Labubu, soft power of a stealthy ‘ugly-cute' sort, takes on America
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Eventually, after several attempts, she managed to secure a couple of Labubus, relishing the 'blind box' surprise of not knowing which Labubu character was inside.
'A lot of the fun is how hard they are to get,' said Schmauch, aged 28. 'I was lucky enough to get two. It's kind of fun not knowing what you're going to get.'
The global Labubu hysteria has sparked long queues, online mania, customer fist-fights and explosive revenue growth for the Chinese retailer Pop Mart, which had some US$423 million in global Labubu sales alone on overall revenue of US$1.8 billion last year.
Priced in the United States at around US$30 apiece, rare varieties of the doll can resell for thousands of dollars; last month, an
auction in Beijing saw a singular Labubu go for US$172,000.
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For decades, China has manufactured most of the world's toys, including such past must-haves as Beanie Babies, Tamagotchi and Fidget Spinners. But this is among its first home-grown global megahits, with 40 per cent of Labubu's sales coming from outside China.
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