What the Labubu craze says about the future of brand strategy

Fast Company

14 hours ago

Labubu, the bug-eyed elves from Beijing, might just be the unlikeliest face of global brand disruption. But the viral figurines, sold in blind boxes across Asia, Europe, and the Americas, are helping rewrite the rules of consumer engagement and revealing what the future of global brands might look like.
Their success isn't really about toys; it's about building a new kind of consumer community. Pop Mart, the brand behind Labubu, has built a business on orchestrating demand, emotion, and engagement at scale.
In the first half of 2024, the company posted RMB 6.65 billion in revenue (roughly $920 million), tripled its profits year-on-year, and reached a $40 billion market capitalization, more than double that of U.S. toy giants Hasbro and Mattel combined. It recently told investors to expect a 350% year-on-year profit surge for the first half of 2025.
What makes Labubu exceptional is that it represents one of China's first truly organic cultural exports. It's a phenomenon driven by its community of fans, rather than top-down orchestration.
A TikTok moment
Born from the imagination of Hong Kong-based illustrator Kasing Lung, the 'ugly-cute' dolls were catapulted into the spotlight after Blackpink's Lisa was spotted carrying a plush version. That moment triggered a viral TikTok surge and helped drive a 726.6% increase in Labubu-related revenue, now accounting for 25% of Pop Mart's total.
What we're seeing isn't a one-off success, it's a structural shift in how cultural IP is created, scaled, and consumed globally. Chinese consumer innovation is entering a new phase, moving from platforms and hardware to emotionally resonant, creator-led IP. These fandom-driven communities bypass traditional media gatekeepers entirely.
Other Chinese firms are accelerating this shift. Xiaomi, Miniso, and Heytea are part of a new generation of brands not competing on price or scale, but by building fan communities, embedding emotion, and turning cultural resonance into business strategy.
The orchestration of desire
Labubu's rise is no accident. Sold in 'blind boxes'—sealed packaging that hides the variant inside—it's more than clever merchandising. It's behavioral design. The randomized reward system mirrors gaming mechanics, tapping into dopamine loops and repeat engagement. Over 1.7 million TikTok videos tagged #Labubu feature unboxings. Limited editions, like the Rainbow Labubu, have fetched over $150,000 at auction.
Instead of relying on loyalty programs or sales funnels, the brand creates micro-moments of surprise that make shopping feel like play. Its 66.8% gross margin reflects not just operational efficiency, but emotional value. The retail strategy—vending machines, roboshops, and immersive flagships—is designed for experience, not efficiency.
In New York, teens queue outside Pop Mart's SoHo flagship not to shop, but to swap figurines, livestream unboxings, or hunt for rare Labubu variants—mimicking sneaker culture.
From product to platform
This emotional engagement mirrors moves by other Chinese innovators. Xiaomi, once a low-cost smartphone player, has evolved into a lifestyle platform spanning wearables, TVs, EVs, and smart home devices.
Its loyal Mi Fan community is central to its success by participating in product development. This two-way relationship cuts marketing costs and builds loyalty. Online forums, feedback channels, and fan events make Xiaomi feel less like a company and more like a community.
Miniso, too, has leaned into aesthetic curation and scarcity. Its co-branded collections with Sanrio, Marvel, and Coca-Cola go viral on social platforms, while its treasure-hunt store layout fuels impulse discovery. Despite affordable price points, it achieves performance that rivals luxury retailers—proving emotional design can scale.
At the center of this shift is aesthetic fluency. Pop Mart's roboshops now span 25 countries, including the U.S., France, and Australia. Flagship stores in New York and Los Angeles draw Gen Z crowds reminiscent of Supreme drops. The design of Labubu—quirky, ironic, expressive—taps directly into Gen Z's appetite for memeable, imperfect symbols of self-expression.
This isn't imitation. China is exporting design-native communities that speak to youth culture through visual language.
Monetizing emotion at scale
Chinese brands are also redefining how emotion scales. While legacy Western players rely on storytelling and identity marketing, their Chinese counterparts are building infrastructure for emotional engagement.
Heytea treats each product launch—whether a limited-edition cheese tea or a regional collaboration—as an event, amplified through influencers, teaser campaigns, and fan buzz.
Its minimalist, Instagrammable stores are designed for social interaction, turning queues into part of the experience. Co-branded drops with luxury names like Fendi and seasonal exclusives fuel emotional attachment. This isn't just clever marketing—it's a system that turns a beverage into a lifestyle, and a brand into a community.
That same emotional infrastructure powers Labubu's rise into fandom. Rare figurines flip for 5 to 30 times their retail value on Xianyu, Alibaba's resale platform, some with blockchain verification. Police raids on counterfeit 'Lafufu' dolls signal Labubu's ascent to luxury-like status, making it a new asset class: IP with emotional and economic value, validated in real time.
What Western brands can learn
Some Western executives may dismiss blind boxes and roboshops as quirky or culturally niche. But under the surface lies a global truth: Consumers crave emotion, novelty, and community.
Labubu's rise shows how brands can scale through visual culture that travels without translation. No slogan, no storyline, just design. It spreads like a physical meme, interpreted across cultures from Seoul to Paris. The core question is no longer 'What's the story?' It's 'What's the emotion we're scaling?'
Chinese brands are showing that strategy today is built from small, orchestrated moments that add up to immersive communities. They're blurring the lines between product and platform, commerce and culture.
The old playbook—position, promote, push—was built for mass marketing and one-way messaging. Today's leading brands thrive on feedback loops, cocreation, and community-driven agility.
The next wave of global brands?
It's tempting to view Pop Mart as a regional curiosity. That would be a mistake.
Labubu may look like a viral toy, but it's also a case study in how design, emotion, and communities converge into strategic advantage.
What ties these brands together is not just design or digital presence—it's the way they build and sustain fan communities. Labubu isn't a preview, it's proof. And for global brands still running on legacy logic, it's time to catch up.