pop martthe company made nearly as much money in the first half of this year as it did in the whole of last year, reaching more than 900 million yuan. the company's stock price has soared 144% since the beginning of the year, a rise that has made many consumer companies envious. this is because young people who are stingy with food and clothes are willing to spend money on self-pleasure.

01. the stock price has risen by 144% this year

instead of being the "king of volume" in china, pop mart, which has made fortunes overseas, has rekindled the enthusiasm of the capital market.

caijing tianxia noted that pop mart, which is known as the "first trendy toy stock", has seen its share price increase by more than 144% this year. among them, the increase in the first half of the year was about 90%; from the beginning of february to the end of august, the increase was more than 160%, which can be said to be the "hottest chicken" in the market this year.

whether from the first half of 2024 or the first eight months of 2024, in the trendy toy industry and even the entire consumer sector, pop mart's stock price has risen exceptionally. this is something that many other companies cannot envy - many companies in the consumer sector have seen their stock prices fall in the first eight months.

li mu, a white-collar worker born in the 1980s, is a witness to the rapid rise of pop mart's stock price. after she bought pop mart's dimoo series blind boxes for her children more than a year ago, she paid attention to the company. at that time, she suggested that her family could buy some. at that time, one share was only about hk$20, but her family did not listen to her and firmly held the high-dividend stocks. now they regret it.

"i took a look a few days ago and the price per share has risen to hk$48, a new high in nearly two years." li mu told caixin tianxia that after carefully studying the stock price trend of pop mart, she found that the company was still hovering at a low level in 2023, and after stabilizing in february 2024, it has repeatedly set new highs.

unlike li mu, gao jian regretted selling out because he didn’t sell at all. “i made a profit of about 10 points when i bought pop mart and sold it, thinking i could lock in the profits first. i didn’t expect it to rise again later. now the market value is more thanbilibilieven higher.”

indeed, on september 12, the share price of pop mart reached as high as hk$49.5 per share, which was a four-fold increase compared to the lowest point of hk$9.81 per share in october 2022. in just two years, the total market value soared from more than hk$13 billion to over hk$65 billion.

supporting the rise in pop mart's stock price is the company's soaring performance. in the first half of 2024, pop mart's performance was very impressive, with operating income of 4.558 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 62%; net profit attributable to the parent was 921 million yuan, close to last year's full-year volume of 1.082 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 93.3%.

according to product categories, pop mart's products are mainly divided into action figures, mega, plush toys, derivatives and others. behind pop mart's substantial growth in performance is the growth in revenue from all product lines, especially plush toys.

▲image source: weekly

among them, pop mart’s core product - figures, saw a 30.2% revenue growth in the first half of the year, but its revenue share dropped to 58.3%; the high-end trendy toy brand mega collection series saw a 141.9% revenue growth, and its share rose to 12.9%; plush toys increased by 993.6%, and its share jumped to 9.8%; even derivatives and others grew by 77.5%, and its share rose to 19%.

from the perspective of market segmentation, the main driving force behind pop mart's performance growth comes from overseas markets.

in 2024, the performance of overseas markets made wang ning, the founder, chairman of the board and ceo of pop mart, very excited. he said at the performance meeting: "the overseas growth is much better than we expected, and the popularity overseas has also greatly exceeded our expectations."

in the first half of the year, pop mart's revenue in mainland china was 3.206 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 31.5%; while the revenue from hong kong, macao, taiwan and overseas markets was 1.352 billion yuan, an increase of 259.6%. compared with the full-year performance in 2019, it is only 331 million yuan short of the goal of "recreating a pop mart overseas" and it is a foregone conclusion that the company will achieve its goal of "recreating a pop mart overseas".

wang ning also mentioned at the 2024 half-year performance meeting: overseas business has been the core business of pop mart in recent years. last year, he hoped to create another pop mart overseas. "this year we have achieved this goal several months ahead of schedule."

in the first half of 2024, the southeast asian market was the biggest highlight, with revenue of 556 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of more than 478%. the revenue share increased by 15.5 percentage points to 41.1%, becoming the largest overseas sector.

02. young people are willing to spend money to please themselves

as a trendy ip company that produces "useless products" and whose products are not cheap, what exactly supports the high growth of pop mart's overseas performance?

"thai people love labubu very much." zhang yu, who works at an international school in thailand, told caixin tianxia, ​​"in bangkok, it's impossible to get into pop mart's store. there are long queues every day."

since opening its first store in thailand in september 2023, pop mart has become extremely popular in thailand, especially labubu has become a popular "female star in the doll circle", and long queues, out of stock, and unavailable items have become the norm in stores. labubu's puppet shows in thailand are also extremely popular.

it’s not available in thailand, and many thais even come to china to buy it.

"when i was shopping in thailand, among thousands of stores, only the pop mart store had a queuing fence in front of it. even the luxury stores didn't have one. i was shocked. when my thai colleague came to shenzhen, she specifically asked me to take her to the pop mart store." zhang yu sighed.

▲image source: weekly

zhang yu is 27 years old this year, and many people younger than him are also rushing to buy labubu. "in thailand, a labubu shoe originally sold for around 100 yuan, but it was once sold for 500 yuan. now the popularity has slightly subsided, but it is still sold for around 200 yuan in the second-hand market."

"there are a lot of scalpers, many of whom bring them from china to sell. you can't get them at the original price, so they all sell them at a marked-up price." zhang yu said with a smile, "if you want to bring gifts for your friends when you come to thailand, bring labubu."

labubu is a member of the "the monsters" elf group under pop mart. she has two long ears and her iconic nine teeth. she is a smiling elf girl and is also called a "female star" by fans. in the interpretation of her consumer group, labubu "looks evil and sneaky, but is actually kind-hearted."

among the domestic consumer groups, labubu is also the "top brand among kids".

young people drink mixue bingcheng and luckin coffee, which cost only a few yuan. under the consumption hierarchy, they pay more attention to cost performance. especially in the past two years, "it's not that xx can't be afforded, but yy is more cost-effective" has become the consumption concept pursued by many young people.

however, when it comes to spending money to raise children, young people are willing to spend a lot of money.

the prices of several major categories of products from pop mart are not low, with the lowest unit price being dozens of yuan. for example, the common labubu sit party vinyl plush blind box, which includes shapes like yanbaba and lehehe, is only 15cm long excluding pendants, and the official retail price is 99 yuan each. the mega collector's series (big baby) is commonly priced at hundreds or thousands of yuan.

pop mart also has another title - "moutai of generation z".

compared with moutai, pop mart also has a high gross profit margin, which was 64% in the first half of 2024; popular models are often "hard to find" if you want to buy them at original price. pop mart's hit product labubu, like feitian in the moutai camp, is very "scarce" and cannot be found in official stores, but scalpers are everywhere.

“79 yuan is not too expensive for a blind box, but i can’t bear to buy a short-sleeved shirt.” “i’ve just been into it for a month and i’m addicted. i’ve spent more than 10,000 yuan. i keep wanting to buy it if i can’t get it.” “look at this shelf of mine. the dolls inside are worth hundreds of thousands of yuan.” every “baby keeper” has his or her own story.

it is not an exaggeration to say that young people spend a lot of money to "raise a baby" - on the one hand, they think "i don't want to go to this crappy class for a day", and on the other hand, they are willing to work like a beast of burden to "earn money to raise a baby".

liu qing, a veteran "raising babies" enthusiast, summed it up in four words: "love is priceless" - save where you should and spend where you should, and spend money on the things you like.

"i don't think it's a waste of money. 'raising a baby' is also a spiritual sustenance for some people. looking at my dolls, i feel safe. they are soft and feel like my own tree holes. sometimes i tell them what's in my heart." liu qing said, "for us, this is not just a doll, but also a living emotional partner in life."

in an era of pursuing cost-effectiveness, labubus, as non-essential items in life, are popular for a simple reason - self-pleasing is priceless, and young people are not willing to be "thrifty" when it comes to emotional consumption.

wang ning also bluntly stated at the performance meeting that pop mart's products are very soothing. when there is financial pressure, people will not give up these non-essential products that can bring them happiness. this is also the reason why many of the company's products have grown very well this year.

03. the wealth effect behind “raising children”

in the first half of the year, labubu and others were having a hard time finding a baby, pop mart's performance soared, and the company's stock price also skyrocketed. this magnified the wealth effect of wang ning and yang tao, the couple who are the actual controllers behind pop mart.

in december 2020, with the support of capital, pop mart was listed in hong kong, and its market value exceeded hk$100 billion on the first day, and it was called the "first trendy toy stock". in february 2021, pop mart's stock price reached its highest point so far, and its market value also reached a peak of hk$150 billion. however, after the peak, it experienced a long period of decline.

in the 2021 hurun global rich list, wang ning and yang tao's wealth was as high as 52 billion yuan. when the wealth was counted, pop mart's stock price was climbing to its highest point. however, two years later, in the 2023 hurun global rich list, wang ning and yang tao's wealth fell back to 15 billion yuan.

however, in the past nine months of 2024, pop mart has rebounded strongly.

▲image source: weekly

on the forbes 2024 global billionaires list, wang ning and yang tao were listed with a net worth of $1.8 billion, or about rmb 12.8 billion. however, this list was released in early april. since then, pop mart's stock price has been rising, and wang ning and yang tao's wealth has also grown rapidly.

as of the close of september 12, pop mart closed at hk$49.05 per share, up 2.4%, with a total market value of hk$65.871 billion. as of the end of 2023, wang ning and his wife yang tao, the actual controllers of pop mart, held a total of 50.15% of pop mart's shares. based on this calculation alone, the corresponding shareholding value of the two has risen to hk$33 billion, or about rmb 30.1 billion.

wang ning is from xinxiang, henan province. he was born in 1987. he received a bachelor's degree in advertising from sias international college, zhengzhou university (now sias college, zhengzhou) in june 2009, and a master's degree in business administration from guanghua school of management, peking university in june 2017.

according to an announcement from pop mart, yang tao is the same age as wang ning. he received a bachelor's degree in general studies from fort hays state university in the united states in may 2009, and a master's degree in communication from hong kong baptist university in november 2010.

currently, wang ning serves as the chairman of the board and ceo of pop mart, and yang tao serves as the vice president of pop mart.

in july, forbes released the "2024 china's best ceo" list. fang hongbo of midea group, wang chuanfu of byd, lei jun of xiaomi, ding lei of netease and others were on the list. wang ning was on the list for the first time and became the youngest self-made founder in the history of this list.

it is pop mart that supports the wealth of wang ning and yang tao, and it is ip that supports pop mart. the operation of ip is the core of pop mart's business.

in 2016, wang ning flew to hong kong to sign molly's designer wang xinming, and then launched the trendy molly constellation blind box, which set off a market boom. in this way, wang ning found a new opportunity in ip operation, and successively launched a number of ips and trendy toys combined with blind box gameplay. in 2020, he began to go overseas again to seek diversified development.

in 2023, pop mart had 10 ips with sales exceeding 100 million yuan for the first time. in the first half of 2024, classic ips such as molly, the monsters, and skullpanda achieved revenues of 782 million yuan, 627 million yuan, and 575 million yuan, respectively, ranking the top three in terms of revenue share.

in the consumer market, the most difficult thing is how to capture the hearts of consumers. but wang ning did it through "useless products". in a conversation with forbes, wang ning said: "our core consumer group is young people aged 18-35. we have helped adults rediscover the fun of buying toys."

as the company's performance has achieved rapid growth in the first half of the year, wang ning has set a new goal for the company to achieve sales of 10 billion yuan, which is a milestone for any consumer brand.

"we are very confident about entering the club of billion-dollar consumer brands." wang ning said confidently. his confidence mainly comes from the increase in the proportion of overseas business. last year, pop mart's overseas business accounted for more than 10%. in the first half of this year, it has increased to 30%, and it is likely to exceed 40% in the fourth quarter.

(li mu, gao jian, zhang yu and liu qing are pseudonyms in this article)

（author | zhang xiangyang,editor | wu yue）