China has recently expanded its influence in the cultural sector and is increasing its soft power

China, which is breaking the existing low-cost and low-quality image in technology such as electric vehicles and artificial intelligence models, has recently expanded its influence in the cultural sector and is increasing its soft power. Pop Mart, an art-toy company, saw its sales surge more than 100 percent last year amid external expansion, including expansion into Korea. Its stock price soared nine times in a year. Pop Mart in China announced its business report last year on Wednesday, saying its sales amounted to 13 billion yuan, up 106.9 percent year-on-year. Net profit surged 188.8 percent to 3.12 billion yuan.

Pop Mart is a company representing the “Goods Economy,” which is gaining sensational popularity among China’s Generation Z (born between 1995 and 2009), and it hit the jackpot by launching a blind box containing figures randomly.

Overseas sales also surged. According to the business report, Pop Mart’s overseas sales jumped 375.2 percent year-on-year to 5.07 billion yuan, accounting for 38.9 percent of the total sales. After the earnings announcement, Pop Mart’s stock price surged 10.9% to close at HK$140.7 on the Hong Kong Exchange on the 26th, and continued its upward trend on the 27th, increasing 8.5% to HK$154.5 on the 27th. It is a nine-fold increase compared to the level of HK$17 in early February last year. The market capitalization on the 27th reached HK$205.1 billion.

“Internationalization has become the second growth opportunity and will continue to be a significant growth engine over the next few years,” said Wang Ning, chairman of Pop Mart, in a conference call after the earnings announcement. As of the end of last year, Pop Mart had 130 overseas stores, opening theme shops and flagship stores around the world, including Megabangna, the largest shopping center in Bangkok, Thailand, Oxford Street in London, England, and San Diego, USA. In July last year, it also entered the Louvre Museum in Paris, France. Pop Mart also operates seven stores in Korea, including Myeong-dong and Hongdae. Pop Mart, which has emerged as the biggest beneficiary of the goods economy, a consumer culture based on popular intellectual property rights (IP), is also collaborating with the animated film “Nuja 2,” which has exceeded 300 million Chinese audiences. Pop Mart’s “Nuja” figure blind box released on January 30 was sold out immediately after its launch, gaining sensational popularity. The amount sold at the Pop Mart store opened in Taobao, a Chinese e-commerce platform, exceeded 35 million yuan.

In a conference call, Wang said, “Sales will grow by more than 50 percent this year,” and was confident of breaking 20 billion yuan. “I thought overseas sales would exceed 50 percent this year, but I didn’t expect sales in China to surge due to sales of ‘Nuja 2’ figures in the first quarter,” he said. “We will also release another ‘Nuja 2’ product.”

SAM KIM

US ASIA JOURNAL