The “La BuBu” craze of Chinese art toy company Pop Mart is spreading beyond China to the global market. As the collection fever expands to demand for investment and speculation, La BuBu is attracting attention as a character with high asset value enough to be called “Plastic Maotai” rather than just a doll.
A growing number of adults visited the city park in Beijing’s Chaoyang district on Monday afternoon. The park is known as the country’s first Art Toy theme park, which was created by Pop Mart. “I stopped by because I could buy a key ring here,” said Liu, who was holding a large shopping bag in both hands. He bought four bags.
The couple is a character from The Monsters series, which was introduced in 2015 by Hong Kong-based designer Rong Ka-shing who moves to the Netherlands. In 2019, Pop Mart bought and sold the character’s IP. Pop Mart introduced blind boxes and limited-edition marketing to the sale of the couple to increase scarcity, stimulating consumers’ desire to collect.
The “La BuBu Madness” is producing record numbers. The scarce value Art Toy is sold at over 200 million won in the auction market, and the stock price of Pop Mart has risen 600% over the past year. Although it is a doll that children will like, nearly 70% of Labu’s consumers are said to be born in the 1990s and 2000s.
La couple is subject to “investment-type consumption.” It is sometimes referred to as “plastic Mao-tai,” comparing it to “Mao-tai,” a high-end art with high investment value due to limited production. At an auction held in Beijing’s Peng Huang Zhongxin on the 10th, the only 131cm-tall La couple doll in the world was sold for 1.08 million yuan, according to Chinese media Xinjing Bao. Including the auction fee, it amounts to 1,242,000 yuan. All 48 sets of works were sold in two hours at the auction, and the total transaction amount was 3,7255,400 yuan. Among the auction participants was a 9-month-old baby. His family won the bid for the Labou couple Arttoi, which cost 32,000 yuan under the baby’s name. There is also a craze for La couple in the resale market. Brand collaboration products are originally 599 yuan due to their high value in collection, but they are sometimes traded at over 10,000 yuan for used products. The craze for the couple is being reflected in corporate stock prices. Pop Mart’s closing price on the 16th, listed on the Hong Kong stock market, was 275 Hong Kong dollars, up 601.5% from the closing price on June 17 last year (39.20 Hong Kong dollars). The investment industry is paying attention to Pop Mart as an “emerging consumer stock.” According to the Pop Mart annual report released in March, the sales of The Monsters, which includes the couple, increased 727% year-on-year last year, and accounted for 23.3% of the total sales of Pop Mart. Overseas sales are also soaring. Chinese economic media Huarjianjian said, “The sales of the couple increased eight times and five times in the U.S. and Europe, respectively.”
Consumers who actively visit La Maru were born in the 1990s and 2000s. It accounts for more than 70 percent of all consumers. Teenagers and people in their late 20s, who are accustomed to sharing trends through social media, are leading the craze. The same phenomenon is detected in the global market as well as Chinese social media such as Douyin (Chinese version of TikTok) and Xiao Hongshu. Pop Mart’s U.S. account more than doubled from 430,000 in March to 890,000 as of the 17th. Black Pink’s Lisa and American singer Rihanna’s expression of affection for La Maru on social media greatly affected their recognition. Richard Lin, chief consumer analyst at the Shanghai Pudong Development Bank (SPDB) in Hong Kong, told the South China Morning Post, “The scarcity of the product itself is important, but the voluntary promotion of the La couple through social media helped greatly increase its popularity.”
SALLY LEE
US ASIA JOURNAL
