Shares of Labubu maker Pop Mart surged nearly 12% Wednesday after the company announced it would soon launch mini versions of its wildly-popular dolls as early as this week.
Pop Mart CEO Wang Ning said during an earnings call that the new mini Labubu monsters will be made to hang off phones.
The stock, which trades on the Hong Kong exchange, soared 11.9% to close at $40.75 — the highest level since Pop Mart went public in 2020.
Previous new releases from Pop Mart have sold out in minutes, causing the website to crash.
Wang, who founded the toymaker in 2010, said Pop Mart is on track to meet its revenue goal of 20 billion yuan, or $2.78 billion, and that $4.18 billion “this year should also be quite easy.”
While most of Pop Mart’s revenue comes from China, it has seen rapid growth in the Americas region in the first half of this year – with revenue jumping 1,142% from the year before.
“I think for overseas markets we’re still very positive, and we also believe there’s still very broad space for growth,” Wang said.
Pop Mart currently has about 40 stores in the US, and it plans to launch a phase of “relatively rapid store openings” – with 10 more US shops to open by the end of this year.
The Chinese toymaker said Tuesday that its profit soared nearly 400% in the first half of the year.
Shares in the company have jumped more than 200% so far this year, pushing the Beijing-based company’s market cap to over $46 billion – dwarfing Mattel’s $5.7 billion value.
The Labubu craze has been partially fueled by Pop Mart’s move to sell them in “blind boxes” – so shoppers don’t know the exact color of their Labubu until they open the package.
Videos of these “unboxings” have gone viral online, and celebrities like K-pop singer Lisa, Rihanna and even soccer legend David Beckham have jumped on the trend – dangling Labubus from their designer bags and car keys.
The dolls have been sold out in stores around the world, and resales can fetch hundreds or even thousands of dollars on online marketplaces like eBay.
That’s created a market for knockoffs called “Lafufus” – though US regulators issued an urgent warning Monday that the fakes “break apart easily” and can “pose a serious risk of choking and death to young children.”
The demand for Labubus helped Pop Mart post net profit of $636 million, a 396.5% spike compared to the same period in 2024 – handily beating estimates of a 350% rise over the entire year, the company said Tuesday.
Revenue skyrocketed 204.4% to roughly $1.93 billion, far stronger than the 62% growth seen in the same period last year.
