Daily SumUp

Since discovering Chinese toy company Pop Mart a year ago, Carrillo has bought nearly 100 of its products, many of which she gives as gifts to friends and family. Her love for the brand has sent her on a hunt for its characters, including travelling to Singapore for just 24 hours in hopes of finding a limited edition or waiting four hours in the rain in Taiwan just to come away with one collectible.

And Carrillo isn’t alone. A search of “Pop Mart” on TikTok renders hundreds of thousands of hauls and unboxing videos. Fans have flocked overseas to look for sold out or exclusive products at different Pop Mart stores, roboshops (vending machines), or pop-ups; and groups on Facebook and WeChat trade updates on when the brand comes out with new lines or restocks its products.

That virality has translated into a recent boom for the company, which was founded by 38-year-old entrepreneur and now-billionaire Wang Ning in 2010: last year its shares shot up by almost 370%, ahead of most members on the MSCI China Index. In mainland China alone, Pop Mart has over 46 million members, consumers who sign up to collect points for purchases, as of December 2024, and even opened Pop Land, an amusement park spanning 40,000 square meters in Beijing, in September 2023.

But it’s outside China where Pop Mart is really taking off. Over 130 of the company’s more than 530 stores worldwide as well as over 190 of more than 2,490 roboshops, as of December 2024, are located outside mainland China, and its non-mainland revenue grew by 375% to 5 billion yuan (about $700 million) in 2024, accounting for nearly 40% of its approximately $1.8 billion total revenue, according to the company’s 2024 annual report, which was released on Wednesday.

Some might say Pop Mart is riding a wave. One could argue, however, that it is making the wave. While the rest of China’s economy slowed and youth unemployment spiked last year, its guzi—goods, specifically character-based merchandise and collectible toys—market continued to soar, with Pop Mart leading the way. China’s designer toy industry is projected to reach more than 110 billion yuan, or US$15 billion, in retail sales in 2026—more than 1500% increase from 2015, when retail sales were just US$890 million. Worldwide, the toy and figurine market is projected to reach a market value of $49 billion by 2034, up from $26 billion last year.

“I go Pop Mart everywhere,” Lisa, the mega famous Thai actress-singer and member of K-pop group Blackpink, told Vanity Fair in a “my secret obsession” video in November. “If I fly to New York, I go to Miami, I try to find Pop Mart there, Paris, you know, everywhere. Kind of like a treasure, finding treasure.”overseas to open together.