On 15 January, Wang Ning, founder, chairman and CEO of POP MART attended an event called “Entrepreneurs’ Night” (企业家之夜) in Beijing. At the event, he revealed that in 2025, the overseas business of the Chinese toymaker will likely surpass 50% of its total revenue, which completes its goal of “building another POP MART abroad”. For that reason, the brand has adjusted its long-term goal of becoming the “Disney of China” to the “POP MART” of the world.
In fact, this is not the first time a successful Chinese brand has expressed a similar sentiment. Anta once aspired to be the “Nike of China” before it switched to “Anta of the World” after successful expansions and acquisitions. Similar to POP MART, Anta has built a reputation abroad with its expansion and the Kyrie Irving signature sneaker.
On Weibo, China’s Twitter equivalent, the topic “POP MART no longer hopes to be Chinese Disney” (#泡泡玛特不再希望成为中国迪士尼#) topped the Hot Search list with 69.93 million views. Netizens pointed to the fact that Disney IPs are usually supported by their stories and cinematic universes, while POP MART’s original IPs don’t usually have stories behind them, and it also relies on licensed IPs.
POP MART has been reshaping its business from “blind box” figures to IP-centric general toy making. It has been successful as 14 out of the 32 most popular IPs in 2024 were from POP MART, including THE MONSTERS and SKULLPANDA, which ranked number 1 and 2. It is also quickly expanding abroad, especially in Thailand and other Southeast Asian countries. POP MART’s shares grew 340% in 2024, returning to a 120 billion HKD (15.41 billion USD) valuation. As the “goods economy” reaches saturation and competitors follow closely, how the change in aspiration affects the strategy of POP MART is worth paying more attention to.
