"Today's monthly production capacity equals what we produced in the entire past year."

At the 2025 interim results conference, POP MART founder Wang Ning stated: "We achieved 10 billion yuan in revenue last year, and we hope to reach 20 billion yuan this year. But currently, it feels like 30 billion yuan this year would be quite easy."

Filled with confidence, Wang Ning suddenly pulled out a Mini version of LABUBU for early promotion: "We will launch the Mini version of LABUBU this week. Previously, people might have hung them on bags, but starting next week, people can hang them on phones, expanding usage scenarios."

In the first half of 2025, LABUBU's craze swept from China to the global market. At an auction, a first-generation collectible mint-colored LABUBU sold for 1.08 million yuan, setting a new record for trendy toy auctions. During the same period, POP MART's market value surged toward HK$400 billion, surpassing many established internet giants.

However, the soaring market value cannot dispel market doubts about whether POP MART represents a "bubble." Around June, search indices from WeChat and Baidu showed that after LABUBU's popularity peaked, a cooling trend had emerged.

How much revenue did LABUBU actually bring to POP MART in the first half of the year, and where is POP MART's next LABUBU? On August 19, with POP MART's release of its 2025 interim report, the answers were revealed.

**Monthly Production Capacity Equals Past Year's Volume**

The financial report showed that POP MART's revenue in the first half of 2025 reached 13.88 billion yuan, up 204.4% year-over-year, with adjusted net profit of 4.71 billion yuan, up 362.8% year-over-year. Among these, THE MONSTERS series, which includes LABUBU, generated revenue of 4.81 billion yuan, up 668% year-over-year, accounting for 34.7% of total revenue.

Thanks to LABUBU's global market expansion, POP MART's revenue and net profit in just six months exceeded the entire year of 2024. Meanwhile, POP MART's gross margin reached a historic high of 70.3% in the first half of 2025, up 6.3 percentage points year-over-year.

Influenced by the earnings conference, POP MART's stock price rose 12.54% by market close on August 20, breaking through HK$300 per share, with market capitalization reaching HK$424.37 billion.

However, LABUBU's explosive popularity has also created enormous production capacity challenges for POP MART. Users frequently face situations where "one toy is hard to find," and at POP MART stores in the UK, physical conflicts even erupted over LABUBU purchases. On the other hand, scalpers have disrupted POP MART's pricing system in some markets, with extremely high premiums leading to LABUBU being jokingly called "financial futures," seriously affecting user purchase experience.

In July this year, Wang Ning stated that "after September this year, LABUBU monthly sales might approach 10 million pieces, with demand worldwide being too enormous. We are using various methods to prevent malicious speculation."

During the "618" shopping festival this year, to cool down the market, POP MART conducted large-scale restocking of LABUBU 3.0 vinyl plush new products across all channels, which once caused POP MART's stock price to drop significantly for two consecutive days.

Regarding the dilemma between production capacity and market enthusiasm, POP MART's supply chain manager Yuan Junjie explained: "Today's monthly production capacity equals what we produced in the entire past year. Taking plush products alone as an example, current monthly capacity is more than 10 times that of the same period last year, with August production already exceeding 30 million pieces."

Facing production capacity bottlenecks, POP MART's solution is precision automated production, improving quality control and efficiency through automated transformation in spray painting, laser quality inspection, and other processes.

In May this year, when POP MART launched LABUBU 3.0 vinyl plush products, social media platforms saw numerous posts complaining about quality control issues. Many consumers reported receiving LABUBU toys with various problems including crooked heads, paint loss, loose threads, and bald spots.

At the earnings conference, POP MART clearly stated it would increase investment in new materials and new process development.

Yuan Junjie used spray painting as an example: "Previously, our factory's spray painting line required 60 workers with considerable technical experience, and medium-to-large factories have over 20 production lines, meaning 1,200 skilled technical workers. This actually creates a bottleneck, causing significant supply difficulties during capacity transitions." After automation transformation, workforce per production line was halved, and ordinary workers could operate after simple training.

"Of course, at a deeper level, first, we need to grasp real user demand; second, make accurate sales forecasts. Based on this, we maximize alignment between user demand, sales forecasts, and production plans," Yuan Junjie added.

For this purpose, POP MART proposed a "two-coordination" strategy: horizontally integrating the entire process from artists and product design to production and sales; vertically integrating the chain from raw materials and manufacturing to logistics and warehousing. "We want to transmit artists' creativity without delay to thousands of production lines and tens of thousands of workers - this is the core of our current work," Yuan Junjie emphasized.

**Americas 10x Growth, Restrained Store Expansion Domestically**

POP MART's growth story is inseparable from conquering overseas markets. Wang Ning had proposed early on to recreate another POP MART overseas.

This year in the North American market, following actress Lisa's success in bringing LABUBU to popularity from the Thai market, POP MART once again replicated the "celebrity breakthrough" effect. In the first half of the year, on social media and live streaming platforms, people saw numerous instances of LABUBU being promoted by Western celebrities like Rihanna and Beckham, with European and American fans frantically unboxing blind boxes on camera.

Whether this was natural fermentation or marketing success, it was closely related to POP MART's active overseas expansion.

In April 2025, POP MART conducted a global organizational restructuring, which Wang Ning called the company's largest organizational transformation in recent years.

The core change of this adjustment was POP MART's launch of a region-focused strategy, establishing regional headquarters in Greater China, Americas, Asia-Pacific, and Europe respectively. International Group Senior Vice President Wende Yi will serve concurrently as Group Co-COO, working with Si De to jointly manage the group's global business operations. Wende Yi is responsible for Asia-Pacific and European operations and management, while Si De handles Greater China and Americas operations and management.

"With the group's explosive performance growth, we've also encountered 'sweet troubles' internally, such as continuously increasing management levels and information asymmetry or disconnection between departments. Compared to performance data, we're more concerned about the company's health. Our organizational structure should be flatter to improve group management and coordination efficiency," Wang Ning explained the organizational transformation's purpose.

At this earnings conference, POP MART also first disclosed performance by the new regional divisions.

Greater China generated revenue of 8.28 billion yuan, up 135.2% year-over-year; Asia-Pacific revenue reached 2.85 billion yuan, up 257.8% year-over-year; Americas revenue was 2.26 billion yuan, up 1,142.3% year-over-year; Europe and other regions generated revenue of 480 million yuan, up 729.2% year-over-year. All four major regions achieved triple-digit growth, with the Americas market growing over 10 times.

Regarding the Americas market's 10x growth, POP MART Co-COO Si De explained at the earnings conference: "The US entered rapid growth from the second half of 2024. First, the US market size is large enough with strong purchasing power; second, China's manufacturing technology is more advanced, with faster design and iteration speeds, better meeting local robust demand; third, the US retail system is very developed."

While performance soared, POP MART also extensively expanded stores overseas. As of June 30, 2025, POP MART operated 571 stores across 18 countries globally, with 40 new offline stores and 105 new robot stores added.

Understanding POP MART's approach to new markets: first testing through social media and online e-commerce, monitoring abnormal growth data, then launching pop-up stores offline. If results are positive, they decide to invest heavily, with preparation time typically ranging from 6 months to 1 year.

On August 8, 2025, POP MART opened Thailand's largest flagship store in Bangkok's Siam Discovery, with tourists and enthusiasts from Thailand and abroad queuing up again. Located in Bangkok's landmark Siam area, known as "Crown of the River," the store covers over 760 square meters, featuring various photo spots, trendy toy sections, and an in-store café.

However, while actively expanding in overseas landmark locations, Wang Ning maintained rare composure regarding the POP MART phenomenon in the Chinese market. He stated that in the first half of 2025, POP MART added only 12 offline stores domestically, totaling 443 stores.

Without significantly increasing store count, POP MART focused more on improving individual store operational efficiency and revenue growth. Offline revenue in the first half reached 5.08 billion yuan, up 117.1% year-over-year.

As of June 30, 2025, POP MART's cumulative registered members in mainland China grew from 46.08 million on December 31, 2024, to 59.12 million. In the first half of 2025, members contributed 91.2% of sales, with a repurchase rate of 50.8%.

**Where is the Next LABUBU?**

However, LABUBU's extreme popularity has raised market concerns: once enthusiasm cools, can POP MART maintain growth? Is the company's revenue overly dependent on a single IP?

In fact, WeChat and Baidu search indices show that LABUBU's market popularity began declining after reaching a six-month peak in June 2025. Meanwhile, as POP MART increased supply, secondary market prices have also fallen.

While POP MART's performance grew, market competition intensified. Competitors like TOPTOY and 52TOYS are accelerating their trendy toy market expansion. TOPTOY leverages MINISO's channel advantages for rapid expansion, while 52TOYS consolidates differentiated advantages through hardcore mecha and collectible toys. Additionally, overseas markets are paying more attention to local trendy toy brands, launching similar blind box concepts to replicate POP MART's success.

Wang Ning responded: "We're more focused on LABUBU's significance after becoming a world-class IP, just like we don't frequently discuss Naruto, Mickey Mouse, or Hello Kitty today, but they continue generating enormous commercial value worldwide. When an IP becomes world-class, its commercial value is just beginning."

Currently, POP MART has 5 major IPs with revenue exceeding 1 billion yuan: besides THE MONSTERS (including LABUBU), there are MOLLY, SKULLPANDA, CRYBABY, and DIMOO. Meanwhile, 13 IPs including HIRONO, Stellar, Zsiga, PUCKY, and HACIPUPU have revenue exceeding 100 million yuan.

Among these, Stellar is one of POP MART's newly rising IPs, created by illustrators Daxin and Ali after the 2020 pandemic, with the core concept of "stars born in darkness," conveying warmth and healing. Starting June 21, 2025, POP MART opened Stellar-themed interactions at its city park, providing wish-sharing and photo opportunities.

Regarding IP operations and commercialization under POP MART, Wang Ning has his own rhythm and confidence. He believes many people think LABUBU appeared out of nowhere, but actually this year marks LABUBU's 10th anniversary, and MOLLY will celebrate its 20th anniversary next year - this results from dedicated management and some luck.

While continuing to benefit from LABUBU's popularity, POP MART is also accelerating its search for a second growth curve. A particularly noteworthy phenomenon in this financial report: in the first half of 2025, plush products including LABUBU generated revenue of 6.14 billion yuan, surpassing POP MART's original figurine category for the first time.

In 2024, leveraging LABUBU, POP MART successfully created the "vinyl plush" category. After tasting success with plush products through LABUBU, POP MART launched nearly 20 plush products for 10 IPs in the first half of this year, covering soft-face and hard-face styles with different sizes and materials.

This year marks POP MART's 15th anniversary. In Wang Ning's "second 10-year plan," the first 5 years mainly rely on internationalization, while the latter 5 years will expand more business formats through an IP-centered group model, including building blocks, accessories, games, theme parks, and more.

In September 2023, POP MART City Park opened, now becoming an important component of POP MART's IP commercialization system. In 2024, POP MART launched its first building block products, displayed alongside trendy toys and plush items in POPMART mini-program categories.

In 2025, POP MART's business landscape expanded again, entering jewelry and digital entertainment industries.

Popop is POP MART's newly launched independent jewelry brand in 2025, with its global flagship store at Shanghai Plaza 66 and second store at Beijing China World Mall. Most jewelry in the stores is created based on POP MART's IP stories.

On June 20, 2025, Wang Ning announced POP MART's official establishment of a film studio, planning to expand IP expression boundaries through film and television content, with the first animated series "LABUBU and Friends" coming soon.

In the first half of this year, POP MART also opened the first HIRONO store in Shanghai, with categories covering trendy toys, apparel, artistic home goods, and sculptures, dedicated to creating HIRONO's unique lifestyle and helping the IP achieve revenue of 730 million yuan, up 197.0% year-over-year.

"IP incubation and operations remain the core driving force continuously propelling POP MART's development," Wang Ning emphasized. In 2020, Wang Ning said: "In 5 years, if one Chinese company most resembles Disney, it must be POP MART. Starting from 2024, we hope to become not China's Disney, but the world's POP MART."