Chinese toy company Pop Mart, which created the incredibly popular Labubu dolls, announced a sharp increase in profit for the first six months of this year, writes UNN with reference to the BBC.
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The Beijing-based company expects profit growth for this period of at least 350%, and revenue more than tripled.
Pop Mart, whose market value exceeds $40 billion, also stated that profitability increased due to growing brand recognition worldwide and cost control.
Collectors were obsessed with the viral Labubu dolls - fictional elf-like creatures with a row of sharp teeth that instantly disappeared from shelves and caused long queues in stores worldwide.
Pop Mart is best known for selling toys in "blind boxes" - packaging that conceals the contents until opened. The marketing tactic has been criticized for encouraging gambling behavior and compulsive consumption.
Released in 2019, Labubu dolls helped the company become a major retailer, operating more than 2,000 vending machines and stores worldwide.
Pop Mart began selling its shares on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2020. The company's market value has increased by 600% in the last year.
Sales outside mainland China reached almost 40% of the company's total revenue in 2024.
Many stores worldwide had to suspend sales of Labubu dolls due to huge demand.
Labubu gained popularity, especially in the US, thanks to promotion from celebrities such as Kim Kardashian and Lisa from the K-pop group Blackpink.
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Pop Mart's partnerships with major brands like Coca-Cola and the manga franchise One Piece also strengthened Labubu's global popularity.
According to analytics firm M Science, Labubu sales in the US grew by 5000% in June compared to last year.
"I haven't seen anything like this from other toy manufacturers," M Science senior analyst Vinci Zhang told the BBC.
The company has huge potential in the US, where it has about 40 stores compared to about 400 in China, he added.
The excitement among buyers has created a booming resale market where dolls, originally sold for about $10, can cost hundreds of dollars.
In June, a life-size Labubu was sold at auction in Beijing for $150,000.
Labubu's popularity has also contributed to the rise of counterfeits, often called Lafufu dolls. In June, Chinese authorities seized over 46,000 fake Labubu toys as part of a crackdown on the growing black market for the dolls.
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