Labubu's Meteoric Rise: Unboxing the Opportunities Behind the Craze

Labubu's Meteoric Rise: Unboxing the Opportunities Behind the Craze

The phenomenon of Labubu's explosive popularity reminds me of my childhood Barbie doll, except Labubu is a toy marketed towards adults. While toys are a necessity for children, they seem to be an additional purchase for adults. However, unlike Barbie's beautiful and carefully crafted image, Labubu, with its devilish fangs, slightly cunning smile, and quirky expression, has sparked a consumption frenzy.

The massive attention Labubu receives stems from a sense of conflicting intrigue. What exactly is Labubu's appeal? Why did a one-of-a-kind mint-colored Labubu sell for a staggering 1.08 million yuan at auction? Why is it still so difficult to obtain a Labubu on the resale market, even with markups of thousands of yuan? Why are people lining up outside overseas stores, even camping overnight, just to get their hands on one?

According to data, Pop Mart's total revenue in 2024 reached 13.038 billion yuan, more than double the previous year. Among them, the Monster series, which includes Labubu, generated revenue of 3.04 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 726.

6%, making it the company's most globally influential IP. On June 8th, the company's founder, Wang Ning, became Forbes' new richest man in Henan with a personal fortune of 20.3 billion US dollars.

Clearly, Labubu's selling point isn't practical functionality but rather catering to new consumer demands centered around emotional spending. In a 2023 speech, Wang Ning cited a very specific example. At the time, Pop Mart's flagship toy was still Molly. Wang Ning said, Suppose Molly's head was a USB drive.

Would you still buy so many? Definitely not. Because every time you buy a USB drive Molly, you'd think about why you bought another one. I already have several, and I can't use them all!.

Consumer goods don't always need a specific function. It is precisely this uselessness that allows them to purely provide emotional value to consumers. This purity makes people feel that they are buying it simply to please themselves and satisfy their own desires, rebelling against the intrusion of complex work life into their personal world.

Labubu's expression is rebellious, cunning, and playful, but not aggressive, which is more in line with adults' appreciation for the complexity of human nature. This represents a deconstruction of the fairy tale world after growing up and a pursuit of personalized self-expression.

However, it is important to note that Pop Mart is not a young company. In fact, it has been operating for 15 years. Labubu is also not a new product, having been launched on the market as early as 2018.

Why is Labubu suddenly becoming so popular now? There are two significant era factors behind this that cannot be ignored.

First, the Chinese consumer market is undergoing structural transformation, with consumers shifting from meeting basic needs to pursuing emotional value and self-expression. This is also because, with the development of China's economy and society, and the abundance of material goods, spiritual satisfaction has become a new consumption trend.

The state is vigorously promoting consumption, clearly pointing out the need to cultivate and expand new types of consumption, and actively cultivate new consumption growth points such as domestic trendy products.

The Special Action Plan for Boosting Consumption issued by the General Office of the CPC Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council in March proposed supporting the accelerated development of new consumption, with new business formats and models leading the accelerated development of new consumption, continuously expanding consumption scenarios, and continuously releasing consumption momentum.

The Ministry of Commerce has clearly issued documents requiring the promotion of IP + consumption, the creation of IP (intellectual property) creative design and new product release platforms, the construction of IP consumption commercial landmarks, the launch of classic IP consumption routes, and the expansion of immersive consumption spaces.

New consumption vitality is being stimulated, and new markets are booming.

Second, from Black Myth: Wukong to Ne Zha to Labubu, Chinese cultural products are showing strong momentum in overseas markets. China has gone from being a world toy manufacturing base to creating its own IPs and aggressively seizing the world market, creating a new paradigm for Chinese cultural products to go global.

Pop Mart has been investing in overseas markets since 2018, and now Labubu is very popular in overseas markets, which is a microcosm of the globalization of Chinese IP. China's strong manufacturing capabilities support Chinese creation to go global, enhancing the competitiveness of products in the global market.

In the future, with the continuous exploration and growth of Chinese cultural IPs, it is believed that new overseas models will continue to emerge.

As the Barbie doll in our hands is replaced by Labubu, I hope that every adult will have courage in their hearts and stars in their eyes, becoming their own Labubu. I also hope that more Labubus will create new models and provide more Chinese samples for the global market.