Class A share Hong Kong stock Labubu hidden money sold 1.08 million RMB! POP MART into a "legal casino"?

Behind the success of POP MART ( 09992-HK ), it may be inseparable from the gambling psychology in human nature. The Chinese trendy gaming giant has created an amazing result of annual revenue exceeding 13 billion yuan RMB through the "hidden blind box" strategy with a chance of only 0.69%, which has attracted widespread attention from the market and society. Hidden Labubu sold for 1.08 million RMB. (Photo: Shutterstock) Recently, the world's only mint Labubu was sold at auction for RMB 1.08 million yuan. This Labubu not only symbolizes scarcity and collection value, but also makes POP MART's hunger marketing strategy a global success. ‌ Similar to high-quality luxury goods, the extremely low winning rate actually strengthens consumers' aesthetic recognition and brand loyalty towards the product. In addition, the scarcity of hidden models not only stimulates consumers' appetite, but also amplifies the community's show-off psychology. Every time a player is lucky enough to win a rare model, they will post "results" on the community platform, further attracting more people to join the blind box army. Taking Labubu's third-generation hidden model as an example, the price on the second-hand trading platform skyrocketed to 2,799 yuan RMB , and the probability of winning was only 1/144. Many consumers even spent a lot of money on it, and the whole box was empty. The "Skinner box experiment" in psychology has long revealed that random rewards are more addictive than fixed rewards. POP MART cleverly applies this principle to induce players to continue buying through uncertain odds of winning. Neuroscientific research has also confirmed that the level of dopamine secretion in the brain when winning a rare item is comparable to that in gambling, which is the physiological basis of the phenomenon of "blind box addiction". POP MART's Tide Play Storm quickly swept the world. It was reported that physical conflicts broke out due to panic buying in British stores, and Singapore further required inbound passengers to declare blind boxes, reflecting the explosive growth of Tide Play consumption in the world and the policy response. POP MART 2024 financial report shows that the annual revenue reached 13.038 billion yuan RMB , of which the overseas market contributed 5.066 billion yuan, an annual growth rate of 375.2%. South East Asia alone contributed 2.403 billion yuan, accounting for nearly half of overseas revenue. The North American market recorded an explosive growth of more than 500%. Labubu's THE MONSTERS series has become the company's strongest gold-absorbing product, with annual revenue of 3.04 billion yuan and an annual growth rate of 726.6%. However, the marketing strategy of POP MART has also caused a lot of controversy. At the annual meeting, well-known Chinese artist Guo Qilin even joked: "Welcome to China's largest gaming company", mocking the random lottery mechanism of POP MART blind box as highly similar to gambling. Facing the pressure of public opinion, POP MART founder Wang Ning clarified: "We are the largest trendy play company in the world!