The upcoming May Day holiday will see the opening of a new area at Pop Mart City Park. On April 30th, centered around the two popular IPs THE MONSTERS and DIMOO, the park will open three new themed areas and five major amusement facilities, while retaining its existing classic zones. Since its grand opening in September 2023, Pop Mart City Park is entering its third year of operation. For Pop Mart, which already achieves annual revenues in the tens of billions, the financial contribution from this approximately 40,000-square-meter park is likely quite limited. Compared to its asset-light IP and retail businesses, the park, being capital-intensive and operationally heavy, resembles a costly "non-standard investment." However, its value in providing interactive experiences, emotional immersion, and co-creating memories with users is something retail channels find difficult to replicate. Pop Mart International Group Vice President and General Manager of the City Park, Hu Jian, stated in discussions with media outlets including All-Weather Technology that, in the short to medium term, the park's significance lies in boosting and empowering the company's IPs, making these characters beloved by an increasing number of people. In the long run, as a crucial project for the group's development, the aim is for the park to "provide more substantial support for Pop Mart's sustained growth." This project, which follows a path distinctly different from that of large-scale theme parks, may be gradually mastering the intricacies of park operations.
"A Project Never Truly Finished" Building a theme park was not a spur-of-the-moment decision for Pop Mart. The concept of an offline park was integrated into Pop Mart's overall strategy early on. However, the final realized form arrived sooner and is more "restrained" than initially envisioned. Located in Beijing's Chaoyang Park, the project spans approximately 40,000 square meters. The constrained space and existing park conditions defined its boundaries from the start: it cannot compete directly with large destination parks like Disneyland or Universal Studios, as it cannot accommodate high-intensity rides nor possesses the physical infrastructure for large-scale "destination consumption." Initially, plans included introducing large-scale equipment like roller coasters, but these proved unfeasible upon practical assessment and were ultimately abandoned. Hu Jian later reflected that the Phase One project launched in 2023 had some shortcomings in terms of playability and experiential completeness. Precisely because of this, internal iterations have never truly ceased. In the first half of 2024, due to the enthusiastic consumer response to desserts, the park established a dessert shop within the castle and even expanded the adjacent space into a small garden complementing the shop. A year later, the park embarked on a more extensive renovation: the Forest Area, comprising about two-thirds of the park, was completely closed for overhaul, with only the Street and Castle areas remaining operational during this period. With most of the park inaccessible, the team held conservative growth expectations, setting a goal for early 2025 merely to match the 2024 visitor numbers. However, actual footfall in the first half of 2025 already exceeded the total for all of 2024, with full-year attendance growing by approximately 70% year-on-year. Non-local visitors and non-family visitor groups each constituted over half of the total. This data suggests that, even with spatial limitations, Pop Mart Park's appeal can stem from the inherent driving force of its IPs rather than relying solely on the scale of its rides. Particularly during peak periods of LABUBU's popularity, a significant portion of visitors were motivated not just by "riding attractions" but by the desire to interact with the "Great Leader." This gravitational pull generated by the IP provides an alternative rationale for the park's existence. In the latest iteration of the park, Pop Mart continues to ensure that rides serve the IPs and the overall experience, seeking a balance between playability and differentiation. Hu Jian explained to All-Weather Technology: "We have this forest area. We can't make massive changes, so we selected the IP that best fits the forest theme. That's LABUBU, as the picture books depict them living in the forest. The castle naturally suits MOLLY, and the lakeside is reserved for the dreamy DIMOO." He described the LABUBU pirate ship as appearing温馨可爱 from a distance, but once it starts swinging, visitors feel "deceived" by its surprising intensity, especially those sitting on the ends. "We created custom music for the pirate ship, with LABUBU rhythmically calling out chants, and the staff below joining in with cheers. The scene is oddly amusing and hard to describe, but it's quintessentially LABUBU – a kind of friendly mischievousness. Given LABUBU's personality, they are totally capable of pulling off something like this," Hu Jian said. The current park is still not its final form, with plans for future adjustments and updates to the castle interior and Bubble Street. Phase Two of the project is scheduled to commence construction in 2027, subsequently introducing the story world of the Star-Spanning People and the multidimensional space of SKULLPANDA. Hu Jian revealed: "We have designed some highly artistic expressions for SKULLPANDA, employing many techniques not commonly used in traditional theme parks."
"A New Formula: 'Cultivating Talent Through Projects'" For Pop Mart, which already operates flagship stores worldwide, it does not need merely another enlarged retail space. The most immediate significance of the park is not revenue generation, but rather the continuous strengthening of the emotional bond between its IPs and users. Even during the spatially constrained year of 2025, the park achieved significant spillover influence through short video platforms. A prime example is the "LABUBU Song." Originally created as custom music for a sculpture, it later became a high-frequency background track in viral LABUBU short videos. Hu Jian disclosed that nearly three years after its release, the song still garners over 100,000 plays weekly, "continuing to empower the LABUBU IP to this day." A similar strategy was soon replicated. The park produced the first single for the Star-Spanning People, "The Song of the Star-Spanning People," which achieved over 15 million exposures online. They also ventured for the first time into a musical theater format with the "Stellar Dream Guard" performance, releasing a companion music album. Within Pop Mart's business ecosystem beyond retail, character costume performances have achieved breakout success, even before the establishment of film or animation content. In July 2024, LABUBU made an appearance in Bangkok, being appointed the "Amazing Thailand Experience Officer," further fueling the brand's growing popularity in Thailand. In November of the following year, LABUBU appeared in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York, making Pop Mart the first Chinese brand in nearly a century to have an original潮玩IP character featured on a float in this iconic American cultural event. Throughout 2025, LABUBU, MOLLY, and the Star-Spanning People frequently "left the park." These "star friends" participated in 40 special external events, also gracing stages such as New Year's Eve galas and variety shows. A deeper level of change is evident in the reshaping of operational capabilities. Historically, Pop Mart's core competencies were concentrated in IP merchandise development and channel distribution. Park operations present a completely new set of capability challenges: from site selection logic and transportation accessibility assessment, to thematic space planning and large-scale infrastructure implementation, and further to F&B management, performance production, and complex visitor flow management. Hu Jian summarized this process as "cultivating talent through projects": "Part of it involves the expansion and upgrading of our internal team, and part involves progressing together with excellent partners from the industry." "Our merchandise operations were already mature. What we are gradually accumulating now are capabilities in guest service operations, F&B operations, small-scale performance operations, including flow management and large-crowd management. We have the foundational capabilities; moving forward, we need to continue climbing the learning curve for capabilities related to amusement rides and large-scale performances," Hu Jian said. "We already understand how to operate a park well. We need to address our shortcomings, but the direction is clear, and we know what kind of talent to seek to solve these challenges." The accumulation of these capabilities opens up possibilities for the park to support a larger revenue scale in the future. Although Hu Jian repeatedly emphasized that profitability is not the park's internal top priority, he also stated: "The park is a very important part of the group's strategy. In the long term, we hope it will provide more substantial support to the group at the revenue level." Prior to the official opening of the renovated areas, Pop Mart first updated its pricing structure. According to the new scheme, effective from April 30th to July 29th, standard park admission will be 148 RMB on regular days and 178 RMB on peak days, essentially returning to the levels set at the park's initial opening in 2023. Combo tickets including three carnival experiences will be priced at 198 RMB and 228 RMB, respectively. Sightseeing ticket prices will remain unchanged at 88 RMB for regular days and 118 RMB for peak days. With the opening of the remaining approximately 30% of Phase One areas by the end of July, the park will enter a phase of full operation, and ticket prices will increase again: standard park admission will be 178 RMB on regular days, 208 RMB on peak days, and 238 RMB on specific high-demand days. The F&B and retail sectors also demonstrate greater commercial openness, introducing leading brands like Heytea and Peet's Coffee, as well as local consumer favorites such as北平机器 and 小红帽三明治. Pop Mart stated that F&B offerings and partner brands will be continuously updated according to seasons and trends, aiming to provide visitors with fresh experiences with each visit. This 40,000-square-meter "small park" is crafting its own unique offline narrative, distinct from that of industry giants.
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