Latest news with #WangNing
Forbes
5 days ago
- Business
- Forbes
How This Biotech Billionaire Outmaneuvered Merck In China. Plus: Your At-Home Office Is Adding To Burnout
This is this week's ForbesWomen newsletter, which every Thursday brings news about the world's top female entrepreneurs, leaders and investors straight to your inbox. Click here to get on the newsletter list! W hen K-pop star Lisa from Blackpink casually flaunted a Labubu keychain on her bag in early 2024, she likely had no idea of the phenomenon it would soon become. In the year and a half since Lisa's Labubu outing, the mischievous plush elf from Pop Mart has turned into a cultural and commercial juggernaut, doubling Pop Mart's 2024 revenue and appearing on the bags of stars like Rihanna, Dua Lipa, Madonna and more. Chances are good you've seen Labubus (and chatter about these creatures) on social media and out in the wild… or maybe you also own one? My colleagues on the Forbes breaking news desk reported earlier this summer that 'the hashtag #labubu has been used in 32,000 TikTok posts over the past week in the United States alone and in more than 1 million posts overall.' That was in early June. This week, those same colleagues reported on 'a limited edition collaboration' between Vans (the popular shoe brand) and Labubu that could 'sell for five figures on the secondary market as an eBay auction for the doll creeps toward the $10,000 mark.' Five figures! My Beanie Baby-collecting younger self is beside herself with jealousy… but the Pop Mart founder, Wang Ning, is laughing all the way to the bank. Cheers! Maggie McGrath Exclusive Forbes Profile: How This New Biotech Billionaire Outmaneuvered Merck In China aseko Michelle Xia gained experience at U.S. pharmaceutical firms before launching her own biotech company back home in China. In a trial last year, the firm's cancer drug outperformed the world's best seller—and its surging stock just made her a billionaire. With a $1.2 billion fortune, based on her and her family's 8.5% stake in the company, Akeso (named for a Greek goddess of healing), Forbes estimates she is one of just nine Chinese women billionaires in healthcare (including two who inherited their fortunes)–-and one of 13 self-made female billionaires in healthcare globally. ICYMI: News Of The Week Tunisia's Ons Jabeur celebrates victory against Colombia's Camila Osorio during their women's singles match on day five of the Australian Open tennis tournament in Melbourne on January 16, 2025. (Photo by Yuichi YAMAZAKI / AFP) / — IMAGE RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - STRICTLY NO COMMERCIAL USE — (Photo by YUICHI YAMAZAKI/AFP via Getty Images) AFP via Getty Images Ons Jabeur, two-time Wimbledon runner-up, posted on X that she is taking a break from tennis. She said she's no longer happy playing the sport and it's time to put herself first. We talk a lot about the sectors of work in which women are underrepresented, but did you know that women make up a majority of tipped waitstaff and bartending staff in the U.S.? And this week, we at Forbes released the first episode of a new video series hosted by one of the nation's top mixologists (of any gender), Pam Wiznitzer. In this first episode, Pam demystifies America's #1 drink, the Margarita, and she also interviews Indian Matchmaking" star Aparna Shewakramani. Check out the full episode here! While some reviews hail it the 'best show on Netflix,' an extensive press rollout that included a feature in The New York Times and hype around show creator Lena Dunham's much-talked-about return to television, her new show, 'Too Much,' didn't take off on Netflix during its debut week. Adelita Grijalva secured the Democratic nomination this week for Arizona's 7th Congressional District special election to fill the vacancy created by her father's death. If successful in September, she will become the first Latina to represent Arizona in Congress and will bump Latina representation in Congress to an all-time high, according to the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University. The Checklist 1. Switch up your work-from-home set-up. Physical clutter and visual distractions can drive stress, reduce focus and lead to emotional exhaustion. If you're feeling burned out in spite of a hybrid or virtual work structure that helps you avoid the drain of commuting, here's how to revamp your home office with wellbeing in mind. 2. Safeguard employees with your reproductive healthcare benefits. The most common mistake that companies make when offering reproductive health benefits is failing to protect the private data from employee benefits use, according to researchers at RMH Compass. Adopting the wrong delivery process for abortion care benefits can place you and your employees at significant legal risk. 3. Job search without losing your mind—or motivation. The emotional toll of looking for a new gig is real. There's the ghosting, the automated email rejections seven minutes after you hit 'submit' on your application, and the five rounds of interviews only to be told that the position went to an internal candidate. Here's how to buttress your sense of resilience. The Quiz Michelle and Barack Obama joked about the latest round of divorce rumors in a joint podcast appearance this week, with the former first lady shutting down speculation that their 32-year marriage was on the rocks. What has Michelle previously attributed divorce rumors to? Her candid statements on struggles when their children were young That she keeps a schedule separate from her husband's Speculation that she may run for president Changes to her physical appearance thanks to a new workout routine Check your answer. Liked what you read? Click here to get on the newsletter list!
Forbes
6 days ago
- Business
- Forbes
Forbes Daily: Labubu Craze Makes Pop Mart Billionaire CEO Even Richer
Move over, stocks and bonds. Your next best investment might just be a plush doll with sharp teeth. Labubus, viral toys from Chinese company Pop Mart that typically sell in mystery boxes for $20 to $30, have been resold online for thousands of dollars, and a limited edition doll made in collaboration with shoe brand Vans could be the latest rendition to reach the five-figure mark. Labubus seem to be following in the footsteps of famous collectibles like Ty Beanie Babies and Cabbage Patch dolls, but one expert appraiser told Forbes she thinks the trend is here to stay. Whether that's true or not, Pop Mart is making a killing. The company expects a 350% year-over-year profit increase in the first half of 2025, while its founder Wang Ning joined the ranks of China's top 10 richest for the first time in June. Mark Zuckerberg Photo by BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and other billionaire leaders tied to the social media platform went on trial Wednesday in an $8 billion case over whether the heads of the company knowingly violated a privacy agreement. Plaintiffs allege Facebook—which later rebranded to Meta—allowed third-party apps to collect users' data about their friends in defiance of a direct FTC order. The issue came to light in the Cambridge Analytica scandal, in which millions of users' Facebook data was harvested through a third-party app, and that data was allegedly used to influence major political events. Several cryptocurrencies and related stocks surged amid regulatory optimism Wednesday, as President Donald Trump said most Republicans who defected on advancing pro-crypto legislation would now support the bills. That eventually happened Wednesday night, as the House advanced the bills after a number of conservative lawmakers dropped their opposition. Trump, whose businesses have become more involved with crypto, has pushed the legislation in recent weeks. Photo Illustration byPresident Donald Trump on Wednesday claimed that Coca-Cola will switch its formulation in the U.S. to use cane sugar instead of high-fructose corn syrup, though the company did not explicitly confirm the change. The Corn Refiners Association, a trade body representing corn refiners in the country, pushed back against any change to Coke's formulation, saying the move would cost thousands of jobs and 'boost imports of foreign sugar.' In spite of the uncertainty caused by Trump's tariffs, small business earnings are up 75% since January, a new report shows. That's a sign that conditions are not yet worsening, though monthly earnings remain significantly lower than the levels seen in the past two years. TECH + INNOVATION Industrial battery units storing electricity in the desert. Getty Images As it spends billions to produce electric vehicle batteries, General Motors is partnering with Redwood Materials to use some of its cells for stationary energy storage systems for the power grid as well as AI data centers. GM is one of the fastest-growing sellers of electric vehicles in the U.S., but as the outlook worsens for EV sales, finding additional uses for battery cells beyond EVs would help the automaker maximize its investment in R&D and production of that technology. Hope Hydration, founded by Forbes Under 30 alum Jorge Richardson, is using advertising to fund free drinking water, setting up stations at events like Formula 1 races and SXSW that show ad campaigns to users as they refill their water bottles. Including its latest round closed this week, the company is armed with $26 million in total funding, which it hopes to use in part to expand to communities in need, like Flint, Michigan. MONEY + POLITICS President Donald Trump with Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell in 2017. Photo byPresident Donald Trump has tested the Federal Reserve's historic independence, but he denied that he plans to fire chairman Jerome Powell Wednesday, despite reportedly discussing his removal with congressional Republicans a day earlier. Trump first appointed Powell in 2017, but he has recently criticized him over the central bank's decisions not to lower interest rates, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said a 'formal process' to find a successor for Powell, whose term ends in May 2026, is underway. The Senate voted to approve a White House request to cancel $9 billion in previously approved funding for foreign aid and public broadcasting early on Thursday. If the legislation passes the House before Friday's deadline, it would claw back $1.1 billion in funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting—which helps fund PBS and NPR—and about $8 billion from aid programs like USAID. Federal prosecutor Maurene Comey, the daughter of former FBI Director James Comey, was fired from her post at the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York on Wednesday. Comey was the lead prosecutor in the high-profile cases against Jeffrey Epstein and his associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, as well as rapper Sean 'Diddy' Combs. The reason behind Comey's firing was not immediately clear, according to Politico, though President Trump also fired her father from his position at the FBI in 2017. DAILY COVER STORY You're Not Imagining It: AI Is Already Taking Tech Jobs Moor Studios Amid the rise of generative AI, many have feared it could replace human workers, and the tech industry is especially vulnerable. Now, CEOs are starting to admit it. Already, younger and more inexperienced programmers are seeing a drop in employment rate; the total number of employed entry-level developers from ages 18 to 25 has dropped 'slightly' since 2022, after the launch of ChatGPT, said Ruyu Chen, a postdoctoral fellow at the Digital Economy Lab of Stanford's Institute for Human-Centered AI. Chen and her colleagues studied large-scale payroll data in the U.S. to examine generative AI's impact on the workforce. It's a small decline, but a significant development in the field of engineering in the tech industry, an occupation that has seemed synonymous with wealth and exorbitant salaries for more than a quarter century. Suddenly, after years of rhetoric about how AI will augment workers, rather than replace them, many tech CEOs have stopped mincing words. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has said AI could wipe out half of all entry-level white-collar jobs and spike unemployment up to 20% within the next five years. WHY IT MATTERS Tech companies have started cutting jobs or freezing hiring explicitly due to AI and automation. At stalwart IBM, hundreds of human resources employees were replaced by AI in May, part of broader job cuts that terminated 8,000 employees. Also in May, Luis von Ahn, CEO of the language learning app Duolingo, said the company would stop using contractors for work that could be done by AI. Still, while the technology is beginning to take a toll on developers in the tech industry, it's actually created more demand for engineers outside of tech, said Chen, because other sectors are adopting AI tools for the first time. MORE A Growing Side Hustle For American College Grads: Fixing AI's Wrong Answers FACTS + COMMENTS The IRS Direct File program, which allows eligible taxpayers to file taxes directly with the IRS online for free, has come under fire from Republicans in Congress. And while the One Big Beautiful Bill Act didn't eliminate Direct File, it's likely on the way out: 90%: The share of respondents to a survey who ranked their experience with Direct File as 'Excellent' or 'Above Average' $90 million: The amount taxpayers filed to obtain in refunds in Direct File's pilot program in 2024, saving an estimated $5.6 million in filing costs $15 million: The amount of money earmarked in the spending bill for a task force to review the cost and public opinions on public-private partnerships for free tax filing versus government-run programs STRATEGY + SUCCESS As the modern workplace often calls on workers to be 'always on,' a brief digital detox can help you restore energy, focus and work-life balance. Designate your bedroom a device-free zone, turn off non-essential notifications, and create specific times for checking email and social media. When the week is over, don't just go back to old habits: Try and create a more intentional relationship with your devices. VIDEO Generations often poke fun at each other for certain quirks, like the 'millennial pause.' What are some on TikTok mocking Gen Z for doing? A. Staring blankly before responding B. Fake laughing C. Using the word 'like' too much D. Not texting people back Check your answer. Thanks for reading! This edition of Forbes Daily was edited by Sarah Whitmire and Chris Dobstaff. We've updated this newsletter edition to correct background for Bedrock's founders.
Time of India
08-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Labubu mania gets darker: Hundreds of fake ‘demonic' dolls seized by North Ayrshire Trading Standards
If you have not seen a Labubu dangling from someone's designer tote or backpack, are you even online? These wide-grinning, bunny-eared plushies from Pop Mart's 'Monster' series have officially taken over Gen Z culture, with everyone from influencers to A-listers showing them off. But with fame comes fakes, and things just got very real in Scotland. Planning to buy a Labubu? Here's how to spot the fake ones | Credit: Instagram/labubusobsession The Labubu craze turns chaotic In a dramatic twist, North Ayrshire Council's Trading Standards team has seized over 370 fake Labubu toys in Irvine. The bust, which went down at two retail premises, comes after a surge in counterfeit versions of the popular plushies began circulating across the UK. Wang Ning becomes China's youngest top billionaire as Labubu dolls go from blind box toys to global collectibles in celebrity circles | Credit: X/labubuababy These knockoffs are not just shady, they are downright dangerous. Lacking the proper UK Toy Safety certification, many come with loose, detachable parts that pose a major choking hazard to young children. Safety nightmare: What parents need to know While the authentic Labubus are collector-grade cuties, complete with exactly nine little teeth (a fun detail that helps weed out fakes), these dodgy versions are low-quality, overly vibrant, and cheaply made. Councillor Alan Hill noted that these dolls are not only likely to fall apart quickly but may also cause serious injuries. He encouraged shoppers to avoid sketchy retailers and report any suspicious sales to the council. His warning? These counterfeits are not a good deal; they are a disaster waiting to happen. Where can you get the viral creepy Labubu doll in India? } Credit: Instagram/lalalalisa_m The demonic toy theory rises again Let us not forget the wild internet conspiracy theory: that Labubus are cursed or demonic. TikTok is flooded with cautionary tales about people experiencing "bad luck" or "supernatural events" after bringing a Labubu home. Now imagine buying a bootleg version of an allegedly cursed toy? That is horror movie behaviour. The internet now thinks Labubu dolls are possessed | Credit: X/liliacuntry Officials crack down on retailers
Time of India
05-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Spot the fake ones out: Labubu or Lafufu? Fans struggle to identify originals
Labubu fans around the world are struggling to keep up with a growing wave of fakes, known as "Lafufus," dolls that look just like the real thing. These knock-offs are fooling even the most alert collectors, despite Pop Mart's efforts to stop the spread. Pop Mart, the Beijing-based brand behind the popular Labubu dolls, uses QR codes and barcode checks to confirm if a toy is genuine. But as one Chennai-based content creator found out, even these steps aren't always enough. 'I had picked up a Labubu for myself and had done an unboxing video which got a lot of views,' said the creator, who did not want to be named. 'I thought it would be fun to do a video with my whole family unboxing their Labubus, so I picked up a pack of six. We did an unboxing video and even authenticated the product," ET quoted the influencer. She followed Pop Mart's instructions by scanning the QR code and entering the barcode digits. Her toys passed the test. But later, an eagle-eyed collector noticed something was off, the website itself was fake, and her toys were actually Lafufus. Even though she later replaced the fake with a real Labubu, she took it in her stride. 'Lafufus have their own fan base too!' she said. Labubu dolls, small figures with pointy ears, big eyes, and nine-toothed grins, first appeared in 2019 and quickly became a craze. Sold in 'blind boxes,' these toys cost between $20 and $30 but can fetch much higher prices. One life-sized version recently sold at a Beijing auction for a record $150,000 (about Rs 1.28 crore). As demand soars, so does the counterfeit trade. Last month, Chinese customs seized over 46,000 fake Labubu toys. State media warned of a growing black market hurting both consumers and creators. Pop Mart's sales have skyrocketed thanks to Labubu's popularity. Since going public in Hong Kong in 2020, the company's founder Wang Ning has become one of China's top ten billionaires, with a net worth of $22 billion. But Lafufus are gaining ground. They cost as little as $7.50 and are seen by many as a cheaper way to join the trend. 'The fakes have become so good,' said Abbas Zaveri, founder of HypeFly, a marketplace for sneakers and collectibles told ET. 'Things that customers could look out for is that the heads of the lafufus tend to be very flimsy and the font on the box generally is embossed but the quality on the boxes of fakes tend to be sub-par.' Zaveri further added that despite the original pack for 6 costs more than Rs 24,000, some Indian websites are selling it for just Rs 9,000. Nikhil Jain, who runs City Kicks India, believes the problem is widespread. 'About 70–80% of the dolls in the Indian market are Lafufus,' he said. 'The site URL had subtle misspellings like "Pop Mari" or "Poap Mart" which are good tell-tale signs for this fraud. There are some marketplaces that have had to set up a team to authenticate their products because earlier they sold them as originals and customers figured out that they were being charged for an original but received a lafufu instead. ' The issue isn't limited to India. In Scotland, consumer group Advice Direct Scotland warned that fake Labubus are tricking families and upsetting children. 'These counterfeits are not only deceiving collectors and draining hard-earned money from families, but they are also leaving children heartbroken,' said Hazel Knowles, consumer project lead at the organisation. 'We urge consumers to be vigilant, buy only from trusted retailers and report suspected fakes.' Stay informed with the latest business news, updates on bank holidays and public holidays . AI Masterclass for Students. Upskill Young Ones Today!– Join Now
Time of India
04-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Wang Ning becomes China's youngest top billionaire as Labubu dolls go from blind box toys to global collectibles in celebrity circles
Wang Ning, the founder of Chinese toy company Pop Mart International Group, has entered the ranks of China's top billionaires following the global success of Labubu dolls. At 38, Wang is now the tenth richest individual in the country—and the youngest on the list—after his net worth surged from $7.59 billion to $22.7 billion in just one year, according to the Forbes Real-Time Billionaires List. The increase in Wang's fortune is tied directly to the growing international appeal of Labubu dolls, which are now being treated as collector's items and luxury art toys. Labubu dolls: From illustrated book to billion-dollar brand The Labubu characters were originally created in 2015 by Hong Kong-based artist Kasing Lung for his illustrated book series The Monsters. The dolls, known for their wide eyes, pointed ears, and mischievous grins, were inspired by Nordic fairy tales. Pop Mart introduced these figures to its popular 'blind box' format in 2023. The model—where customers don't know which toy they'll get until they open the box—proved especially popular among Gen Z and millennial shoppers. By 2024, Labubu dolls had become a major driver of Pop Mart's success, especially after celebrities such as BLACKPINK's Lisa, Kim Kardashian, Dua Lipa, Rihanna, and Bollywood's Ananya Panday were seen with them. Pop Mart's strategy turns collectibles into global craze Pop Mart capitalized on the trend by expanding the Labubu product line, offering hundreds of variants in different sizes—from small keychains to life-sized plush versions. The wide availability and constant new designs helped keep interest high. The toy's popularity evolved further in June 2024, when a human-sized Labubu was auctioned in Beijing for 1.08 million yuan (approximately $150,275). It was the first auction dedicated to a single Pop Mart toy, marking its transition from viral hit to collectible art. Wang Ning's rise and Pop Mart's market impact Founded in 2010, Pop Mart's unique blend of art, mystery packaging, and pop culture strategy has now made Wang Ning one of the most influential figures in China's consumer goods industry. The combination of youth appeal, celebrity endorsements, and blind box excitement continues to fuel both Pop Mart's sales and Wang's wealth. The company shows no signs of slowing down, with Labubu remaining its strongest franchise to date.
