Chinese toymaker Pop Mart’s 370% surge fuelled by blind box collectibles
Pop Mart’s blind box toys have become a global sensation, turning the toymaker into the hottest Chinese growth company
In a Vanity Fair video last month, Lisa, a member of mega K-pop band Blackpink, shared her obsession with toys from Chinese company Pop Mart International Group.
“I go crazy. It’s like I spent all my money,” she laughed, unboxing dolls from the toymaker’s Pucky Roly Poly Kitty series. “I go to Pop Mart everywhere. If I fly to New York, I try to find Pop Mart there. Paris, you know, everywhere. [It’s] kind of like finding treasure.”
Lisa isn’t the only one clamouring for Pop Mart’s toys. This year, the Beijing-based company has turned from an in-the-know favourite among China’s Gen Z to a global phenomenon. In the US and Australia, fans have reportedly queued for hours, sometimes in the middle of the night, for new releases. Stores have popped up in the cities including Paris, Milan and New York. Overseas sales have jumped fivefold.
Fervour for its wide-ranging toys has turned Pop Mart into the hottest Chinese growth company, with shares up 368 per cent this year, trouncing most members on the MSCI China Index. It also beat global peers like Walt Disney and Hello Kitty’s parent company Sanrio. The firm reported domestic sales that grew at least 55 per cent in the September quarter from the same period a year earlier, while overseas sales surged more than 400 per cent.
“Pop Mart is likely the first home-grown Chinese consumer brand to achieve significant global success by attracting consumers via intellectual property, design and products, rather than pricing,” Morgan Stanley analysts including Dustin Wei said in a note. He called the company a “global brand in the making”.
