Labubu Cools Off: Pop Mart Loses $6 Billion in Market Value in One Month

Demand for Labubu, the collectible figure line from Chinese toy company Pop Mart, has cooled off — and the company's market value has dropped by roughly $6 billion in the span of a month. The breakdown comes from an Instagram account, growthmindset.tips, which used Labubu as a case study on the gap between hype and actual demand.

From global sellouts to a cooldown

According to the post, Pop Mart built its business model around hype: Labubu figures sold out across retail channels worldwide, with units reselling on the secondary market for multiples of retail price as buyers treated them as collectibles.

That demand has since cooled, and the company's market value fell by an estimated $6 billion within a single month, per the post.

"Hype is not demand"

The post's core argument: "Hype is not demand." Hype is an emotional response; demand is rooted in actual need. When a business is built on hype alone, the foundation is effectively sand.

The framing applies just as well to live music and merch: tickets selling out in seconds, resale markups, and sold-out collab merchandise are all visible signs of hype — but they aren't the same thing as demand that keeps coming back.