Born in 1987 in Huojia County, Henan, Pop Mart founder, chairman and CEO Wang Ning made headlines in June 2025 by becoming the 10th richest billionaire in China by net worth and the youngest in the top 10.
Wang’s fortune has soared due to the booming success of his toy brand. Hardly anyone can imagine a toy company, especially one that makes plush dolls, turning its founder into one of the richest people on earth. But that is what sets Wang apart from most billionaires in the world, and he, possibly, has to thank the Labubu craze for it.
A 2009 advertising graduate from Sias University, Wang founded Pop Mart in 2010. The share price of his company, listed at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HTEX), has risen from a low of HKD 10 (around MYR 5.4) in October 2022 to around HKD 250 (around MYR 135) in July 2025. The stock price indicates the success of Pop Mart in an extremely short period.
“It is rare for a comic/toy IP [intellectual property] to break the culture wall and be embraced by both Asian cultures as well as mainstream Western pop stars and sports stars,” Deutsche Bank analyst Jessie Xu wrote in a research note, according to a June 2025 Forbes report.
Wang hit the headlines with a net worth USD 22.1 billion, according to Forbes, in June 2025. Only time will tell whether his company maintains the momentum, but he will remain one of the richest people in China if the craze for Labubu is any indicator.
Net worth and other details of Pop Mart CEO Wang Ning
What is the actual net worth of Wang Ning?
The actual net worth of Wang Ning, as of 7 July 2025, is USD 21.1 billion. The figure is as stated by Forbes in their real-time estimate of the Chinese billionaire.
His net worth history published by Forbes shows that Wang has seen a remarkable rise in his wealth. Below is a breakdown of his fortune at the start of each year:
2021 – USD 6.3 billion
2022 – USD 3 billion
2023 – USD 1.6 billion
2024 – USD 1.8 billion
2025 – USD 9.8 billion
As is evident, Wang has seen a meteoric rise in his wealth since 2024. In fact, based on his current net worth, he is now 11.5 times (or around 1,150 per cent) richer than he was at the start of 2024. That’s a phenomenal rise in the fortune of any billionaire in recent years.
This brings us to the question…
How did Wang Ning build his fortune?
All of Wang Ning’s wealth is reportedly due to his hugely successful toy company, Pop Mart International Group. The company has its headquarters in Beijing, China, and trades on the HKEX.
According to a Nasdaq report, Wang holds a 48.73 per cent ownership stake in Pop Mart.
What is Pop Mart, and what is its business model?
Pop Mart is a toy company, known for its wide range of dolls and unique business strategy. It prioritises exclusivity, which makes its products extremely in-demand among its core target — women aged 16 to 35, among millennials and Gen-Z, according to reports.
It has become immensely popular worldwide due to a sales model known as ‘blind box’. Popularised by Japanese toy makers in the 1980s, a blind box is essentially a small, sealed package which contains a toy, but buyers have no way to know what’s inside until they open it. The concept, which is almost like a game of chance, became ubiquitous in Japan due to the mystery factor, which made people eager to buy more in the hopes of building a collection.
Pop Mart follows the blind box model. The toys it sells can be purchased at Pop Mart stores, Roboshops (vending machines) or pop-ups. It has been noted that the young, affluent buyers even travel to different places, sometimes to other countries, in the hopes of getting their hands on an exclusive Pop Mart collectible.
According to a March 2025 report by TIME magazine, there are “hundreds of thousands of hauls and unboxing videos” on the social media giant TikTok. There are groups on social media platforms such as Facebook and WeChat where fans keep each other informed of new Pop Mart products or restocks.
Though most Pop Mart toys come in blind boxes, the company also sell accessories, large-size busts and figurines. And each Pop Mart store looks different from the other, as they are modelled after one of its numerous characters. Thus, the stores themselves serve as attractions for fans. Then, there are exclusive promotions and a loyalty membership system, which help in better customer engagement.
But merely deploying a brilliant sales strategy isn’t everything; the dolls that Pop Mart sells are incredible artistic creations. Which brings us to the toys, the artists and how they became popular.
What products does Pop Mart sell?
CryBaby, Dimoo, Skullpanda, Hirono and Nyota are just some of the names of the toys sold by Pop Mart. Each of the toy series is an intellectual property (IP) of the company. Each toy comes in several unique variations, including differences in hair colour, style, costume and overall appearance. They can be anything from plush toys to keychains and in varying sizes. The face of the doll, however, usually has a defined look.
For instance, Hirono always wears an angry look on his face, while Nyota is a girl with wide eyes described as introverted.
View this post on Instagram
Pop Mart’s official website lists the names of the artists behind the dolls. Beijing-based artist Lang is the creator of Hirono. Thai artist Molly (Mod-Nisa Srikhumdee) created CryBaby — one of the most famous toys in Pop Mart’s collection.
Molly is also the name of an IP sold by Pop Mart. Designed in 2006 by Hong Kong-based artist Kenny Wong, Molly is described by Pop Mart as “a blue-eyed girl with short hair and an iconic pouting expression that never leaves her face”. It is one of the highest-selling toys of the company globally and the most popular character in mainland China.
But the doll that made Pop Mart instantly famous internationally and led to a massive rise in the net worth of Wang Ning is Labubu.
What is Labubu, and how did it become famous?
Created by Hong Kong-born and Belgium-based designer Kasing Lung, Labubu is part of a Pop Mart toy collection known as The Monsters. They were created in 2015, with the character Labubu as the central showpiece. But the IP was launched by Pop Mart only in 2023.
View this post on Instagram
The Monsters are based on Lung’s exploration of his East Asian heritage and Nordic folklore. Apart from Labubu, the collection includes characters such as Zimomo (Labubu with a tail), Tycoco and Spooky. However, Labubu’s fame (and demand) is unparalleled. In fact, it is Labubu that led to the rapid popularity of Pop Mart.
Labubu looks like an elf from a Nordic forest with a grin that shows her serrated teeth. Her global fame grew the moment Thai K-pop superstar Lisa posted an Instagram story in April 2024 showing the BLACKPINK member hugging a giant Labubu plush toy with a Labubu bag charm.
Later, in a ‘secret obsession’ special interview with Vanity Fair in November 2024, Lisa shared her love for Pop Mart toys and opened some blind boxes.
“I go to Pop Mart everywhere. If I fly to New York, I go to Miami, I try to find Pop Mart there, Paris, you know, everywhere. Kind of like a treasure, finding treasure,” she said.
Celebrities such as Rihanna, Madonna, Kim Kardashian, Dua Lipa and David Beckham have since joined the Labubu bandwagon.
How much revenue does Pop Mart generate, and what’s its market capitalisation?
On 26 June 2025, Nasdaq reported that the HKEX-listed company hit a new market cap high of HKD 336.8 billion (around USD 43 billion).
“The company’s growth is attributed to a strong increase in daily active users and innovative IP strategies that blend emotional resonance with consumer demand,” said Nasdaq.
Pop Mart shared its 2024 annual financial report in March 2025. According to the report, Pop Mart earned a revenue of RMB 13.04 billion (around USD 1.8 billion), marking a year-on-year increase of 106.9 per cent. Its adjusted net profit was RMB 3.4 billion (around USD 474 million), up 185.9 per cent from the previous year.
While mainland China continued to bring in a steady flow of revenue, RMB 7.97 billion (around USD 1.1 billion), with a 52.3 per cent growth over the previous year, the report revealed a very strong showing in overseas markets. The total revenue from markets outside China amounted to RMB 5.07 billion (around USD 707 million) with a 375.2 per cent growth year-on-year, which is around 40 per cent of the total revenue for 2024.
The company also increased the number of Pop Mart stores outside China, reaching 130 (including those through joint ventures). The number of Roboshops reached 192. Pop Mart stores are now also at the Louvre in Paris, France, and on Oxford Street in London, England. In all, there are over 530 Pop Mart stores and 2,490 Roboshops. The company has a presence in around 100 countries and regions worldwide.
The Monsters alone generated around RMB 3 billion (around USD 419 million) in 2024’s revenue, marking a year-on-year growth of 726.6 per cent.
One of the reasons behind the high revenue is that the toys do not come cheap. Their target is an affluent class who can travel to multiple countries or spend as much as possible on blind boxes just to get their hands on a desired collectible. Yet Pop Mart’s IPs are not called luxury toys.
According to TIME magazine, the prices can range from USD 5 for a tiny accessory to USD 1,500 for a 30-inch figurine.
How rich is Wang Ning compared to other Chinese billionaires?
As of 3 July 2025, Pop Mart founder-CEO Wang Ning is the 10th richest person in mainland China. The nine others who are richer than he are (in order of net worth):
Zhang Yiming, co-founder of ByteDance: USD 65.5 billion
Zhong Shanshan, founder-chairman of Nongfu Spring: USD 60.1 billion
Ma Huateng, chairman-CEO of Tencent Holdings: USD 51.9 billion
Lei Jun, founder-CEO of Xiaomi: USD 45.8 billion
William Ding, founder-CEO of NetEase: USD 42 billion
Colin Huang, founder of PDD Holdings: USD 36.6 billion
He Xiangjian, co-founder of Midea: USD 28.2 billion
Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba: USD 25.9 billion
Wang Chuanfu, founder-CEO of BYD: USD 25.1 billion
Are there any other billionaires who made their fortune with toys?
Yes, there are two billionaires on Forbes real-time net worth list who made their fortune selling toys just like Wang Ning of Pop Mart. They are American billionaire Ty Warner (net worth USD 6.2 billion) and China’s Zhu Weisong (net worth USD 2.3 billion).
Warner made his early fortune in the 1990s with the Beanie Babies plush toys line. He later entered the real estate business and is now more known for his hotels. However, his company, Ty Inc., still sells a Beanie Baby toy called Beanie Boo worldwide.
Zhu, on the other hand, co-founded a gaming company named Yoozoo Information Technology before leaving in 2016 to found toy company Bloks Group. According to Forbes, it sells “Lego-like building blocks and figurines, including those based on Japan’s Ultraman superhero characters”.
(Hero and Featured image credit: Pop Mart)
