Can Pop Mart achieve its "golden dream" by entering the territory of Laopu?
Author | Xie Yunzi
Editor | Zhang Fan
During the National Day holiday, the gold price continued to climb.
On October 8, the price of spot gold (London Gold Spot) broke through the $4,000 per ounce mark for the first time, hitting a record high. Since 2025, the increase of spot gold has exceeded 53%.
Institutions generally believe that the gold price still has room to rise. Western Securities believes that the Fed's restart of interest rate cuts means the impairment of its independence, and the reserve value of gold will be further highlighted. Goldman Sachs has also raised its forecast for the gold price in December 2026 to $4,900 per ounce, up from the previous forecast of $4,300.
The optimistic sentiment has spread to the consumer market. On October 10, the listed price of Chow Tai Fook's pure gold jewelry was 1,168 yuan per gram, up 39 yuan per gram from 1,129 yuan per gram on October 1.
The price trend of London spot gold since 2025; the picture is taken from Wind
According to public reports from more media, since the gold price is adjusted almost daily, consumers look around a lot in stores but place few orders. Among many gold jewelry brand stores, Laopu Gold, which sells ancient - style gold at a fixed price, is still very popular.
36Kr checked the Tmall flagship store and found that the "Six - Character Mantra Gold Bead Collarbone Chain", a high - selling product of Laopu Gold, weighs 8.39 grams and is priced at 10,430 yuan, about 1,243 yuan per gram; the "Ancient Coin Pattern Peace Button Pendant" with more complex craftsmanship weighs 23.39 grams and is priced at 31,320 yuan, about 1,339 yuan per gram.
With the general increase in the gold price, the price gap between traditional pure gold jewelry of brands like Chow Tai Fook and Chow Sang Sang and Laopu Gold's fixed - price products is narrowing. This may also be the reason why some consumers are more willing to buy Laopu Gold.
The Metropolitan Express reported that on October 2 during the National Day holiday, Laopu Gold's second independent store in Hangzhou Mixc officially opened. Around 11:30 am on that day, the queuing time at the newly opened store had exceeded 3 hours.
In the capital market, the stock price of Laopu Gold is in contrast to the crowded stores.
Wind data shows that the upstream sectors of the industrial chain represented by Zijin Mining, Shandong Gold, and Chifeng Gold have shown a gratifying upward trend. Due to the pressure on the store end brought by the rising cost, since October, the increase of gold and jewelry enterprises including Chow Tai Fook, Chow Tai Seng, Xie Ruilin, and Laopu Gold has been small, and some enterprises have even seen a slight decline.
As of the close on October 10, Laopu Gold was quoted at HK$702 per share, and its stock price has fallen 35% from the peak on July 8, with a market value evaporation of more than HK$65 billion.
36Kr compiled the table based on Wind data as of the close on October 9
Some industry insiders believe that the main reason for the decline in Laopu Gold's stock price is its two price hikes this year.
In August this year, due to the continuous rise in the gold price, Laopu Gold raised the prices of its main products by 10% to 12%. All along, Laopu Gold, which focuses on ancient - style gold, has always set a price difference from traditional gold stores with its "unlimited" craftsmanship level. However, the successive price hikes undoubtedly exceeded the "brand price threshold" of Laopu Gold in consumers' minds.
It is worth noting that Pop Mart, one of the so - called "Three Sisters in the Hong Kong Stock Market" along with Laopu Gold, is trying to enter the gold market, hoping to get a share of the pie in the case of soaring gold prices.
On September 12, Popop, the jewelry brand under Pop Mart, launched its pure gold product series for the first time. This series of products mainly includes pure gold beads, pendants, gold bars, and ornaments centered around BABY MOLLY.
Compared with Laopu Gold's use of ancient - style craftsmanship to increase the premium, Popop's pure gold products bind the collection and preservation value of gold with the IP value of MOLLY. In terms of product prices, it also adopts the fixed - price model.
The official mini - program of Popop shows that the "BABY MOLLY Series Love Bead" weighing about 0.7 grams is priced at 1,380 yuan, about 1,971.4 yuan per gram of gold. Taking the "BABY MOLLY Series Hug the Universe Gold Bar" weighing about 3 grams and priced at 4,080 yuan as an example, it is about 1,360 yuan per gram of gold.
Such an average price is obviously close to, or even higher than, the level of Laopu Gold.
36Kr captured the screenshot from the Popop mini - program
Public information shows that Popop is one of the important projects under Pop Mart's implementation of the "IP - based group strategy" and is positioned as a jewelry brand. In June this year, Popop opened stores in Shanghai Grand Gateway 66 and Beijing World Trade Center respectively.
Before Popop launched its pure gold products, Pop Mart had cooperated with Chow Sang Sang. Actually, in the gold and jewelry industry, the product form of "IP + gold" is not new.
The cross - border combination of gold jewelry and second - dimension IP can successfully attract the attention of young consumers. The high added value of the fixed - price products can also allow enterprises to buffer the cost pressure brought by the high gold price.
According to incomplete statistics from Jiaoyan She, in the first three quarters of 2025 alone, more than 16 gold brands launched 53 co - branded products with 47 IPs. The products include gold bracelets, lucky charms, gold notes, amulets, and gold medals.
Among them, Chow Tai Fook co - branded with Black Myth: Wukong and Chiikawa; Chao Hongji launched four IP - authorized series of "Pompompurin, Mermaid Hamton, Line Dog, and Butter Bear" in the first half of the year; Lao Miao Gold also broke into the second - dimension circle for the first time and co - branded with the domestic animation Heaven Official's Blessing to launch the "Golden Valley" product series.
The 2025 China Gold Jewelry Consumer Insight shows that the ownership rate of gold jewelry among young customers aged 18 to 24 is as high as 62%, a significant increase from 37% in 2019. In April this year, Taobao and Tmall even set up an independent category for "IP gold".
At present, the market volume of Popop is still unable to shake the market position of any mainstream jewelry brand. But from the perspective of the IP side, Pop Mart should be the first domestic enterprise to actively embrace gold and launch its own jewelry brand.
Although in the process of developing IP products, limited by the hardness, color, and touch of the gold material itself, the "emotional connection" that its products can bring to users is limited. For example, in the eyes of some consumers, some pure gold jewelry of Popop is not "vivid" enough in showing the details of MOLLY's eyes.
In the process of continuously breaking through the dimensional wall, Pop Mart still needs to face the problem of protecting intellectual property rights.
At the earnings conference in the first half of 2025, Wang Ning, the chairman and CEO of Pop Mart, emphasized that the company's development of LABUBU is "relatively restrained". "Whether it is external cooperation or the product itself, we have not over - consumed this IP." But in Shenzhen Shuibei and even in overseas markets further away, a large number of unauthorized products have emerged, including various ornaments designed with the image of LABUBU.
Moreover, because the company actively increased production capacity and "broke up" with scalpers, the price of the LABUBU vinyl plush series in the second - hand market has declined, which has also led to a decline in Pop Mart's stock price. In the view of some industry insiders, the market popularity of Pop Mart's newly launched "Vinyl 4.0 mini LABUBU" series is lower than expected.
It is gratifying that Pop Mart may have discovered a new - generation IP to take over LABUBU - "Star People". Composed of a group of little stars, Star People quickly resonated with consumers with their warm and healing appearance and bright colors.
On the evening of September 29, Pop Mart officially launched the "Star People Delicious Moment Series". Among them, the plush keychains became popular before they were even on sale, with a premium of nearly 15 times on the Dewu APP. On the Popop mini - program, the silver jewelry products designed around the image of Star People are also priced higher than ordinary silver jewelry.
It is certain that since 2024, the high expectations of the market for Pop Mart and Laopu Gold mainly come from the popularity of their products globally. When the energy of the brand or IP itself declines, the capital market will re - evaluate the enterprise. This new review is also a process of squeezing out speculative bubbles, which may be beneficial to the future healthy development of the enterprise.
At present, both Laopu Gold and Pop Mart need to build a more solid, convincing brand image that can support a high market value and high premium, so as to seize new opportunities and obtain new business growth under the trend of rising gold prices.
For Pop Mart, it may be as difficult to make a splash in the jewelry field and leverage gold, a hard - currency, as its cross - border attempts in the film and amusement park industries.
As of October 10, the closing price of Pop Mart was HK$259.6 per share, down more than 22% from the peak in August this year.
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This article is from the WeChat official account "36Kr Finance". Author: Xie Yunzi, Zhang Fan. Republished by 36Kr with permission.