Chinese toymaker Pop Mart targets wider audience with Playground magazine, grow IP

Chinese toymaker Pop Mart, maker of the popular Labubu monster dolls, launched the second edition of its pop culture magazine as part of a strategy to widen its customer base and grow its intellectual property (IP) portfolio.\nThe company, which sells toys in blind boxes, started selling the Playground magazine for 39.9 yuan (US$5.7), with the theme of exploring the future.\n“The magazine embodies emotional value and aligns with the younger generation’s desire for self expression,” Vicson Guevara, Pop Mart’s executive creative director and co-creator of the magazine, said during a launch event in Shanghai on Friday. “We hope it can eventually evolve into a new IP.”\nThe biannual publication, featuring Oscar-winning Malaysian actress Michelle Yeoh on the cover, looks at the future through “the reality of being young in an uncertain world”, Pop Mart said in a statement. It focuses on people’s anxieties, hopes and doubts, it added.\n\nThe company did not disclose a circulation target for the magazine, which can be bought on Pop Mart’s online platform, select offline locations, as well as bookstores like Jetlag Books in Beijing and Casa Magazines in New York.\nFounded by entrepreneur Wang Ning in 2010, Pop Mart popularised the blind box concept, in which the contents are concealed in opaque wrappings.\nBolstered by its best-known series, Labubu, which has captured the hearts of celebrities including Rihanna, Kim Kardashian, David Beckham, Awkwafina and Lisa from the South Korean girl group Blackpink, Pop Mart has become the world’s largest publicly traded toymaker by market value.\nThe Hong Kong-listed firm was valued at HK$259.1 billion (US$33.3 billion) based on the closing share price of HK$192.90 on Friday, more than the combined market capitalisation of Hasbro, Mattel and Sanrio, despite falling 43 per cent from its all-time high of HK$339.80 on August 26.\nIn 2024, Pop Mart’s revenue jumped 107 per cent from a year earlier to 13 billion yuan, while its net profit surged 188 per cent to 3.1 billion yuan.\nThe company began to explore international markets in 2018 via online sales. In 2020, it opened its first overseas store in Seoul.\nTwo months ago, Pop Mart expanded into the Middle East, opening a store in Doha’s Hamad International Airport.\nRevenue from its overseas operations soared between 365 per cent and 370 per cent year on year in the third quarter, according to an exchange filing by Pop Mart in October.\nChinese youth, who increasingly value self-care and emotional wellness, are likely to offer a much-needed boost to the country’s slowing retail market, according to analysts.\nA survey by global consultancy McKinsey showed more than 70 per cent of affluent Chinese consumers were more impressed by cultural heritage than pure displays of luxury.\nMDRi, part of the UK legal advisory firm Mishcon de Reya Group, said in its 2025 consumer forecast that 72 per cent of Chinese millennials and 65 per cent of Gen Z consumers valued activities that left lasting emotional impressions as the main reasons for them to spend on luxury lifestyles and experiences.\n