--- title: "POP MART's Atypical Theme Park Business: Amplifying IP, Consolidating Capabilities, and Supporting Long-Term Performance" type: "News" locale: "en" url: "https://longbridge.com/en/news/284532483.md" description: "The unquantifiable accounts may hold greater value" datetime: "2026-04-29T09:19:38.000Z" locales: - [zh-CN](https://longbridge.com/zh-CN/news/284532483.md) - [en](https://longbridge.com/en/news/284532483.md) - [zh-HK](https://longbridge.com/zh-HK/news/284532483.md) --- # POP MART's Atypical Theme Park Business: Amplifying IP, Consolidating Capabilities, and Supporting Long-Term Performance During the upcoming May Day holiday, POP MART City Park will welcome the opening of new areas. On April 30, centering on two popular IPs, THE MONSTERS and DIMOO, the park will open three brand-new zones and five large-scale amusement facilities, while retaining its existing classic areas. Since its opening in September 2023, POP MART City Park has entered its third year of operation. For POP MART, whose annual revenue has reached tens of billions, the theme park, covering an area of approximately 40,000 square meters, likely makes a relatively limited financial contribution. Compared to the asset-light IP and retail businesses, the heavy-asset, operation-intensive theme park resembles a high-cost "non-standard investment." However, its value in interactive experiences, emotional immersion, and co-creating memories with users is difficult for retail channels to replace. Hu Jian, Vice President of POP MART International Group and General Manager of City Park, stated in discussions with media outlets including All Weather Tech that, in the short to medium term, the park's significance to the group lies in assisting and empowering IPs, enabling more people to grow fond of these characters. **But in the long run, as a key project in the group's strategy, "we hope the park will provide more performance support for POP MART's sustainable development."** This project, which follows a path distinctly different from that of large-scale theme parks, may be gradually mastering the nuances of operations. ![Image](https://imageproxy.pbkrs.com/https://wpimg-wscn.awtmt.com/660f2768-1753-448f-a398-ef987a7384e5.png?x-oss-process=image/auto-orient,1/interlace,1/resize,w_1440,h_1440/quality,q_95/format,jpg) ## "Never Fully Complete" Building a theme park was not a whimsical decision for POP MART. Offline theme parks had long been included in POP MART's overall planning. However, the final form that materialized emerged earlier than initially envisioned and was more "restrained." The project is located in Chaoyang Park in Beijing, covering an area of approximately 40,000 square meters. The constrained space and the existing conditions of the park defined its boundaries from the outset: it could not compete with large destination-type parks like Disney or Universal Studios, as it could neither accommodate high-intensity amusement equipment nor possess the physical foundation for large-scale "destination consumption." Initially, the park considered introducing large-scale equipment such as roller coasters, but this proved impractical during feasibility studies and was ultimately abandoned. Hu Jian later reflected that the Phase I project launched in 2023 indeed had shortcomings in terms of playability and the completeness of the experience. Precisely for this reason, internal iterations have never truly stopped. In the first half of 2024, due to the warm reception of desserts by consumers, the park established a dessert shop within the castle and even expanded the space behind it into a small garden complementing the shop. A year later, the park initiated a larger-scale project: the comprehensive closed renovation of the forest area, which accounts for about two-thirds of the park, with only the street block and the castle remaining operational during this period. As most areas were inaccessible to the public, the team held quite conservative expectations for growth, setting a target at the beginning of 2025 merely to maintain visitor traffic at 2024 levels. However, in reality, visitor traffic in the first half of 2025 already surpassed the total for all of 2024, with full-year traffic growing by approximately 70% year-on-year. Non-local visitors and non-family groups each accounted for more than half of the total. **These figures may indicate that, under spatial constraints, the appeal of POP MART's theme park does not rely on the scale of equipment but stems from the driving force of the IPs themselves.** Especially during the peak popularity of LABUBU, the motivation for many visitors was not simply to "ride attractions" but to participate in interactions with the "Great Chief." This gravity generated around the IP provided the park with an alternative logical foundation for success. **In the new version of the park, POP MART continues to let equipment serve the IPs and experiences, seeking a balance between playability and differentiation.** Hu Jian introduced to All Weather Tech: "There is a forest here, which we cannot significantly alter, so we selected from the IPs those that best fit the forest setting. That would be LABUBU, as they live in the forest in the picture books. The castle naturally suits MOLLY, and the lakeside is reserved for the dreamy DIMOO." He described the LABUBU pirate ship as looking warm and cute from afar, but once it starts swinging, visitors feel "tricked" by its considerable thrill, especially those seated on the sides. "We specifically created music for the pirate ship, featuring LABUBU rhythmically chanting shanties, while the staff below also join in the cheering and encouragement. The scene is both strange and interesting, hard to describe, but very much in the spirit of LABUBU—a friendly mischief. Given LABUBU's personality, it is entirely capable of such antics," Hu Jian said. The current park is still not in its complete form, with plans for adjustments and updates to the interior of the castle and POP Street in the future. Construction of the Phase II project will officially commence in 2027, followed by the launch of The Star People's Story World and SKULLPANDA's Multidimensional Space. Hu Jian revealed: "We have designed some highly artistic expressions for SKULLPANDA, employing many techniques that are not even commonly used in theme parks." ## A New Algorithm of "Cultivating Talent Through Projects" For POP MART, which is already opening flagship stores worldwide, it does not need another enlarged retail space. The most direct significance of the theme park is not revenue, but the continuous strengthening of the emotional connection between IPs and users. Even in 2025, when space was constrained, the park achieved significant spillover influence through short-video channels. A typical example is "The Song of LABUBU." This song was originally customized music for a sculpture, but later became a high-frequency background track in viral short videos featuring LABUBU. Hu Jian disclosed that nearly three years after its release, the song still exceeds 100,000 plays per week, "continuing to empower LABUBU to this day." A similar path was quickly replicated. The park created the first single for The Star People, "The Song of The Star People," which achieved over 15 million exposures across the internet. It also attempted, for the first time, to launch the "Star Dream Guardians" performance in the form of a musical, releasing a soundtrack album of the same name. Viewed within POP MART's business system beyond retail, costume performances achieved breakthrough popularity ahead of film and animation content. In July 2024, LABUBU appeared in Bangkok and was appointed as the "Amazing Thailand Experience Officer," adding fuel to the brand's rising popularity in Thailand. In November of the following year, it appeared in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York, making POP MART the first Chinese brand in nearly a century to feature an original art toy IP character on a float at this American cultural event. Throughout 2025, LABUBU, MOLLY, and The Star People frequently ventured "outside the park." These "star friends" participated in 40 special external events, successively appearing on external stages such as New Year's Eve galas and variety shows. Deeper changes are reflected in the reshaping of operational capabilities. Previously, POP MART's core competencies were concentrated in IP merchandise development and channel distribution. **Theme park operations face a whole new set of capability challenges: from site selection logic and traffic accessibility assessment, to thematic space planning and large-scale infrastructure implementation, and further to catering management, performance production, and complex visitor flow scheduling.** **Hu Jian summarized this process as "cultivating talent through projects": "Part of it involves the expansion and upgrading of internal teams, and part involves progressing together with excellent partners in the industry."** "Merchandise operations were already very mature. What we are slowly accumulating now are capabilities in visitor service operations, catering operations, and small-scale performance operations, including circulation management and large crowd management. We already possess the foundational capabilities. In the future, capabilities related to amusement equipment and large-scale performances still need to climb higher," Hu Jian said. "We already know how to operate a theme park well. We need to address our shortcomings, but the direction is clear, and we know what kind of people to find to solve these issues together." The consolidation of these capabilities opens up imaginative space for the park to support a larger revenue scale. Although Hu Jian repeatedly emphasized that profitability is not a priority within the park's internal objectives, he also stated: "The theme park is a very important part of the group's strategy. In the long run, we hope it will provide more assistance to the group at the revenue level." Before the official opening of the renovated areas, POP MART first updated its pricing structure. According to the latest plan, from April 30 to July 29, the standard park ticket will be 148 yuan on weekdays and 178 yuan on peak days, basically returning to the initial levels at the park's opening in 2023. Package tickets including three carnival experiences will be priced at 198 yuan and 228 yuan, respectively. Sightseeing tickets will maintain the existing pricing structure, at 88 yuan on weekdays and 118 yuan on peak days. As the remaining approximately 30% of Phase I areas open in late July, the park will enter a full operational phase, and ticket prices will be raised again: standard park tickets will be 178 yuan on weekdays, 208 yuan on peak days, and 238 yuan on specific peak days. The catering and retail sectors also demonstrate stronger commercial openness, introducing top brands such as HeyTea and Peet's Coffee, as well as local consumer brands like Beiping Machine and Little Red Riding Hood Sandwiches. POP MART stated that catering and partner brands will be continuously updated according to seasons and trends, attempting to ensure that visitors encounter fresh experiences with each visit. This 40,000-square-meter "small park" is creating an offline story different from that of industry giants, in its own way. ### Related Stocks - [HPPD.SG](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/HPPD.SG.md) - [09992.HK](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/09992.HK.md) - [HEYTEA.NA](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/HEYTEA.NA.md) - [PPC.AU](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/PPC.AU.md) ## Related News & Research - [Pop Mart’s Labubu Fridge Resale Price Soars as Pre-Orders Outstrip Supply 19 Times](https://longbridge.com/en/news/284533698.md) - [Pop Mart comes with a cool idea for red-hot Labubu: mini-fridges](https://longbridge.com/en/news/284205678.md) - [China’s Pop Mart eyes expansion at home and abroad for its Pop Land theme park](https://longbridge.com/en/news/284007672.md) - [Pop Mart Grants 370,449 Employee Share Awards to Drive Long-Term Growth](https://longbridge.com/en/news/283362759.md) - [Labubu propelled Pop Mart to the top. 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