Wang Ning, billionaire founder of Chinese toy maker Pop Mart International Group, said the company could “easily” reach 30 billion yuan ($4.2 billion) in sales this year, after it reported sizzling first half results that included a nearly 400% rise in profit thanks to a global frenzy over its Labubu character.
The 38-year-old chairman and CEO made the projection during a live-streamed conference discussing the interim results announced late Tuesday.
The Hong Kong-listed company reported 13.9 billion yuan in sales for the first six months of this year, up 204.4% year-on-year, according to a stock exchange filing. Profit attributable to shareholders zoomed 397% to 4.6 billion yuan from a year earlier.
Kenny Ng, a Hong Kong-based securities strategist at Everbright Securities International, says by WeChat that the results support Pop Mart’s surging valuation. Shares of the company jumped over 6% as of 11:30 am Wednesday, bringing year-to-date gains to a whooping 227%. Wang, who derives his wealth from a company stake, is now China’s 9th richest billionaire with a net worth of $24.9 billion, according to the Real-Time Billionaires List. Previously he was China’s 10th richest person.
The robust results, which easily beat the company’s own projections in July, came as Pop Mart’s Labubu dolls attract a rapidly growing number of fans. Featuring pointed ears, jagged teeth and a mischievous grin, the rabbit-ish toy is flying off store shelves around the world and being collected by celebrities including Rihanna, Kim Kardashian and Lisa from the K-pop group Blackpink.
Led by Labubu, Pop Mart’s Monsters series was the top sales contributor, accounting for more than one third of the company’s total revenues in the first half, according to the stock exchange filing. Labubu “ascended to global IP [intellectual property] prominence,” and is “one of the world’s most sought-after IPs in the first half of 2025,” the company wrote.
In a July interview with the official Xinhua News Agency, Wang predicted faster growth abroad. He said sales from overseas markets would probably overtake those from China this year. In the first half, China accounted for 60% of the company’s total revenue, according to the interim results. The Americas, including the U.S., was the fastest growing region with sales surging over 1,000% year-on-year to 2.3 billion yuan in the first half.
Company executives said during the conference call that Pop Mart planned to open stores in the Middle East and central Europe this year, bringing its total number of overseas stores to 200 from a current 140.
