Business Thinking According to Notes Man: Recently, POP MART's Labubu has exploded in popularity, becoming extremely difficult to obtain, with some collaborative or limited editions selling out instantly.
On January 23rd, the interview video with Wang Ning was released in "Amplify Voices Season 2". The documentary is produced by Xinhua Net and Tencent Video, hosted by Xinhua News Agency reporter Zhang Yang.
The interview video reveals many facets of Wang Ning. It shows not only his dream-driven side but also numerous hardships, such as the collective resignation of employees during the New Year at the first Beijing store, and the revocation of distribution rights for the first Shanghai store by a Japanese trendy toy brand.
Once a youth, still a youth, because passion remains unchanged. Not letting growth stop at pride, but becoming more restrained through humility; gathering a group of possibly ordinary people, transforming them into extraordinary individuals, accomplishing extraordinary things one by one... This is Wang Ning.
A 45-minute interview video; what follows is an essential version (almost complete) of Wang Ning's narrative.
I. The Awakening and Resolve of a Young Drifter in Beijing I ran a store during my university years. When I entered society and was job hunting in Beijing, the store was still operating. I had countless questions about retail and management, all of which I had been figuring out on my own.
When I visited Watsons and saw their thick SOP manual—detailing daily procedures for opening, closing, cash management, and store operations—I felt every page was like the Bible. I wanted to learn from it.
Through a friend's recommendation, I interviewed at Watsons. I said I was willing to start as a store clerk, or even better, as a store manager. They looked at my resume and asked, "You're coming from an education company and SINA to interview for a clerk position? Are you a spy?" They outright rejected me. I felt extremely discouraged.
I took the subway home. On the train, I saw a poster for a Michael Jackson concert being prepared that year, before his passing, titled "This is it." Seeing it, I suddenly had a crazy idea. "This is it" translates to "就是这样" in Chinese. I decided to register it as a brand. I was the first person in China to obtain the "This is it" trademark.
The trademarks for "This is it" in jewelry, accessories, and clothing are still held by me. I decided to first organize a memorial event for the first anniversary of Michael Jackson's passing.
Many shopping malls were willing to host and pay for it. In the shortest time, we gathered abundant resources and held a highly successful event. At that moment, I felt this was what Beijing should be like—a place where your ideas and dreams can be realized.
The venue for our event happened to be in Zhongguancun. Familiar with malls again, new ideas emerged in my mind about iterating on the university shop. Step by step, this led to the first POP MART store in 2010.
Since university, I've earned my own living expenses. Running a shop in university makes you feel advantaged; you have a customer base.
Opening a shop in Beijing, you realize you're inadequate in every way. You can't even hire store clerks easily because they have too many choices, with established training and promotion systems in other companies.
You end up hiring people who genuinely can't find work elsewhere. Just before the Chinese New Year, they said their parents were coming to Beijing and asked if they could get their salaries early to buy gifts. We paid everyone that day. That very night, they texted me: "Wang Ning, open the shop yourself tomorrow. We've left the keys [at the usual spot]. We're resigning collectively."
That year, none of us went home for the New Year. The founding team started over, recruiting new staff and working as cashiers ourselves.
Looking back over the years, I believe running a business is not just intellectual work but also physical labor. It truly requires strong mental fortitude and physical stamina to sustain it.
As part of the post-80s generation, growing up with relative material abundance built upon the efforts of predecessors, we tend to be more dream-driven. Having read more biographies of global corporate growth, many companies are driven by dreams. When I wanted to start a business, the core desire was to make my life richer, full of more stories.
But too early on, you find that perhaps no one understands your dreams.
Back in my university entrepreneurship days, I told my classmates: "You now have two choices:
The first choice is to appear on TV together ten years from now, telling our success story; The second choice is to sit in front of the TV ten years from now, listening to us tell our success story." Even then, I firmly believed we had to achieve something significant.
Whether it's the mission of 'Made in China' or helping global artists realize their commercial value, these are things worth getting excited about and pursuing seriously.
This industry is an emotional one. We were fortunate to sign many excellent artists very early on.
We are still a young company. Compared to century-old enterprises like Disney, we have a long way to go, which is also our opportunity. We hope to tread this path steadily.
IP-based companies may experience many cycles, with ups and downs, but all IP-based companies worldwide tend to be very long-lived.
Once an IP is born, many things can accumulate over time. We might go through many cycles in the future, but I believe it will grow alongside generations.
II. The Life-or-Death Transformation of POP MART In 2014, POP MART reached a turning point. We encountered many challenges. I thought, "Blessing in disguise," or "Misfortune may be an actual blessing."
We came to understand the industry through our distribution of Sonny Angel, which accounted for an increasingly large proportion of our sales.
We initially operated only in Beijing but later expanded to Shanghai, securing our first store in the expensive, prime-location Plaza 66.
Just before opening, Sonny Angel informed us they were revoking our distribution rights. This product line accounted for 30% of POP MART's sales at the time. Losing that 30% meant the store would immediately operate at a loss; with it, the store might have barely broken even.
We held many rounds of negotiations, presenting our plans, but they politely said no to every point. This forced us to make cuts.
This brand, which once constituted 30% of our sales, was gradually reduced to 10%, then 5%, and eventually 0%. This pushed us to consider signing artists directly, leading to the creation of Molly.
In the end, they didn't completely cut us off; their logic seemed to allow some distribution in the north and some regions in the south.
For us, we decided to forgo it entirely and forge our own path. Since we had found a better path, shouldn't we walk it more resolutely?
It was quite difficult then because we had to cut many product categories—not the unprofitable ones, but the ones that supported the business. We had to shrink from a 500-square-meter store back to a 50-square-meter store. In retrospect, the 50-square-meter store proved more efficient.
It was a challenging process, but we remained quite determined.
When we started the business, we began with just a few hundred thousand yuan. If someone had offered me 10 million yuan right at the start, I might have ventured into another industry.
Some people categorize businesses into two types: Go businesses and Chess businesses.
The internet is like a Chess business. It requires massive investment, luck, and immense effort from many people. The process is brutal. For young entrepreneurs, most find it hard to win this game.
But Go is different. In the end, you might be McDonald's earning 10 billion a year; I'm the dumpling shop downstairs earning 1 million a year, but I'm still surviving. It's just like Go, where your black stones might outnumber my white stones slightly.
For early-stage entrepreneurs, our primary thought was survival, to live longer. Perhaps the Go business model suited us better, so we stuck with offline retail at that time.
I quite like the offline experience. It's a comprehensive sensory experience. The feeling people get entering a physical store cannot be captured in 2D. Elements like music, lighting, even scent, the store layout, colors—the overall experience is crucial.
III. Labubu: Inevitable Within Chance People often think we sprang up like Sun Wukong from a stone, but this year we turn 15. We've been through a lot.
Every world-changing endeavor starts with small things. We did many things right, but we also had our share of era-specific luck.
Many think Labubu became an overnight sensation, not realizing it will be ten years old in 2025. Many see it as just a Labubu, but it's actually a family of sprites.
Initially, we introduced many other characters alongside it, but later found Labubu was the most popular. We never imagined it would sell hundreds of millions of units annually and become a world-class IP. It's a remarkable achievement.
(In the picture books, Labubu's character is a happy element within a sad story. This joyful emotion is more charming and liked by everyone.)
We have many different IPs, each conveying different emotions. For example, in earlier years, Molly was an expressionless character intended to convey: We try not to impose her emotions on you. When you're happy, looking at Molly, she appears happy; when you're sad, she seems sad too.
She empties her soul, allowing different people to project their own souls into her. This was a crucial aspect of Molly's early identity.
Gradually, in different periods, people crave more—stronger emotions, warmth, healing, companionship. Then, characters like Skullpanda, which offer more pronounced emotions and feelings, might become more popular.
Our industry is trendy toys. How do we make adults like them without making the trends seem childish? Labubu is a bit quirky, slightly mischievous, cute, but not overly幼稚. Hitting this balance is very important.
(The term 'adult infantilization' is increasingly mentioned.) Many people retain a childlike heart throughout life—essentially curiosity, unique persistence towards certain things, and a pursuit of beautiful, small yet certain happiness, warmth, and cuteness.
Regardless of age, many people always love these things. It's just that the market didn't provide such products for 'big kids' earlier.
There seemed to be an invisible wall telling people that after 18, you can't buy toys anymore, can't play on slides, can't do things that seem childish.
We want to break down that wall and protect everyone's childlike heart.
For a long time, the market couldn't support pure art. Artists learning painting or art had to附加 their creations onto other commercial products—like painting on plates, clothes, or scarves—making it difficult to achieve pure, personal artistic expression.
Trendy toys have, to a large extent, allowed art to return to pure expression, free from other functions. For many artists, this is a rare era of equal opportunity.
IV. POP MART is Essentially a Design Company I always have many demands for offline operations and am personally involved in many aspects. I typically focus more on the biggest and smallest matters. Major issues involve direction and strategy; minor issues are things that, if I don't care about, perhaps no one else will.
I say internally that POP MART is a design company. As the team grows larger, many might gradually forget this.
I must constantly pull everyone back, reminding them that POP MART is essentially a design company. It's not merely a commodity; there must be content behind it. Design is a form of expression.
If I see something and have an idea, I act on it. If we have the capability, we must change it. I am very particular about design errors. In earlier years, if the lighting color was wrong, I'd have them correct it every time I noticed.
I'm a Pisces; perhaps Pisces value a sense of ceremony (including unboxing). Many products are about emotional value. Creating the right atmosphere for them is crucial.
If you wanted a Labubu, I might give you one, but if I told you a month in advance that I'd give it to you on your birthday, you might not experience the same joy.
What's the best gift? It's when you happen to want something, and someone恰好 gives it to you.
The blind box unboxing process simulates this. You恰好 want to obtain it, and it's like receiving it as a gift. It's a wonderful process.
V. Both Ambitious and Restrained 1. Restraint Lately, I've been thinking about a fundamental difference between us and many companies: we are a company that says No.
What must our competitors do to catch up? They must say Yes more often: Open more stores? Yes. More products? More IPs? More inventory? More channels? More partners? More opportunities? They might spend every day seeking chances to say Yes.
We say No every day. Should we open more stores? No. More theme parks? No. Should we pursue this or that collaboration? No.
The number of times we say No far exceeds the times we say Yes.
We are building a business based on restraint. This aligns with our mission, vision, and values. I don't want to frequently release a bunch of products just for the sake of it. Even the smallest project or design should be treated as a work of art. This is crucial.
2. Ordinary People Accomplishing Extraordinary Things Together Our management team has been very stable. Many people disperse after a company IPO, but we're 15 years in now, and many have been with me for a long time.
(How is this achieved?) You need to gather people who are willing to believe. You don't necessarily need to find so-called 'top talents'; I don't consider myself one either.
It's about bringing together possibly ordinary people to accomplish extraordinary things together. Any world-changing endeavor starts with small tasks. After succeeding, ordinary people can become extraordinary, achieving these remarkable feats.
Dare to dream, dare to act, have ambitious aspirations.
Although we are engaged in a vibrant trendy toy business, the entire team is not very flamboyant. Too many entrepreneurial stories end with problems arising from arrogance towards certain things.
3. Humility, Prudence, and Responsibility We hope the entire team speaks with humility and prudence (POP MART's glass walls are inscribed: Growth stops at pride; Respect time, respect management).
At different stages, I've wanted to be less composed, to have more emotional fluctuations. I prefer solitude sometimes. There was a period when I wanted to make myself more interesting.
Previously, my emotions might have fluctuated more significantly. It's a growth process, akin to childhood, where there are two lines: one for happiness, one for unhappiness. We got happy easily, and upset easily too.
But as life progresses, these two lines are stretched wider. The benefit is emotional stability, avoiding dramatic swings between joy and sorrow. But sometimes that feels too dull. You have many happy moments, but relatively, you also have more responsibilities to bear.
4. Influence of Parents Being the eldest child at home, I shouldered many responsibilities from a young age, like helping with family decisions and offering suggestions. That influenced me.
When I was born, my parents ran an audio store selling cassettes. After a few years, they switched to selling fishing gear. I spent my childhood in the shop. I noticed these two product categories were special—they attracted customers regardless of age, income, or profession. Everyone bought cassettes; everyone went fishing. They were both products offering emotional value. The customer diversity I saw daily was immense.
Every noon, my parents wanted to take a nap. When they woke up, they'd often find I had sold some items. I felt quite a sense of accomplishment.
*The article represents the author's independent views and does not necessarily reflect the stance of Notes Man.
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