--- title: "100 Billion Wiped Out in Two Days: Who Is Shorting POP MART" type: "News" locale: "zh-CN" url: "https://longbridge.com/zh-CN/news/280800406.md" description: "After releasing its 2025 annual report, POP MART's stock price plummeted, with its market value evaporating by nearly HK$90 billion in three days. Despite the report showing record highs in both revenue and net profit, market reaction remained exceptionally cold. To stabilize market sentiment, POP MART repurchased 3.94 million shares on March 26. Although the stock price saw a slight short-term rebound, it ultimately closed lower. Investor concerns regarding its heavy reliance on the single IP Labubu intensified market panic" datetime: "2026-03-27T13:27:23.000Z" locales: - [zh-CN](https://longbridge.com/zh-CN/news/280800406.md) - [en](https://longbridge.com/en/news/280800406.md) - [zh-HK](https://longbridge.com/zh-HK/news/280800406.md) --- > 支持的语言: [English](https://longbridge.com/en/news/280800406.md) | [繁體中文](https://longbridge.com/zh-HK/news/280800406.md) # 100 Billion Wiped Out in Two Days: Who Is Shorting POP MART The stellar financial results, rather than boosting the stock price, actually caused it to collapse. POP MART's (09992.HK) stock performance over the past three days has caught many investors off-guard. On March 25, POP MART officially released its 2025 financial report. This moment, long-awaited by the market, turned out to be the starting point of a sharp stock price decline. In the afternoon of that day, POP MART's stock price plummeted, closing with a 22.51% drop at HK$168.3 per share, with over HK$65 billion in market value wiped out in a single day. The decline continued the following day, reaching 10.46%. **The cumulative two-day stock price decline reached 32.97%, with a total of approximately 90 billion in market value wiped out.** Compared to its peak last year, POP MART's market value has been halved. To stabilize market sentiment, POP MART began repurchasing shares on March 26. On that day, POP MART released an announcement stating it had spent HK$599 million to repurchase 3.94 million shares, with a buyback price range of HK$148.4-157.8 per share. At the opening the next day, POP MART's stock price rose as much as 3.5%, but ultimately closed down 0.73%. In stark contrast to the sluggish stock performance, POP MART's 2025 financial report was explosive, with all financial indicators hitting record highs. 2025 marked the 15th anniversary of POP MART's founding. In this year, revenue reached 37.12 billion yuan, a year-on-year surge of 184.7%; net profit was 12.776 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 308.8%; and adjusted net profit was 13.08 billion yuan, an increase of 284.5%. With a gross margin exceeding 70% and a net margin exceeding 30%, it has almost no rivals in the consumer industry, except for Moutai. Why did a seemingly perfect financial report trigger panic in the capital market? This is a hot topic of discussion among POP MART shareholders. ## One IP Supports 38% of Revenue In POP MART's 2025 financial report, Labubu, unsurprisingly, became the core driver of revenue. This Nordic forest sprite IP, with its nine teeth and a pair of upright ears, was created by designer Long JiaSheng in 2015. However, Labubu did not become a market sensation immediately. In its early years, it remained within niche circles until its explosive growth in 2024, when it rapidly swept the globe and joined the ranks of top-tier international designer toys. In 2024, THE MONSTERS series, to which Labubu belongs, achieved revenue of 3.04 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 726.6%, accounting for 23.3% of POP MART's total revenue that year. With this performance, Labubu surpassed Molly for the first time to become POP MART's largest IP. Entering 2025, Labubu's revenue generation exploded further, becoming the first super IP in POP MART's history to break the 10 billion yuan revenue mark. Data shows that in that year, Labubu achieved revenue of 14.16 billion yuan, a year-on-year surge of 365.7%, accounting for 38.1% of total revenue. For a designer toy company, IPs are their core assets for establishing a market presence and maintaining competitiveness. After 15 years of accumulation, POP MART has built a diversified IP portfolio. Including Labubu, there are 6 IPs with revenue exceeding 2 billion yuan and 17 IPs with revenue exceeding 100 million yuan. Besides Labubu, the IPs with revenue exceeding 2 billion yuan are SKULLPANDA, CRYBABY, MOLLY, DIMOO, and Star Man, with revenues of 3.54 billion, 2.93 billion, 2.9 billion, 2.78 billion, and 2.06 billion yuan, respectively. This means that the combined revenue of the other top five IPs is only 14.21 billion yuan, roughly equal to Labubu's revenue alone. Additionally, it is worth noting that overseas business is a highlighted segment for POP MART. In 2025, POP MART conducted its first large-scale organizational restructuring, accelerating the pace of its global layout. That year, their global stores reached 630, a net increase of 109. Overseas revenue also reached 16.27 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 291.9%, with its proportion of total revenue rising to 43.8%. Among these, the Americas and Europe markets showed explosive growth, with increases of 748.4% and 506.3%, respectively. **Wang Ning has essentially built another POP MART overseas.** Although POP MART did not separately disclose Labubu's overseas sales data in its 2025 annual report, some analysts speculate that Labubu's overseas sales account for more than half of its total revenue, and in some Western markets, the figure has exceeded 70%. Without Labubu, it would be difficult for POP MART's other IPs to gain rapid recognition in overseas markets. Looking back at Labubu's rise to fame, it is inseparable from the push in overseas markets. Some analysts even believe that it was precisely Labubu's popularity overseas that gave POP MART the opportunity to comprehensively layout its global market. In April 2024, Lisa, a member of the globally popular girl group BLACKPINK, posted photos of Labubu pendants on social media multiple times, instantly igniting the Thai market. Subsequently, Labubu received official recognition in Thailand, appearing as a "special guest" during the Thai Culture Festival. Driven by Lisa, international stars such as Rihanna and Beckham also collectively shared their Labubus. In April 2024, when POP MART released the Labubu "High Energy Ahead" series, it caused a buying frenzy with long queues at POP MART offline stores in internationally renowned cities such as Los Angeles, Milan, and London. Last November, during the 99th Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, Labubu became the first designer toy IP to participate in the event. ## Market Doubts Re-emerge As one of the most popular IPs globally in 2025, Labubu holds crucial strategic significance for both POP MART's domestic and international markets, and its performance directly impacts the company's overall development. In January of this year, Citi released a global consumer survey report covering 1,501 users in five countries: China, the US, Australia, the UK, and Japan. According to the report, Labubu remains the most attractive core IP, with 47% of respondents owning a Labubu, and nearly half of respondents first encountering POP MART because of Labubu. Following the release of the 2025 financial report, POP MART's stock price plummeted, and many analysts pointed to the "dominance of a single IP" as the reason. They believe that heavy reliance on Labubu not only poses hidden risks for POP MART's long-term development but also affects its sustained profitability and risk resistance. This doubt is not new. Last August, when POP MART released its 2025 interim report, the trend of reliance on Labubu was already evident. Financial data showed that in the first half of 2025, THE MONSTERS series, to which Labubu belongs, achieved revenue of 4.81 billion yuan, accounting for 34.7% of the company's total revenue—a figure slightly lower than the 38.1% in the 2025 annual report, but sufficient to highlight the IP's core status. In response to the doubts at that time, Wang Ning stated during the 2025 Earnings Call that this proportion did not pose a risk to the company but rather demonstrated its platform-based IP operation capabilities. He emphasized that the continuous launch of original IPs proves POP MART has built a relatively healthy platform system rather than relying on a single character. Fast forward to the Earnings Call on March 25, facing the resurgence of market doubts, Wang Ning responded again. "POP MART is not just LABUBU," Wang Ning stated at the 2025 annual Earnings Call. "Labubu performed outstandingly in 2025 with exceptional results, but if you remove all of Labubu's results, POP MART still achieved rapid growth. We hope the outside world will see more of POP MART's capability to operate IPs and believe that IP operation experience and capability can be replicated." Based solely on the financial report, Wang Ning's response is supported by data. Financial reports show that in 2025, excluding Labubu's 14.16 billion yuan in revenue, POP MART's other businesses achieved 22.96 billion yuan. In 2024, after excluding Labubu's 3.04 billion yuan in revenue, the other businesses' revenue was 10 billion yuan. This means that POP MART's other businesses also maintained a good growth rate over the past year. Particularly noteworthy is Star Man, a rising IP that POP MART signed only in 2024. In just over a year, it has grown to become POP MART's sixth-largest IP. The financial report shows that in 2025, Star Man's sales reached 2.056 billion yuan, a year-on-year surge of 1,602%. However, since listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, POP MART has never had a single IP contribute 38% of total revenue. Molly was POP MART's first classic breakout IP, and in its early years, it contributed the vast majority of POP MART's revenue. Data shows that on the eve of POP MART's listing in 2019, Molly's share of total revenue reached 27%, by which time POP MART's IP matrix had already taken shape. However, since POP MART listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in December 2020, Molly's share of total revenue has never exceeded 20%, hovering around 15%. Even so, when the outside world questioned POP MART at that time, they always mentioned its reliance on Molly. ## Did Foreign Institutions Exit First? Looking back at POP MART's growth history, its stock price has fluctuated multiple times amidst praise and doubt, and each rise and fall has been accompanied by a re-evaluation of its value by the capital market. On December 11, 2020, as the "first stock of blind boxes," POP MART officially listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Its stock price doubled at the opening, driving many investors to a frenzy. Some investors praised blind boxes as an entirely new consumer track and viewed POP MART as an IP empire comparable to Disney. Three months later, POP MART's stock price climbed to a high of HK$107 per share, with its market value reaching HK$140 billion. But this enthusiasm did not last long. In the second half of 2021, market doubts about the blind box model began to rise—"inducing consumption" and "addictiveness." POP MART's stock price entered a long downward period. By October 2022, its stock price had fallen below HK$10 per share, a 90% shrinkage from its peak, with over 100 billion in market value evaporated. During that time, POP MART was regarded by the capital market as a typical case of a "valuation bubble bursting." It wasn't until Labubu's explosive popularity in 2024 that POP MART once again became a darling of the capital market. The stock price soared from a dozen yuan all the way up, increasing more than tenfold in just over a year to reach a historical high of HK$339.8 per share, with its market value surpassing 450 billion, comparable to the market value of several leading internet companies in China. As the founder of POP MART, Wang Ning's net worth also soared. In June 2025, according to the Forbes real-time billionaires list, his net worth reached $20.3 billion, surpassing Qin Yinglin, the founder of Muyuan Group, to become the new richest person in Henan. Now, the script of a peak followed by a decline is replaying, and POP MART's stock price has returned to where it was a year ago. At the Earnings Call, Wang Ning also gave a "mild" expectation—they will strive for no less than 20% growth in 2026. "A drop from a profit growth rate of around 300% last year to an expected growth rate of 20% has dealt a huge blow to market confidence," commented one investor on a stock forum. "It's like F1; we hope 2026 will be a year to enter the pit stop to refuel and change tires. After rapid development, we hope to take a brief break," Wang Ning said at the Earnings Call. He had previously stated multiple times that the explosive growth in 2025 was unexpected. Over the past two years, against the backdrop of Labubu's popularity and the high-flying overseas market, the capital market was willing to give POP MART a higher P/E ratio, believing in a "high-growth" story—that POP MART was becoming a consumer giant capable of pushing designer toy culture globally. However, when the growth rate drops from 180% to 20%, the narrative logic changes: is POP MART now a "growth stock" or a "cyclical stock" in its mature phase? It is worth noting that on March 25 and March 26, when the stock price plummeted for two days, foreign institutions were the primary sellers. On March 25, Citibank, Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Connect (Shanghai), Standard Chartered Bank, BNP Paribas, and Guotai Junan were the top five sellers, with net sales of 2.257 million shares, 417,200 shares, 291,400 shares, 216,500 shares, and 201,800 shares, respectively. On March 26, the top five sellers were Merrill Lynch, HSBC, Morgan Stanley, Citibank, and Goldman Sachs, with net sales of 2.5997 million shares, 1.1813 million shares, 1.0691 million shares, 486,200 shares, and 419,100 shares, respectively. In the previous month or two, foreign institutions such as Morgan Stanley had generally made optimistic forecasts for POP MART. Risk Disclosure and Disclaimer Markets are risky, and investment requires caution. This article does not constitute personal investment advice, nor does it consider the specific investment objectives, financial situation, or needs of individual users. Users should consider whether any opinion, view, or conclusion in this article is suitable for their specific situation. Investing based on this is at your own risk. ### 相关股票 - [POP MART (09992.HK)](https://longbridge.com/zh-CN/quote/09992.HK.md) ## 相关资讯与研究 - [Pop Mart shares sink despite revenue surge, as analysts say Labubu reliance worries investors](https://longbridge.com/zh-CN/news/280487493.md) - [Pop Mart International Group Limited Reports Earnings Results for the Full Year Ended December 31, 2025](https://longbridge.com/zh-CN/news/280465412.md) - [Pop Mart Revenue Tops 30 Billion Net Profit Surges 284%, Why Did Stock Price Plummet 15%?](https://longbridge.com/zh-CN/news/280420484.md) - [Jefferies Adjusts Pop Mart International Group's Price Target to HK$227.60 From HK$383.20, Keeps at Buy](https://longbridge.com/zh-CN/news/280598281.md) - [Nomura Adjusts Pop Mart International Group's Price Target to HK$261 From HK$372, Keeps at Buy](https://longbridge.com/zh-CN/news/280597467.md)