Labubu is a meme stock

And you fell for it

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Source: Financial Times

Meme stocks are stocks that have become popular among retail investors, often driven by online discussions and communities, rather than traditional fundamental analysis. Meme stock popularity is driven by, and spreads rapidly through, social media, and involves young and inexperienced investors that are less familiar with traditional investing practices. At its height, GameStop’s stock price was driven by thousands of automated bots hyping its stock on social media, followed by Elon Musk’s “Gamestonk!!” tweet, which send the stock up further 60% in after hours trading.

Net income for Pop Mart, Labubu’s owner, rose 188% to $427 million in 2024 compared to a year earlier, beating the estimate, according to Bloomberg report. Full-year sales more than doubled to $1.8bn while profit more than tripled. and Pop Mart’s Hong Kong-listed shares have surged more than 500 per cent over the past 12 months. With a market valuation of $38bn in dollar terms, Pop Mart is worth more than twice the combined value of US toy giants Mattel and Hasbro. Labubu was the company’s breakout star last year, with sales up more than 700 per cent at $422mn, driven by social media discussions on TikTok, influencer marketing, and celebrity endorsements. Driven first by Lisa from Blackpink posting Labubus on her Christmas tree and on her bags, the toys’ popularity was further fueled by David Beckham, Rihanna, Dillon Brooks, and other celebrities featuring the toy on their bags, and then millions of fans unboxing blind boxes, cataloging their collections, trading duplicates, showing styles inspired by Labubus, and the toys cosplay. There are more than 1.4 million #labubu TikTok posts.

Toy crazes happed before, and many a time. Cabbage Patch Kids dolls in 1983 left a store visitor with a broken arm. A store manager was convinced that his life was in danger and protected himself with a baseball bat. In the late 1980’s the company making Cabbage Patch Kids filed for bankruptcy.

Beanie Babies were popular in the mid-to-late 90s, leading a lot of people to think of them as collectibles. They fizzled by the end of the decade, together with their resale