Is "Emotional Consumption" the Secret Fuel Behind Pop Mart’s Record Sales?

Behind the scenes: Pop Mart TikTok Shop livestream featuring Labubu collectibles. (Courtesy Anb Media)

Pop Mart’s meteoric rise, according to a new white paper just published from MoonFox Data—the Shenzhen-based market-intelligence arm of Aurora Mobile (NASDAQ: JG)—turns on a single engine: “emotional consumption,” the idea that collectors buy for feelings first and utility second.

“Emotional consumption” (情绪消费) as a concept first took root in Chinese marketing journals in the mid-2000s, but it broke into mainstream business coverage around 2024, when analysts began using it to explain everything from blind-box toys to lipstick splurges. It’s defined as the habit of buying a product mainly for the feeling it delivers—anticipation, nostalgia, pride, belonging—rather than for its practical use or its price.

The payoff is dramatic: MoonFox Data’s report shows how Pop Mart’s 2024 revenue more than doubled to roughly RMB 13 billion, and close to two-fifths of that now comes from stores and apps outside mainland China. A single character, Labubu—the sharp-toothed forest sprite created by Hong Kong artist Kasing Lung—has grown so explosively that it now supplies almost a quarter of company sales. Online, Pop Mart’s TikTok Shop storefront turned into a breakout channel, multiplying its takings dozens of times in one year.

In short, MoonFox shows how Pop Mart has learned to monetize emotion itself—scarcity thrills, collection pride, sub-cultural identity—and, in the process, rebuilt its margins, expanded overseas, and stocked a pipeline of ever-evolving characters. The term “emotional consumption” isn’t new, but this report crystallizes it for anyone still wondering why a blind box can set off an overnight queue (or brawl).

While “emotional consumption” is the banner MoonFox hangs over Pop Mart’s success, the instinct itself isn’t new. Western marketers have long talked about “hedonic consumption”—a term coined in the early-1980s to describe buying for pure sensory or emotional payoff rather than utility. The same mindset underpins “emotional branding,” “retail therapy,” and the late-’90s “experience economy,” all of which argue that shoppers chase stories, memories, and mood boosts as much as products. Pop Mart’s blind-box unboxing thrill, side-quests to complete a set, and Instagram-ready store design slot neatly into that lineage.

Japan reaches the same destination with different signposts: the “moe economy” (spending driven by cute-character attachment), the otaku market (hard-core hobby fandoms), and gacha culture, where capsule toys and mobile games fuel repeat spending through surprise mechanics. Pop Mart effectively fuses these ideas—gacha-style anticipation, moe-level character bonding, and experience-economy theatrics—into one global playbook. MoonFox’s report simply gives the fusion a fresh, data-backed label.