Labubu becomes a symbol of China’s emotional spending boom

Labubu works because it gives collectors a feeling before it gives them an object. The blind-box format, the odd little face, and the social proof from celebrity posts have turned Kasing Lung’s figure into more than a toy: it is a quick read on what buyers want when status alone is not enough. That is why the character now sits in conversations about China’s emotional spending boom, not just in resale chats.

Why Labubu fits the emotional-consumption label

The shift around Labubu starts with what buyers are being told they want. A Fudan Development Institute report, cited by People’s Daily Online, says young consumers are weighing emotional value, not just price-performance, when they buy. That is the core of the emotional-consumption argument: the purchase has to do something to the buyer, not just for the buyer.

That logic also helps explain why a collectible toy can be talked about in the same breath as much bigger parts of the economy. People’s Daily Online cited iiMedia Research putting China’s guzi economy at RMB168.9 billion in 2024 and projecting RMB308.9 billion by 2029. CNBC later said the emotional economy entered public discourse in 2024 after the Labubu craze, and analyst Ashley Dudarenok put the point plainly: consumers are buying “feelings, identity, and a sense of connection.”

Why the product itself matters

Labubu is not winning because it is practical. Britannica describes the figure as the creation of Hong Kong-born illustrator Kasing Lung, who grew up in the Netherlands and drew on Nordic fairy tales. Pop Mart markets the dolls, and that matters because the company turned a quirky character design into a repeatable retail machine.

The blind-box format is the engine. Buyers do not know which figure they will get until they open the package, which makes each purchase feel like a small gamble and makes chasing a specific variant part of the fun. That mystery is what keeps the loop going: one box becomes two, then four, then a full set hunt, and that is where repeat purchasing starts to look less like impulse and more like a collector habit.

Celebrity visibility pushed the toy outside its core fan base. Britannica notes that Labubu’s popularity surged globally in 2024 after posts from Rihanna, David Beckham, and Kim Kardashian. For collectors, that kind of exposure matters less as glamour and more as validation: it tells the market that the figure has crossed from niche object to shared reference.

The money shows this is no longer a side story

Pop Mart’s numbers make the demand impossible to dismiss. In its 2024 annual results, the company said total revenue reached RMB13.04 billion, up 106.9 percent from 2023, and profit attributable to owners of the company rose to RMB3.13 billion, up 188.8 percent year on year. Those are not the numbers of a fad that never left the hobby shelf.

The Monsters, the IP line that includes Labubu, crossed RMB1 billion in revenue for the first time in 2024. Pop Mart later said The Monsters generated RMB3.0 billion in revenue in 2024, a 726.6 percent jump from the prior year, and accounted for 23.3 percent of total company revenue, making it the company’s largest IP. Once a character line carries that much of the business, every drop, variant, and restock takes on collector significance.

That is also why Labubu keeps showing up in the same discussions as resale premiums and sellouts. A blind-box toy with a distinctive silhouette has exactly the traits that reward scarcity: it is easy to recognize, hard to fully control, and emotionally sticky enough that buyers will chase the one they want. The market does not need the figure to solve a problem. It only needs the reveal to feel worth paying for again.

What this means for the next collector wave

If Labubu is the model, the strongest future releases will not be the most expensive or the most technically complex. They will be the ones that make the buyer feel something fast. That usually means a character with an instantly readable silhouette, a blind-box or chase mechanic, and enough variation to make people want a second try without losing the core identity.

The same logic should favor a few specific formats:

• character-led drops with a strong, memorable face and shape
• blind-box releases that preserve surprise
• small variant changes that create completion pressure
• crossover moments that make the figure easy to share socially
• retail setups that feel like participation, not just purchase

Labubu’s lesson is simple: the object matters, but the feeling of opening it matters more. When buyers are chasing identity, comfort, and a shared cultural wink at the same time, the products that win are the ones that turn a sale into a moment.