Pop Mart is going to distribute all the profits it earned last year.

Author | Xie Yunzi

Editor | Zhang Fan

After market close on August 20, Pop Mart released its 2026 interim results.

Looking at the financial report, the mixed performance is very obvious: the revenue in the first half of the year reached 17.17 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 23.8%; the adjusted net profit was 5.16 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 9.5%. Revenue is still growing, but the net profit growth rate has dropped to single digits; gross margin is 69.7%, a slight decrease of 0.6 percentage points compared with the same period last year.

The capital market responded to this report card with a decline.

The day after the financial report was released, Pop Mart's share price fell by more than 3%, and its total market value fell back to HK$198.4 billion. This is nowhere near the peak when LABUBU became a global hit and the market value exceeded HK$435.9 billion.

Screenshot from the financial report by 36Kr

Screenshot from Wind

If we look at the timeline, Pop Mart was still in a period of explosive growth in 2025 — its full-year revenue reached 37.12 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 184.7%. At that time, Wang Ning, the founder of the company, said, "I felt that reaching 30 billion yuan this year was very easy."

The cost of this explosive growth emerged intensively in 2026.

At the half-year results meeting, Wang Ning said frankly that this year is a "business adjustment year". The pressure in the first half of the year is greater than expected, and the pressure in the second half will only be greater. "It is very likely that the 20% growth target set at the beginning of the year will not be achieved."

This prediction of "failing to meet the target" is consistent with the quarterly data.

In the first quarter of this year, Pop Mart's overall revenue increased by 75%-80% year-on-year, and the Chinese market even doubled; but the growth slowed down significantly in the second quarter. Referring to the overall growth rate in the first half of the year, the growth rate in the second quarter may drop to single digits.

Along with this, the overseas market has suddenly hit the brakes.

In 2025, overseas business was still the strongest growth engine for Pop Mart: full-year overseas revenue reached 16.268 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 292%, and the revenue proportion increased from 31.8% to 43.8%, with the growth rate in the Americas region once as high as 748%.

However, in the first half of 2026, overseas business revenue was 4.972 billion yuan, down 11% year-on-year. Revenue in the Asia-Pacific region was 2.58 billion yuan, down 9.7%; the Americas plummeted 16.5% to 1.89 billion yuan; only Europe achieved 5.9% growth, with revenue of 510 million yuan. The proportion of overseas revenue also dropped sharply from 43.8% for the whole of last year to about 29%.

There are multiple reasons behind this.

Si De, Chief Operating Officer of Pop Mart, said that last year's high overseas growth was largely driven by LABUBU, and a large number of new users lacked awareness of the trendy toy culture and were not familiar with other IPs of the brand; most of the overseas team were newly recruited last year, and their "professional accumulation is even less than that of ordinary users".

A more realistic pain point lies in the supply chain. The management mentioned at the results meeting that in the US market, "the quantity that can be shipped there is very small, and the cost of air transportation that may be required in the end is very high".

The decline in sales and transportation difficulties are directly reflected in inventory. As of the first half of 2026, Pop Mart's inventory turnover days have risen from 123 days at the end of 2025 to 201 days. The inventory balance increased from 5.47 billion yuan to 6.1 billion yuan. The extensive growth of overseas expansion is returning to refined operation.

The change in IP structure is another hidden line in the half-year report.

THE MONSTERS family, to which LABUBU belongs, generated 4.45 billion yuan in revenue in the first half of the year, still ranking first, but its revenue proportion has dropped from 38.1% in 2025 to 26%, a year-on-year decrease of 7.5%. This super IP, which once supported Pop Mart's global popularity on its own, is experiencing a natural life cycle correction.

The Stardusts are taking over.

In the first half of the year, Pop Mart had 6 IPs with revenue exceeding 1 billion yuan and 11 IPs with revenue over 100 million yuan, and the diversification of the IP matrix has indeed made progress. Among them, the revenue generated by The Stardusts reached 2.65 billion yuan, a year-on-year surge of 580.6%, and the revenue proportion jumped from 2.8% to 15.4%, becoming the group's second largest IP.

In addition, mainstream IPs such as CRYBABY, DIMOO, SKULLPANDA, and Hirono have all maintained double-digit growth. Si De specifically said that SKULLPANDA, Hirono, and even Nyota and Peach Riot have achieved good performance in the European and American markets.

Since 2026, Pop Mart has successively launched the "Nyota Tiny Moments" vinyl figure series and the "Nyota × Chibi Maruko-chan" co-branded series, which also shows the company's continuous investment in "mid-tier IPs".

Divided by product categories, plush toys generated revenue of 9.83 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 60%, contributing 57.2% of the group's revenue. Figure products remained relatively stable, achieving sales revenue of 5.19 billion yuan in the first half of the year.

New products of Pop Mart in the first half of the year; screenshot from the official Weibo account

However, hidden worries also exist.

In the first half of this year, MOLLY's revenue was 900 million yuan, a year-on-year plunge of 33.6%. This is also the first time since 2023 that MOLLY, the "veteran IP", has dropped out of the 1-billion-yuan camp.

Si De said that MOLLY will launch a major breakthrough product at the end of this year or the first half of next year. "We hope to help MOLLY show people some more eye-catching and different product forms beyond the traditional product line."

Screenshot from the financial report by 36Kr

While the market is waiting and watching, Pop Mart also needs to "protect its profits".

During the reporting period, the company's gross margin was 69.7%, down 0.6 percentage points from the same period last year, mainly due to the decline in the proportion of overseas revenue and the rise in raw material costs affected by unstable factors in the international situation.

In terms of various expenses, sales and administrative expenses in the first half of the year increased by 895 million yuan compared with the same period last year. The reason is that 105 new offline stores were added globally during the reporting period. After adjustment, Pop Mart's net profit margin still maintained at 30%.

In the second half of this year, Pop Mart still plans to open more new stores in overseas markets. For the Chinese market, continuous upgrading and renovation will also be carried out. But Wang Ning emphasized — this year, the company will not pursue a particularly aggressive growth model that increases revenue without increasing profits.

This means that Pop Mart has placed profit growth above scale expansion.

In addition, in order to ease the anxiety of the capital market, the company will launch a share repurchase plan of 2 billion to 5 billion yuan in the next 6 months.

This is not a random decision. After the performance release in March this year, Pop Mart's share price fell, and the company repurchased nearly HK$1.4 billion in 6 consecutive trading days. Since the beginning of the year, Pop Mart has cumulatively repurchased about HK$1.74 billion.

It is worth noting that according to rough calculations, superimposing the about 3.2 billion yuan of dividend distribution implemented in the first half of the year, Pop Mart's expenditure on "dividends plus repurchases" this year is between 6.7 billion and 9.6 billion yuan. The company's net profit last year was 12.78 billion yuan, and operating cash flow was 10.8 billion yuan.

In other words, Pop Mart is going to "distribute all the money it earned last year". This company is using "extremely high shareholder returns" to stabilize the trust of investors and hedge against the uncertainty of future performance.

Overall, Pop Mart at the mid-2026 stage reflects the complex profile of the company in the high-growth transition period. In the future, whether The Stardusts can withstand the pressure, whether the overseas market can regain momentum, whether the LABUBU movie can continue to advance, and whether Pop Mart can truly become an IP platform will be revealed in the second half of the year and even longer.

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