The archive · Product Ideas · Product decision · 2016–2020
Pop Mart's Molly Blind Box Sold Out in 4s on Tmall
After losing Sonny Angel, Pop Mart made Molly blind boxes: sold out in 4s on Tmall; revenue rose 10x from 2017 to 2019.
Pop Mart (泡泡玛特)
What it had to solve
On 1 January 2016, the copyright holder of Sonny Angel terminated the exclusive agency; the star product that contributed 30% of Pop Mart's overall sales was suddenly left in limbo. Management had to answer: without a license, can we create an IP ourselves?
How it works
On 1 January 2016, the copyright holder of Sonny Angel, which Pop Mart distributed, terminated the cooperation—this star figure, which contributed 30% of the company's overall sales, was suddenly gone. Founder Wang Ning asked fans on Weibo: besides Sonny Angel, what else do you like to collect? The name that appeared most in the answers was Molly, a little-girl image created in 2006 by Hong Kong designer Kenny Wong that had never been commercialized on a large scale.
Wang Ning flew to Hong Kong 4 days later, signed an exclusive license for Molly after 3 rounds of communication, and spent 4 months solving commercialization design, supply chain and channels. On 8 August 2016, the first Molly Zodiac blind box series went on sale on Tmall, priced at RMB 708 for 1 set—the team's target was to sell 200 sets on the first day, but it sold out in 4 seconds, and each subsequent restock sold out quickly.
Molly's success transformed Pop Mart from a trendy goods collection store into an IP operator: standardized size, unified packaging and price, and the uncertainty brought by hidden styles turned 'drawing a box' into a game. From 2017 to 2019, the company's revenue rose from RMB 1.58 hundred million to RMB 16.83 hundred million, with growth exceeding 200% for 2 consecutive years, and net profit increased from RMB 156 ten thousand to RMB 4.51 hundred million.
Why it lands
- Turn crisis into opportunity: losing the agency forced the company to shift from a channel distributor to an IP owner, so scarcity was no longer borrowed from someone else's products.
- The blind box turns purchase into a game: not displaying specific styles plus hidden styles lets collecting desire and surprise replace practical demand.
- Standardization lowers costs: unified size, packaging and price turn designer toys from unique artworks into mass-producible consumer goods.
- User co-creation in product selection: Wang Ning used 1 Weibo post to directly validate Molly's potential from fans, reducing the risk of the bet.
What it did
The target was to sell 200 sets on the first day, but it sold out in 4 seconds; each subsequent restock sold out quickly. In 2017-2019, revenue rose from RMB 1.58 hundred million to RMB 16.83 hundred million, with growth exceeding 200% for 2 consecutive years; net profit rose from RMB 156 ten thousand to RMB 4.51 hundred million, and it ignited the industry-wide blind box economy (盲盒经济).
What you can take
When the channel is constrained by others, create scarcity yourself: not inventing new demand, but putting collecting desire into a standardized, mass-producible box with hidden styles.
Since then
The blind box model then swept China's consumer market: categories such as beauty, airline tickets and food launched blind boxes. Pop Mart filed its prospectus on 6 June 2020 and listed at the end of 2020, with market capitalization once surpassing HKD 100 billion. At the same time, the blind box economy was called out by the China Consumers Association (中国消费者协会) for controversies such as opaque information and resale speculation, and Pop Mart itself also faced doubts about IP dependence and fading novelty.
Sources
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