Pop Mart, the Chinese toy company that makes the super popular Labubu dolls, said its profits for the first half of this year will go up.

The Beijing-based company said it expects profits for the period to jump at least 350% as revenue more than tripled.

Pop Mart, whose market value exceeds $40 billion, also said that profitability had improved thanks to greater global brand recognition and cost control.

Collectors are obsessed with the popular Labubu dolls — fictional creatures with a row of jagged teeth — which flew off the shelves and caused long queues in stores around the world, the BBC reported.

Pop Mart is best known for selling toys in "mystery boxes" — a type of packaging that hides its contents until it is opened. The marketing tactic has been criticized for encouraging gambling-like behavior and impulse buying.

Launched in 2019, Labubu dolls helped the company become a major retailer with more than 2,000 vending machines and stores worldwide.

In 2020, Pop Mart began trading its shares on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. The company's market valuation has jumped by almost 600% in the last year.

In 2024, sales outside mainland China accounted for nearly 40% of its total revenue.

Many stores around the world had to stop selling Labubu dolls due to huge demand.

Labubu has become particularly popular in the US thanks to the support of celebrities such as Kim Kardashian and Lisa from the K-pop group Blackpink.

Pop Mart's partnerships with big names such as Coca-Cola and the manga franchise One Piece have also boosted Labubu's popularity around the world.

In June, Labubu sales in the US increased by 5,000% compared to the previous year, according to estimates by capital research firm M Science.

"I haven't seen anything like this from other toy companies," said M Science senior analyst Vinci Zhang.

He added that the company has huge potential in the US, where it has about 40 stores compared to about 400 in China.

The buying frenzy has created a thriving resale market where dolls originally sold for around $10 can fetch hundreds of dollars.

In June, a life-size Labubu doll was sold at auction in Beijing for $150,000.

Labubu's popularity has also fueled a boom in counterfeits, often called Lafufu dolls.

In June, Chinese authorities confiscated more than 46,000 fake Labubu toys as they battle a growing black market for the dolls. | BGNES