How the Labubu Boom is Driving Pop Mart's Global Expansion

The Labubu boom in summer 2025 brought greater attention to the Chinese toymaker Pop Mart, with the 2025 launch of Labubu 3.0 adding US$1.6bn to the net worth of CEO and Founder of Pop Mart, Wang Ning. 

The popularity of these little 'monsters' ensured the brand grew stores around the world, with new Labubu-dedicated vending machines appearing in London, Selfridges. 

Due to the ongoing craze, Pop Mart is looking to grow its brand yet again, now expanding production in other countries to ensure its success can stay worldwide. However, analysts predict the Labubu bubble may be about to pop.

The demand spike

Amid the ever-growing number of shops under the Pop Mart name, with its first permanent store in Manila opening in December 2025, the company is now expanding its production capabilities. To meet surging global demand, the company is growing its supply network, eager to take advantage of the toy-craze.

Rather than operating its own factories, Pop Mart works with local manufacturing partners. Now, it is expanding beyond production limited to China and Vietnam, having recently established new factories in Cambodia, Indonesia and Mexico. 

The increase of its North American market has made demand for the dolls soar. With newly established production facilities, the capabilities to meet this demand are sure to prove fruitful, decreasing wait times from production floor to customer door. 

This is following 2025's issues of meeting customer demand, with retailers witnessing long lines and resale frenzies as delivery times for the dolls increased. Moreover, Pop Mart had to limit stock online and in its stores, unable to exceed its monthly production capacity of 10 million units. Following the boom in summer 2025, the company increased its monthly output to 30 million units.

"It's a strategic move to expand and strengthen our supply chain to improve resilience, efficiency and service to our customers," Pop Mart said in a statement.

As well as adding more production sites around the world, Pop Mart is aiming to open more stores across the US, adding to the 60 it already has.

“The pace of store openings has lagged behind the surge in consumer demand, particularly in the US,” says Lina Yan, a consumer analyst at HSBC. This is in comparison to Beijing and Shanghai, which have more than 100 stores each. 

“Were it to mirror the strategy deployed in Beijing and Shanghai, it could open as many as 200 more stores in the country.”

The Labubu bubble

As well as its in-house dolls, Pop Mart also produces SkullPanda, Crybaby and Nyota. In the final quarter of 2025, non-Labubu dolls became a significant driver of growth and profit. 

The company is preparing to launch a new series of products in early 2026, with the anticipation of driving new sales. This will include toys dedicated to 'the year of the horse' and will feature a mix of its popular characters.

However, he boom, according to analysts, is turning out to be nothing but a fad. Shares in Pop Mart have dropped 40% from their August peak, following concerns about whether these dolls can stay popular in the mainstream, or whether they were a fleeting fancy.

Though the second-hand market spike had been significant in the summer, with resellers being a big concerns for the company, resale prices are now seeing a decline. 

“Labubu doesn’t actually have that much of a story behind it, it’s just a strange-looking doll,” comments Chris Pereira, Founder of iMpact.

“I don’t think it’s what they were expecting, for it to go so crazily viral. The question is ‘what next’?"

Chris warns that, to ensure Pop Mart does not fall from favour, it must introduce new characters, or new products, rather than attempting to continue the high from Labubus.

A major part of the appeal was the mystery of the toy, with many of the brand's main attractions being sold within the 'blind box' format - customers receive a surprise each time they buy. 

With Pop Mart's planned production expansion and new product lines, the company is showing its determination to diversify the brand and undergo worthwhile expansion strategies. But will the expansion be a bust, or will it demonstrate that the toymaker is more than the Labubu boom?