On April 25, 2025, the official App of POP MART, "Pop Mart", topped the shopping chart of the US App Store for the first time and jumped 114 places within one day, ranking fourth on the overall free chart. This milestone event not only marks a historic breakthrough for Chinese collectible toy brands in the global market, but also serves as the key to the success of Pop Mart's global strategy driven by IP.
The commercial evolution from "blind boxes" to "cultural symbols"
The rise of Pop Mart began with its in-depth operation of IP. In 2024, LABUBU achieved a revenue of 3.04 billion yuan with its third-generation vinyl plush product series "High Energy Ahead", representing a year-on-year growth of 726.6%. It became the company's first super IP to break through the 3 billion yuan threshold. Behind this achievement lies Pop Mart's precise management of the IP life cycle: through innovation in multiple categories such as plush toys, building blocks, and figurates, it maximizes the commercial value of a single IP. In 2024, the plush category saw a year-on-year growth of over 1,200%, confirming the explosive power of the "IP+ category" model.
What is more worthy of attention is that Pop Mart has achieved the spillover of IP value through cross-border cooperation. The collaboration series with Disney and Marvel have sparked a rush to purchase in the European and American markets. Meanwhile, the appearance of LABUBU and ZIMOMO at Milan Fashion Week and the launch of collaborative clothing mark their penetration from trendy toys into the fashion field. This "IP empowering multiple industries" model is transforming Pop Mart's IP into a cultural symbol with global influence.
The transformation from a "local little giant" to a "global player"
Pop Mart's globalization journey began in 2018, and now its business has covered nearly a hundred countries and regions. The 2024 financial report shows that the company's overseas and Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan revenue reached 5.07 billion yuan, increasing by 375.2% year-on-year, with the proportion rising to 38.9%. Among them, the Southeast Asian market became the growth engine with a growth rate of 619.1%, while the North American and European and Australian markets also achieved explosive growth of 556.9% and 310.7% respectively. In the first quarter of 2025, overseas revenue soared by 475% to 480% year-on-year, with the growth rate in the American market reaching as high as 895% to 900%.
To support this expansion pace, Pop Mart initiated its largest-scale organizational restructuring since its establishment in 2025: setting up four regional headquarters for the Greater China region, the Americas, the Asia-Pacific region, and Europe, and strengthening its localized operation capabilities. For instance, in the North American market, Pop Mart has rapidly accumulated users through the model of "pop-up stores + offline experience Spaces". By the first quarter of 2025, its revenue had approached the full-year scale of 2024, demonstrating its precise regional strategy.
New paths for cultural output of trendy toy giants
Pop Mart's global ambitions have extended from trendy toys to the textile sector, and this cross-border strategy is becoming a key driving force for its "second growth curve". For example, Uniqlo and Pop Mart have collaborated for THE third time. In 2022, THE MONSTERS collaboration UT became the most trendy toy series UT in history. In 2023, the "MOLLY's Life Imagination" collaboration UT, jointly experiencing the joy of real life. In 2024, the "DIMOO WORLD UT" collaboration collection of clothing. The dreamy DIMOO, along with his little animal friends, jumped in the soft clouds transformed into UT, embarking on a cute and fun spring adventure.
Pop Mart has also joined hands with CLOT to launch a brand-new CLOT x Hirono collaboration collection. With "Hirono Ono" as the core design element, the cutting-edge concepts of CLOT brand's classic traditional Chinese cultural design aesthetics and modern street culture fashion elements are carried forward in the clothing series. Both sides ingeniously combined figurine images and brand collaboration totem elements to create a series of fashionable items, including long-sleeved sweatshirts, hooded sweatshirts, curved brim hats, and knitted cold caps, etc.
In collaboration with fashion brands such as Uniqlo and CLOT, IP co-branded clothing has been launched. Through high-quality and cost-effective products, these clothing items have reached the mass market. From the cutting to the detailed design, they all demonstrate the unique charm of cross-cultural cooperation.
The new paradigm of globalization for Chinese brands
The success of Pop Mart has verified the feasibility of the "IP+ textile" cross-border model. By integrating the IP of trendy toys into textile consumer goods, it not only opens up the incremental space of the mass market, but also reconstructs the global consumers' perception of "Made in China" as a cultural symbol. This model may offer inspiration to other Chinese brands - in the global competition, the diversified commercialization capabilities of cultural ips and supply chain innovation are becoming the key engines to break through regional and category barriers.
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