Pop Mart’s Labubus boost China’s soft power as its brands find global appeal
China had an image problem that could not be shaken for years – synonymous with a state covered with cheap exports, heavy censorship and secrecy and scandal.
While trying to burn the image of the country, rising in the soft power ranking, this is changing because domestic enterprises help Beijing to provide an important facelift.
Chinese coffee chains appear in New York. Chinese video games get billions of revenues. Even Chinese makeup or “C-beauty” is expanding to global markets.
But the most amazing factor that increases the cultural rise of China is a flying car, AI model or the best -selling game – this is a toy.
Labubus is everywhere: Pop was detected in Lisa bags of Rihanna and K-Pop group Blackpink’s Lisa bags of the Ugly $ 30-dollar keychain of POP Mart, and Pelshie pulled hundreds of thousands of fans around the world. Only a few weeks ago Pop March opened its first store in Germany – recently added to more than 500 stores around the world.
Pop Mart’s viral blind boxes – sealed products with mysterious packages – has become the distinctive feature of one of China’s most aggressive international growth stories. In the first half of the year, the company envisaged an annual 350% profit increase. In the long run, Goldman Sachs estimates that Pop March sales can globally reach $ 11.3 billion globally and reach the same level as LEGO sales.
The company even receives even Japanese brands such as Sanrio and Bandai. In 2024, Pop March sales increased by 107%, while Sanrio, who hosted Hello Kitty, reported a 45% leap.
Pop March’s success is not a FLUKE. It is part of a deliberate strategy that captures the hearts of consumers. With a few registered proposals and the addictive charm of the blind box, the brand entered the sweet point of emotional expenditures during the geopolitical and economic uncertainty.
“One of the key themes is to chase IP or small pleasures,” Goldman Sachs Asia Consumer Research Team said, ” “This is something that the young generation loves – not only in China or Asia, but globally.”
Pop March is not alone in increasing China’s soft power. The video games, which were once strictly organized by the Chinese government, explode in popularity. Black Myth Wukong sold 20 million units in the first month of the world, which is based on the “Western journey” of the Chinese people, and made it one of the fastest selling topics of all time.
According to the market intelligence company Sensor Tower, the players spend more income than the data of the players (Japanese “Gachapon”) (Japanese “Gachapon” (Japanese “Gachapon” to take the name of the real world to take the real world money to get the name Gachain Impact.
Innovators trained at home transform China’s image. The consulting brand Finans took the second place in the global soft power index this year, came to a point from 2024, Britain passes for the first time and sits just behind the USA
Brand Finance has attributed China’s strategic efforts to improving the global image of China, focusing on sustainable development, focusing on stronger brands, and focusing on the country re -opened to the visitors after the PANDEM.
“Finally, China has become visible, and young people no longer add negative brand perceptions to China,” Consumer Analyst Yaling Jiang said. He said. “The best result of these consumer products is that people can see the negative filter of their Chinese and see them because they are.”
As the perceptions about the country are changing rapidly, it is seen that a state that adopts an approach from top to bottom to redemine its image historically can allow brands to speak for them.
