A doll with a concept that goes head-on against the existing taste of consumers called “cute” is cre..

A doll with a concept that goes head-on against the existing taste of consumers called “cute” is creating a worldwide craze. Beyond being ugly, it is a doll that is even considered “bizarre” by some, but it gives off a “scary-cute” charm, and stores located around the world are crowded with people who want to buy it. In fact, in the U.S. and Australia, fans who want to buy dolls in time for the release date of new products can also be seen waiting for hours in front of stores from the night before.

The doll, which has a huge fan base regardless of country, is La Boo, launched by Pop Mart, a Chinese toy company called Disney of China. La couple is a character doll with a furry body, pointed ears, sharp teeth, and a playful expression on top of it, and comes in various sizes, colors, costumes, and poses, especially sucking up consumers aged 15 to 35. It is also actively collaborating with familiar brands and characters such as Coca-Cola vending machines and SpongeBob clothes, and is gaining popularity.

In fact, the rise in popularity of La couple is ongoing. Pop Mart’s sales last year, which introduced La couple, more than doubled from the previous year to $1.8 billion (about 2.5 trillion won). Sales of character products related to the couple accounted for about 25% of the total sales. On TikTok, more than 1 million posts with the hashtag “#Labubu” were posted to authenticate the purchase. Consumers are sharing videos of pulling a couple out of the box or how to tie them safely to their bags without worrying about theft.

Thanks to its popularity, PopMart is aggressively expanding its global stores beyond China. As of December last year, Pop Mart is known to have more than 130 stores overseas. According to the North American branch of Pop Mart, there were 21 Pop Mart stores in the United States as of the end of last year. PopMart plans to increase this to at least 40 by the end of this year. Shares of PopMart, which went public at the end of 2020, are up 250% so far, the report showed. Regardless of economic conditions, it boasts constant demand and is said that La couple will also overcome the economic downturn and U.S. tariffs.

Pop Mart, which introduced The La couple, started out as a general store in 2010. Currently, we sell about 12 collections of toys and figures. Among these, the most popular product is the Labouw doll released in 2015. The La Couples series has grown to more than 300 as it has received a hot response from consumers. Prices range from $15 (about W20,000) to $960 (about W1.33 million) depending on the size of the doll. Expensive products are also reported to be causing a daily sell-out crisis in stores around the world located in Southeast Asia such as the Philippines and the United States. On Thursday, when the new Labouw is released, the average number of visitors to the U.S. website is 54% higher than other days, according to market research firm SimilarWeb.

One of the La couple’s biggest favourites is ‘uncertainty’. Pop Mart packs most of its products, such as Labou, in blind boxes where the inside is not visible. Adding a “surprise element” that you don’t know what products are in a box increases product scarcity while naturally attracting consumers who want to collect all series. Jenny Liu of Yale’s Customer Insights Center analyzed that the fun of finding a rare Laboure design with unique colors, costumes, and expressions is the main factor that keeps consumers’ wallets open over and over again.

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The product has also formed a competitive resell market as high demand has been formed, especially among “kidult,” which refers to adults who like toys. It is a method of making profits by selling rare products online at a higher price that are not usually readily available. Even if the price is two to three times higher than the cost of the official seller, the demand for it is said to be constant. Bloomberg also introduced an example of an American young man who made $10,000 (about 14 million won) by reselling La couple dolls through Facebook’s marketplace since August last year.

It is evaluated that concealing the image of Chinese products through the names Pop Mart and Labouw also helped increase sales. In fact, it is known that the majority of consumers perceive Labouw as products from other countries, such as Japan, not China. China’s Xiaomi’s recently launched electric vehicle “SU7” model copies Porsche’s design. Chinese companies are now actively trying to “take off the image of China” to boost the popularity of their products.

Some analysts say that China’s economic situation, which is not bright at the moment, is encouraging young people to consume Labouw. The so-called ‘lipstick effect’. Just as consumers open their wallets to small products such as cheap but satisfying lipsticks instead of expensive luxury items when the economy is in trouble, young Chinese people suffering from youth unemployment and high prices are falling into the “Lavu Bu effect.” Young people are gaining a kind of mental stability and comfort by collecting bizarre, fluffy, and cute-looking La couple dolls.

The key is whether La couple will survive under the 145% tariffs imposed by the Trump administration on Chinese imports. Due to the impact of tariffs, the price of Lavoiselle is rising step by step. Pop Mart raised the price of keychain-sized figures released on the 25th of last month from $22 (about 30,000 won) to $28 (about 40,000 won). If such price hikes continue, there are concerns that young consumers, especially those with weak economic power, may lose their fan sentiment and reduce their purchases.

Recognizing this situation, Pop Mart is making various attempts to maintain an affordable price. The representative effort is supply chain diversification. PopMart is seeking to expand the construction of production facilities in other countries, including Vietnam, where tariffs by the Trump administration are being suspended.

However, for the time being, the prevailing observation is that the popularity of Lavoiselle will continue. As there are still many consumers who want to collect La couple even if they pay more, the problem facing Pop Mart is not “demand” but “supply.” This is why some predict that La couple will survive unaffected by the Trump administration’s high-intensity tariffs.

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