On Monday, Apple CEO Tim Cookvisited the exhibition in Shanghai The Monsters for the tenth anniversary of the famous dolls Motherfrom the Chinese company Pop Mart.
There he was received by Wang Ningthe CEO of the company, with whom he maintained a cordial dialogue and saw the original sketches of his star toys. Their designer was with them, as. In the end, Wang, true to the essence of the Labubu, offered him a surprise gift.
At 38 years old, Wang is one of the most influential Eastern businessmen in the West. His estimated assets are 22.7 billion dollars and is among the 10 richest in Chinaaccording to a Forbes estimate (June 2025). The Labubu are no longer exclusive to their country: they belong to the world.
How did this boy born in a «small» county of Henan, who now lives in Beijing with his wife, become a billionaire practically overnight?
This is the story of Wang Ning.
Wang Ning: from 0 to 100 in one second
Or at least what is known about her. Because Wang Ning’s past is certainly mysterious.
Wang was born in 1987 in Huojia, Henan province, China. The son of merchants, he studied advertising at Sias University, graduating in 2009, and in 2017 he obtained a master’s degree in business administration (MBA) from Guanghua School of Management, Peking University.
The funds Pop Mart 2010.Before founding Pop Mart in 2010, he worked for a year for Sina Corporationthe digital media company that owns Weibo (the Chinese Twitter). Taking into account the chronological line of his studies and work, it can be deduced that he linked his departure from university with Sina Corporation and, later, with the creation of his own company.
By founding Pop Mart he was able to fulfill his desire to have a figure store, which was fueled during a trip to Hong Kong where he met the popular chain of bookstore and toy stores. Log-On.
In 2010 she gathered her friends from university and proposed opening a business in a shopping center near the Zhongguancun district of Beijing, the “Chinese Silicon Valley”, that looked like her.
The Labubu are part of The Monsters collection. Photo: AFPPop Mart began marketing a wide variety of products: from toys and cosmetics to stationery. But only one gave him a return: the collectible figure. Then, imitating the Japanese gashapon style of sales and distribution of surprise collectibles, he focused exclusively on them.
Sites like Gemway Assets What stands out about Wang is his extreme obsession with the details of his products, his offices and his shops and the freedom he gives to toy designers to create different lines of collectibles.
With the arrival of the Labubu within the collection The Monsters In 2015, Pop Mart fed hungry collectors and trend chasers. With the popularization of toys in the local entertainment world, everyone began to want to have one.
The Labubu come in surprise boxes. Photo: REUTERPop Mart sells them at surprise boxes (blind boxes) where the buyer does not know which model they will receive until they open it. This strategy generated a culture of unstoppable collecting.
Its price averages 50 dollars in the United States, but hundreds of dollars are mobilized on the black market for each one of them. A piece of information from the local level makes it clear: as of July 2025, Labubu sales in Argentina grew by 300%a viral phenomenon e-commerce.
Finally, after Wang managed the IPO of Pop Mart in 2020 with a collection of more than 146 million dollarsit is estimated that the company is worth today 40 billion.
The price of Labubu averages $50. Photo: APTen years after the Labubu, the life of the President and CEO of the company with more than 370 stores in China and stores in the United States and Europe changed completely.
