top of page
AD_4nXe7HnNb04yIw7atBz1iSptmnKxvDrm738_D5UwHHlz2SIOHE9OnUIUHmxbwnO8YQNHT1GGzQjp5xyXLJ_1OLl

Pop Mart
Case Study

Pop Mart has been dominating the character industry since its launch in 2010 with its unique business model and popular products.

Wang Ning is a millennial entrepreneur who is the CEO of Pop Mart International Group.

Company Overview & History

About the Company

Pop Mart has been dominating the character industry since its launch in 2010 with its unique business model and popular products. In fact, by 2020, with their new item “blind box”, they boosted their market capitalization to $7 billion. Founded in China in 2010 by Wang Bing, the company has the core mission of “bringing joy and lighting up passion around the world through inspiring designer toys and fun experiences”. Pop Mart is an IP incubator that controls the design, production, and retail distribution of character products. Their main characters are Molly, Monsters, Dimoo, Skull Panda, Hirono, and others.
 
Utilizing these characters, the company also gains revenue from theme parks, such as the pop land, adding uniqueness to the business. Furthermore, Pop Mart has collaborated with Disney, Tom & Jerry’s, SpongeBob, and other character-based companies. What also renders Pop Mart unique is its “MEGA” product line. MEGA refers to products that are bigger than usual character products and constitutes a significant portion of Pop Mart’s revenue.

About the CEO

Wang Ning is a millennial entrepreneur who is the CEO of Pop Mart International Group. He graduated from Zhengzhou University in 2009. Then, he built Pop Mart as he traveled around Hong Kong to bring on-trend products to the Chinese market. As a result, he opened the first Pop Mart store in 2010. He was able to finalize his team as he enrolled in Peking University’s Guanghua School of Management in 2014 and found classmates that wanted to join Pop Mart.

Global Expansion

Also, Pop Mart is expanding domestically and globally. They localized their IP, pricing and licensing hurdles. China now has more than 1000 vending machines in the country. Moreover, they opened stores in key Malaysia cities both offline and online, Los Angeles, and in the UK, which includes France and London. Not only that, but the store is also operated offline in Taiwan, Australia, Korea, New Zealand, Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines, Southeast Asia, targeting diverse groups of people geographically. Moreover, Pop Mart offers a membership system based on purchases, adding exclusivity in their marketing. Pop Mart’s membership system is based on points in which customers can earn through purchases. Specifically, 1 point is given with $1 purchase, and if the points are accumulated to 100 points, customers receive a $5 discount coupon.

Financial Statements (units: RMB)

  • Revenue is the total amount of money the company earns from selling its products or services, before any detractions of costs or expense. The table evinces a 106.9% increase in Pop Mart’s revenue, mainly through overseas sale, with an increase of 375%.

  • Gross profit is revenue minus the cost of goods sold (COGS). COGS is the cost to make or deliver the product. Gross profit reflects the profitability of a company in their production. Gross profit of Pop Mart surged 125.5% and it suggests that Pop Mart is doing better than last year.

  • Operating profit is gross profit minus operating expenses, which include paying employees, renting, or marketing. With a 237.6% growth in operating profit, it suggests that Pop Mart is a profitable business.

  • Net profit is the ultimate profit after deducting all expenses, including taxes and interest. It reflects the final profit from the company. Net profit has increased 203.9% in Pop Mart, reinforcing the notion that Pop Mart is a profitable business.

  • Total assets are everything that the company owns that can flow into cash. Those include cash, equipment, buildings, or factories. Total assets improved 49.2%. The increase in assets stem from retained earnings.

  • Total liabilities are the amount a company owes to external creditors. Those can include lenders, suppliers, and employees. There was an addition in total liabilities, of 82.3%. However, it is not detrimental to the company, as total assets are worth more than total liabilities: the debt-to-asset ratio is 27%. The increase in liability does not always signify poor performance. It can signal that the company is investing more time in developing new products from Research and Development. Therefore, further research needs to be conducted to determine whether the increase in the company’s liabilities could be justified for stockholders.

Conclusion / Future Outlook

AD_4nXc21QBHjBzrSUkDOzJLremX42tAy7PQh5JOXNCyn3U-Dp3syIFxeMYxtoBk4qKK6s3bEMfQxbjtTSU8JPJ2Ld

New products were introduced in Pop Mart’s stores. Characters such as Labubu or products such as the blind box, became a huge success for Pop Mart. Labubu, plush dolls with rabbit ears, was attracted to Generation Z in China and all around the world. As Labubu was featured in social media with celebrities such as BLACKPINK, Rihanna, and soccer player David Beckham, its popularity and sales skyrocketed. According to JP Morgan, Labubu surpassed Hello Kitty in search popularity in May, 2025. Moreover, Labubu is boxed in blind boxes, which is a form of product known for its mysterious nature: customers do not know what is inside until the box is opened. This concept encouraged customers to collect dolls completely through repetitive purchases. As a result, Pop Mart was able to triple their profit in 2025.

​

However, popularity led to some issues. Due to the characters’ popularity, especially Labubu, security guards in airports seized the characters and banned the reselling of the toys. This suggests that Pop Mart’s popularity could be their weakness. Labubu can be prone to reselling, and its scarcity can be a disadvantage. Moreover, according to the BBC, Labubu fans fought over each other to get Labubu. This also indicates that it would be beneficial for Pop Mart to have an increase in production of the toys to prevent customers fighting over each other for a toy. Except for these concerns, Pop Mart’s popularity and sales are increasing rapidly by creating attractive designs of characters and solving young adults’ emotional cravings, not just toys.

​

Pop Mart is interesting to me because their variations add value to the customers. Not only does it have characters that are drawn by the experts, but they also take a new approach of collaborating with other famous character companies such as SpongeBob, Tom & Jerry’s, Disney, etc. The company surely evinces unparalleled creativity and character-led business. These traits of the company incentivized my research.

bottom of page