were some mistakes in the park's previous planning, and adjustments and planning would be made soon. Are these adjustments and planning reflected in the newly opened area?

Hu Jian: In fact, many core points were not fully implemented according to our plans. For example, for the originally planned roller coaster, we conducted a lot of research and verification and confirmed that this place did not meet the implementation conditions. Such projects may be put into later planning.

Now, at least some progress has been made. For example, in terms of playability, we don't pursue having a large number of amusement facilities. In this location and environment, we want to integrate business and amusement. We hope that all things can have interesting points and become part of the play experience.

Q: The proportion of non - family users is close to 60%, and the proportion of tourists from other regions and overseas is also about 60%. The customer profile is completely different from that of traditional theme parks. What do you think is the core reason why Pop Mart City Park can attract this kind of "atypical customer group"?

Hu Jian: Originally, because there were not many amusement projects in the park, and most of them were non - powered facilities, we didn't have much confidence in attracting adult customers at first.

We have been optimizing and upgrading in terms of software and operation. The catering, dessert and other business forms have been gradually improving. Secondly, the performing arts content has played a very important role in driving the park in the past two years. Many tourists don't just come for the amusement facilities. They mostly want to see the Star People and check if Labubu has changed into new clothes.

Mostly, they want to see the Star People, check if Labubu has changed into new clothes, or if it is not wearing pants again.

I think there are two core points: First, Pop Mart's own IPs are constantly breaking out of the circle and their influence is continuously increasing. Second, the park has well received this IP traffic and transformed it into an entertainment form that young people are willing to accept, gradually attracting more non - parent - child family tourists.

Q: I remember that when the park first opened, the proportion of secondary consumption reached 72% in the first month of opening. What new actions will there be in derivative development and catering business forms to further amplify this advantage?

A: We don't deliberately pursue increasing the proportion of secondary consumption. We hope that secondary consumption is a natural result. We also hope to optimize the experience. In addition, we have been talking with the derivative product team, hoping that the products launched in the future can be deeply bound to the park's scenes, landscapes and the stories to be told in the future, which will be more meaningful.

Q: Will the group set some profit targets for the park?

A: The park achieved profitability in its first year of operation. I hope that the team doesn't regard profit as the core indicator in the short term. Otherwise, it's easy to lose focus. We should polish the park as a work. Although profitability and revenue are important in the long run, they are not the most important things at this stage.

We often say internally that we shouldn't measure everything by short - term ROI. Although we often make some decisions that don't seem very commercial, in the long run, the commercial effects are quite good.

 The key to transformation is to create differentiation

Q: Compared with other theme parks, what is the differentiation of Pop Mart Park?

Hu Jian: There are two main core points: First, the differentiation of the IP itself, which is the most crucial. Second, in my personal opinion, we have a deep understanding and insight into consumers and can accurately capture user needs, which is the same logic as when we made toys.

Q: Many large - scale facilities have been added in the newly opened area. Why were these facilities chosen to be opened? How are they different from the large - scale facilities in traditional amusement parks?

Hu Jian: First of all, it should be noted that this first - phase upgrade and renovation was not planned from scratch. There are many objective limitations in the venue itself. Many very novel and cutting - edge business forms and equipment actually cannot be implemented, and the selection range is limited. But even with limited selection space, we insist on creating our own differentiation.

We are not a company that makes equipment, and the content should not serve the amusement equipment. So the core point is that all amusement equipment and technologies should serve our IP and experience. Therefore, we selected equipment that matches the attributes of the IP.

For example, LABUBU has a cute, quirky and a bit naughty personality. All the corresponding amusement equipment is matched according to this temperament. And DIMOO is in the Kingdom of Clouds, with a dreamy and romantic tone, and the corresponding equipment also fully fits this dreamy atmosphere.

Second, we actually considered the overall experience when making the selection.

Let's start with the drop tower. When doing the landscape design, I needed a high - point, so we chose a high - rise equipment. The drop tower in traditional parks mainly focuses on the sense of weightlessness and excitement, but our idea is different. I have long been optimistic about the surrounding lake view, castle and forest, so we specifically selected a rotatable drop tower, which is more like an observation tower in essence. It has both the romance of sightseeing and the excitement of falling, which is very conflicting and contradictory, and is a very LABUBU - like equipment.

Take the carousel for example. From the beginning, I made it clear to the team that the carousel should not be just regarded as an ordinary amusement facility. It must be a landscape equipment for taking photos and videos. So for its appearance and shape, we adjusted the design countless times, and the mold - opening process was very complicated. Including the color matching and the amount of glitter powder on the surface, they were all tested repeatedly under different lighting scenarios to meet the dreamy feeling. Yesterday, we were still adjusting the running speed on - site, reducing it from 45 to 35, because we were worried that a too - fast speed would be inconvenient for taking photos and videos. At the same time, we matched it with exclusive background music, and the overall romantic atmosphere has been greatly improved compared with the initial version.

The pirate ship also particularly matches LABUBU's state. We needed a more exciting project, and the pirate ship may be the most exciting one here. It took us a lot of effort to package it. It looks like a warm and lovely Labubu - themed pirate ship on the outside, but in fact, there is a strong sense of contrast after it starts running, and the excitement far exceeds expectations. The experience is especially strong for those sitting in the side positions.

We also customized exclusive background music for it, incorporating the interesting sound effects of LABUBU shouting slogans. The on - site staff will also cooperate with the atmosphere to drive the rhythm and interact with the tourists. The on - site scene is very interesting: the tourists on the ship are extremely nervous, while the tourists below are taking photos and shouting the rhythm at the same time. It's both fun and full of contrast. This feeling of being gentle on the outside and naughty on the inside is exactly LABUBU's personality.

Pirate Ship

To be honest, there is nothing very unusual about these equipment, but we hope to create some differentiation through the overall design and experience.

Q: Since its opening in 2023, the park has completed a full operation cycle. If we put aside the halo of the IP, what independent professional hard - power has the park developed?

Hu Jian: Putting aside the halo of the IP is very important. When we first built the park, we had no experience at all. We were just groping our way forward, and we took a lot of detours and made many mistakes in the process.

Now, the park has been in operation for nearly three years. We have thoroughly figured out which problems need to be considered in the design stage and which need to be optimized in the operation stage. When starting a new project now, we have mature judgments on site selection, traffic accessibility assessment, analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of the land, overall planning and layout, and positioning of business form combinations. Facing various imaginative design plans, we can clearly distinguish which can be implemented and which do not meet the implementation conditions, and we also know what kind of partners to find for implementation. The whole process logic of planning, design and construction has been run through and is very mature. In the future, we will only make incremental improvements on this basis.

I said at that time that the most important thing about this project was to train people through the project. On the one hand, our in - house team is gradually upgrading. On the other hand, we have also screened and retained a group of excellent industry partners.

I think the operation side is more interesting. Operation is about the interaction between people, which is more important than your hardware, and all hardware should serve the operation.

Pop Mart originally had mature offline operation capabilities for products. In the past few years, we have gradually developed new capabilities: tourist service operation, catering business operation, regular performing arts operation, park route planning, large - scale passenger flow control and other basic capabilities. Of course, objectively speaking, we are still in the stage of gradual improvement. The capabilities related to the professional operation of amusement equipment and the production and operation of large - scale theme performing arts still need to be further improved.

Q: When LABUBU was at its most popular, the forest area of the park was closed for upgrading. What were the reasons and considerations behind this?

Hu Jian: When we carried out this transformation, we didn't consider whether it was popular or not. In our eyes, if the work is not good enough, it needs to be optimized and adjusted.

First, let's talk about the original intention of the transformation. This has been in the planning from the beginning, not simply based on commercial logic. If we only calculate the commercial accounts and look at the ROI, the park's annual operation data is already very good. In principle, we could completely maintain the status quo.

But we regard the park as a work of Pop Mart, not an ordinary project. Due to various objective limitations such as time and venue at that time, we were not satisfied with the effect of the first version. It was like an incomplete and less - than - perfect answer. So we continued to iterate.

 Playability doesn't only mean amusement equipment

Q: When the park opened, it was mentioned that the park's iteration would be promoted based on user feedback. What key user opinions were mainly absorbed in this transformation to determine the iteration direction?

Hu Jian: From the consumers' perspective, we did collect a large amount of real feedback. The two most concentrated points are: First, people think the park is too small overall. Second, the playable content is not rich enough. In fact, when many projects were cut during the transformation design, I already knew these problems clearly in my heart. Combining with the users' voices, I was more determined to carry out the upgrade.

In addition, our park, which is located in the city center and is restricted by multiple conditions, has no completely comparable reference cases in the industry. We can only explore on our own, so we attach great importance to the users' voices. At the same time, our understanding of "playability" has also changed: we no longer think that only amusement equipment means playability. When tourists stroll around the park, take photos, have meals, eat desserts with a sense of ceremony, or watch performances and feel the atmosphere, these are all part of the play experience.

Q: What kind of IPs are suitable for being implemented in the park? What are the screening criteria? From trendy toy IPs to the real - world implementation in offline parks, what do you think is the most difficult part?

Hu Jian: Let me first explain why we made the selection for the first phase. The first - phase project is an urban renewal project, not a blank - sheet design. The venue originally had woodlands, buildings and a lakeside natural environment. We couldn't change the forest, so we could only match the IPs that fit the venue's temperament.

The most suitable IP in our collection is LABUBU, because LABUBU comes from the forest. The castle is very suitable for Molly, and the lakeside is left for the very dreamy DIMOO. This is the logic of the first phase.

In principle, all our IPs can be implemented in the park, but which one to choose specifically is actually related to the group's development plan. For example, the selection of Star People and SKULLPANDA for the second phase was also finalized after multiple rounds of communication with the IP team.

Let's start with the Star People. After I first read its picture book, I thought this IP must be implemented in the park. At that time, a complete picture came to my mind: how to systematically make puppet costumes and how to write programs. I can even imagine the overall fairytale atmosphere and visual texture of the Star People area after the second - phase opening. These pictures were already conceived when I was studying the picture book, and our team has polished them for a long time.

On the contrary, it is actually very difficult to implement SKULLPANDA according to the traditional park logic. Teacher Xiong Miao's expression is very philosophical. He doesn't want to be restricted to a certain form, and the artistic expression is very diverse. The style of each series also varies greatly, so this implementation is very challenging. We were still having a meeting yesterday afternoon, re - arranging how to build those castles. It will be very interesting. Maybe there is no other park in the world that looks like it. Many methods are not commonly used in parks, which is also a very exciting thing for us.

Q: What kind of things in the park's operation will make you anxious?

A: Recently, it's still the large - scale passenger flow that makes me anxious. Because we had a large - scale passenger flow right from the start of official operation, it is indeed a challenge. The current internal testing is to prepare for the official operation, but will there be some things we haven't thought of? Of course, there may be. We will just try our best to operate well.

Q: Pop Mart is making a movie. Will there be a relevant combination with its own park in the future?

Hu Jian: The movie is in the planning stage. After the script is more solid, I believe there will definitely be a deeper linkage in the future.

Q: What role does the park play in the group's overall strategy? Is there a specific time - line division for the short - term and long - term?

Hu Jian: In the short term, the most important thing for the park is to empower the IP, make the IP a star and make more people like it. This is the most important thing.

The group has two strategies: internationalization and grouping. The park is a very important part of the grouping. In the long run, we hope that the park can provide more support for the group's revenue.