Although Pop Mart has shown good growth momentum, the 2025 interim financial report released on August 19 still exceeded market expectations. According to the financial report, Pop Mart’s revenue in the first half of the year was 13.88 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 204.4%; adjusted net profit was 4.71 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 362.8%, surpassing the full-year level last year. The gross profit margin reached 70.3%.
The strong profitability combined with the popularity of LABUBU has driven Pop Mart’s stock price to continue to rise. At the close of Hong Kong stocks on August 20, the company’s stock price hit a record high, with a total market value exceeding HK$400 billion. From the rush to the LABUBU’s sky-high auction with 1.08 million yuan, as LABUBU grows into a super IP, Pop Mart’s influence in the global IP market is expanding at an accelerated pace.
At the first half of 2025 performance conference, Pop Mart founder Wang Ning personally brought the goods, saying that he would release the MINI version of LABUBU this week, and he believed that it would become a super hot product. However, just as the investment institution asked a sharp question at the performance meeting: Behind the highlight performance, how can Pop Mart keep super IPs like LABUBU popular? Once consumers experience aesthetic fatigue, will it have an impact on future performance?
LABUBU’s popularity is an important driving force for Pop Mart’s performance improvement. The multiple public displays of BLACKPINK member Lisa made LABUBU popular in the overseas market quickly. In August this year, she brought pink LABUBU at her concert in London, which once again attracted global attention. The display and social media communication of international celebrities such as Rihanna and Kim Kardashian have also further enhanced LABUBU’s overseas popularity.
The surge in popularity brought a strong market reaction. In April this year, the LABUBU 3.0 series pushed the rush to its peak. After the launch of the series, prices rose due to a large amount of shortage. The second-hand market has a serious premium. The regular blind box with an original price of 99 yuan was speculated to between 200 and 600 yuan. From June to July, the ordinary premium was almost as high as more than 500 yuan, and the hidden model with the lowest probability of winning soared to more than 2,000 yuan.
Behind the high premium is the joining of a large number of scalpers. They formed the “grab-price-up-distribution” model through “technical means” and hiring people to grab it on their behalf, which repeatedly pushed up the market price, making it almost impossible for ordinary consumers to buy it online or offline stores at the original price.
In the case of continuous shortage of official channels, second-hand platforms have become the only way to purchase. A LABUBU enthusiast told “Leopard Change” that in order to be able to offline stores, she immediately rushed to a nearby shopping mall but still couldn’t buy it after the online group notification arrived. In addition, some consumers said that they bought the ordinary LABUBU 3.0 for 550 yuan, with a premium rate of more than 80%.
