In the silly world of designer toys, where a naughty monster named Labubu can cause a worldwide craze and make adults into passionate collectors, one name stands out as both the creator and the beneficiary: Wang Ning. The founder, chairman, and CEO of Pop Mart International Group is only 38 years old, but he has gone from a poor childhood in rural Henan to the top of China’s billionaire elite. Wang is now the 10th richest person in China and the youngest in the top 10, with a net worth of $21.1 billion as of July 2025. This is because he owns a toy empire worth more than $40 billion. His story isn’t just about plastic toys and vending machines; it’s a masterclass in recognizing changes in culture, using “emotional consumption,” and sharing Chinese creativity with the rest of the world.
Starting out small in a family of traders
Wang Ning was born in 1987 in Zhangzhai Village, Huojia County, Henan Province, China. This is a rural area in central China that is far from the glitz of Beijing or Shanghai. His parents, who were typical of China’s entrepreneurial spirit after the reforms, ran a number of small stores in the county seat, selling everything from cassette tapes and records to fishing gear and clocks. Wang spent his childhood behind the counter, watching customers come and go and arguing over prices. Wang later said that “every family gathering was about business—wholesale deals, risks, opportunities.” He credited this environment with sparking his business instincts.
Wang was already trying out business ideas by the time he got to high school. During the summer, he set up a makeshift soccer training camp in a local square, making flyers and getting dozens of kids to join even though he didn’t have any official qualifications. It was a small victory, but it made him stronger. He said, “I learned that having good intentions isn’t enough; you have to help people with real problems.”
Wang started studying advertising at Zhengzhou University’s Siast International College (now Siast College) in 2005. He wasn’t a passive student; he started the street dance club Color Style and went from being a beginner (he was kicked out of a campus competition for “looking awkward”) to being a champion performer. But he really learned from his side jobs. He started “Days Studio,” a club that filmed campus life, from military drills to festivals, and burned the videos onto DVDs to sell. He made his first real money when the first batch of 1,000 discs sold out in less than half a day.
Wang got more confident and opened “Boxstreet,” a grid-shop retail concept near campus, in his junior year. He rented space, turned it into cubicles for vendors selling creative knick-knacks, and kept the rent. This was like the first pop-up markets. It did well until a lot of other businesses opened up in the area, which taught him a harsh lesson: “Innovation without sustainability is fleeting.” Wang was named “Henan Province Outstanding University Student Entrepreneur” by the time he graduated in 2009.
The North Drift: From the Daily Grind to a Big Leap
After graduation, Wang went to Beijing, which is the center of China’s tech and media scene. He worked for both an education company and Sina Corporation, which owns Weibo, but he didn’t like the corporate grind. He said, “I felt like a cog in a machine.” He quit in 2010, when he was 23, selling Boxstreet for seed money and opening Pop Mart’s first store in Zhongguancun, Beijing’s “Silicon Valley.” It was a small 30-square-meter space in a mall corner.
Wang got the idea for Pop Mart after going to Japan and Hong Kong, where he saw Gashapon vending machines and trendy stores like LOG-ON. He wanted it to be a “fashion product supermarket” for young city dwellers, with toys, accessories, and strange gadgets all in one place. The first few days were very hard. Wang did everything, from buying things to stocking shelves to painting walls while riding a tricycle. There was a lot of staff turnover; once, after bonuses, the whole team quit at once, leaving him to open by himself. Money came in slowly, but to stay alive, they had to keep changing their plans.
In 2014, Wang made a big change in his life when he enrolled in Peking University’s Guanghua School of Management for an MBA. This gave him the business skills he needed to help Pop Mart through tough times. That year, he went to Japan and learned about blind boxes, which are sealed packages with random figurines that make collecting fun. He got the rights to sell Sonny Angel dolls in China, but in 2015 he lost the contract, which almost caused the company to go under.
Wang didn’t give up and moved on to original IPs. He signed a deal in Hong Kong in 2016 for Molly, a girl with big eyes, by artist Kenny Wong. Molly’s first blind box was a huge hit, bringing in more than 200 million yuan ($28 million) by 2018 and changing Pop Mart’s customer base to female Z-generation shoppers looking for “emotional value.” Wang said, “Toys aren’t tools; they’re fountains of joy, not faucets of waste.”
Labubu Mania: The Monster That Made a Billionaire
Wang rang the bell on his 33rd birthday to mark Pop Mart’s IPO on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in December 2020. The company was worth $3.2 billion at the time. But in 2023, Labubu, a pointy-eared, fanged elf from artist Kasing Lung’s “The Monsters” series, made her a real superstar. Pop Mart bought Labubu in 2019. The “ugly-cute” style mixed cuteness with mischief.
What happened next was chaos. Labubu dolls, which range in price from $15 for mini-figures to $960 for collector’s editions, flew off the shelves thanks to endorsements from celebrities like Beckham’s daughter and Blackpink’s Lisa. In 2024, the Monsters franchise’s sales jumped 726% from the previous year, reaching 3 billion yuan ($419 million). In 2025, Pop Mart’s stock shot up by almost 200%, bringing its market cap to HK$300 billion ($38.5 billion). Wang’s 48.73% stake made his fortune grow from $7.59 billion in early 2024 to $22.7 billion by mid-year. This made him Henan Province’s richest person, ahead of poultry magnate Qin Yinglin.
Pop Mart now has more than 500 stores in 21 countries, from Asia to Europe. By 2025, sales from outside the US will be higher than those from inside the US. What is Wang’s plan? IP is at the center of everything: it helps artists grow, mixes Chinese manufacturing with global culture, and builds “long-term emotional bonds.” “We’re not looking for quick growth; we trust time and steady growth,” he says.
The Quiet Disruptor’s Philosophy
Wang is still very private and only makes rare public appearances, like the 2023 TV show Yearning for Life. Fortune China’s “40 Under 40” in 2020, Forbes China’s Best CEO in 2024 (the youngest self-made honoree), and China Newsweek’s “2024 Cover Figure” as New Economy Entrepreneur of the Year all say a lot about him. He got a Tsinghua EMBA in 2024 and joined the Chaoyang District CPPCC in Beijing in 2021.
Wang is at heart a “new Yu merchant”—brave, patient, and open to the world. He says, “Chinese manufacturing and culture made us,” and he wants to build “the world’s Pop Mart,” not just China’s Disney. In an economy with falling prices, his bet on “useless joy” as a must-have—dolls that heal inner children—has changed the way people think about consumer goods.
Labubu fever is spreading from Jakarta to London, and Wang Ning shows that the next big fortunes aren’t in tech giants but in the fun chaos of a $10 surprise. His journey from Henan soil to billionaire boardrooms reminds us that the best businesses don’t just meet needs; they make people feel something.
