← Post Reports
Post Reports
Labubus: China's plushy, soft power tool
00:20:41
Why Labubus are everywhere — and what their rise in popularity tells us about global economics.
Loading summary
Transcript54 lines
- [00:00]
A
You're a professional web creator who needs a platform that works as hard as you do. Wix Studio is built for you whether you're a designer, developer or marketer ready to amplify your impact. Build intuitively with advanced design features and AI powered tools. Manage your clients and projects efficiently from one workspace scale with dynamic systems and fully managed infrastructure. Create exceptional websites with hyper efficiency on wix Studio.
- [00:30]
B
I wouldn't say obsessed. I'm a little embarrassed though, if I'm going to be honest.
- [00:34]
C
This is a safe space.
- [00:37]
B
I unboxed one on camera for the Washington Post for a video and then after that I became like a little addicted and I was like, I'm feeling lucky today. I just want to buy one with my own money.
- [00:54]
C
That's Kelly Kasulis Cho. She's a reporter and editor for the Washington Post based in Seoul. And she's talking about a little plush toy that's taken the world by storm, the Labubu.
- [01:06]
B
A Labubu is a figurine of like an elf gremlin monster type character with bunny ears and nine fangs and like a human like face with these big cartoon anime eyes. And it's like a doll about the size of your hand, but it's also a keychain that you can clip onto bags. Kind of like a fashion accessory, if you will.
- [01:35]
C
The official retailer of Labubus is a Chinese company named Popmart. The dolls go for about 30 bucks a piece and they come in a variety of colors. There are also some limited edition ones called Secret Rare Rares and those are coveted. But you don't get to just buy the Leboo you want. The process is sort of like gambling. You buy a Loboo box from popmart, you open it up and you find out what you got.
- [02:02]
B
I actually got the Secret Rare on my first try. It's this gray character with the rainbow teeth. And I mean, people are. I saw one sell in South Korea for US$500 on like our version of Craigslist. They're selling for about 400 in the US.
- [02:24]
C
Maybe you've seen videos of people unboxing Labubus on social media.
- [02:28]
B
Let's unbox two Labubus. Is it the pink one? No. Is this a secret one? The black one? You got that Se?
- [02:36]
C
Can I have it? Absolutely not. She's black like my soul. Maybe you've seen photos of famous people sporting them, like singer Rihanna or pro tennis player Naomi Osaka.
- [02:46]
B
This is my Labubu. She's named Billie Jean Bling.
- [02:51]
C
These toys are big business. Popmart has sold hundreds of millions of dollars worth of Labubus. And the worldwide obsession with these toys has transformed them into the latest example of China's soft power push. From the newsroom of the Washington Post, this is Post Reports. I'm Elahe izadi. It's Monday, September 1st. Happy Labor Day today, Kelly and I will unbox. See what I did there. The Labubu phenomenon. We'll talk about why these ugly, cute little monsters are so popular, what they tell us about global economics, and what the irony of China cracking down on its counterfeit cousin called the Lefufuu. Kelly, hi. Thanks for joining me today.
- [03:49]
B
Thanks for having me.
- [03:50]
C
So I have to admit, Kelly, I really was not aware of what a Labubu was. But then my colleagues started talking about them and then I saw them everywhere. So just to start, how did this trend begin?
- [04:05]
B
It's part of this kind of blind box phenomenon where people are buying figurines and opening up these boxes and they're not sure what color or what design in a certain collection that they're going to get. It started as a weird kind of collectible that you keep on your desk, actually 10 years ago. Oh, wow. And it really rose to fame when Lisa, who's the singer from the K pop group Blackpink, kind of raved to the public about them. And then you started seeing Rihanna and Dua Lipa clipping them onto their bags, and it just soared from there.
- [04:40]
C
And where does it originate from? Like, is it part of a story or a movie?
- [04:45]
B
There's an artist named Ka Sing Lung, and he's from Hong Kong originally, but he actually grew up for many years in the Netherlands. And he said in previous interviews that he came up with the Labubu character in the monster series based on old European folklore that he was forced to read as a child because he had to learn Dutch. And so these Nordic tales kind of inspired the character. And he started illustrating them in little comic strips and graphic novels. And then a couple of years ago, he struck a deal with popmart, which is the company that sells them, to join their portfolio of artists who sell these collectible blind boxes.
- [05:27]
C
And how much are they?
- [05:28]
B
So originally in the US they're about $27. Okay. It's about that price point around the world. But the problem is they sell out within, you know, a second, if not a fraction of a second. I set an alarm and tried to buy a box of them. I did this twice, and both times I was waiting. I was counting down the seconds. I Timed it exactly. And there was one time where I got it in my cart, but I accidentally hit the back button and it was done. I had no chance. And they're pretty much impossible to get in stores, so most people are paying anywhere between 50 to several hundred dollars for them. The popularity of Labubu is really actually driving a lot of crime. I saw it reported that $30,000 worth of Labubus were recovered recently in the United States in just one sting. It seems like they're starting to catch people who have participated in retail theft, or theft, if you will, trying to get these and resell them. And actually saw that Pop Mart in the UK for a while stopped selling Loboos because people were getting in actual fights, physical altercations, waiting in line for them.
- [06:42]
C
Really? For this, like, stuffed animal?
- [06:44]
B
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, Popmart sold $418 million worth of Labubus in 2024. Oh, my CEO said, yeah. And its overseas revenue actually surged 375% year on year.
- [07:05]
C
What exactly is it about these things that makes them so popular and that people can't get enough of it? Is it the character itself? Is it the kind of almost hysteria around trying to get one? Like, what is so appealing about this, these things?
- [07:20]
B
I think there's several factors to it. First and foremost, it's in fashion and the exclusivity of the product. It's just so difficult to obtain, especially a real one. And it's so ridiculous to spend, say, 50, 70, $100 on a little plastic stuff toy that probably costs nothing to make, that there's some kind of financial flex, if you will. It's a stick status symbol. In some ways. Part of what drives this trend is that there are, say, in a certain Series of Labubu 6 or so colors that you get very often, but there will be one, what they call secret rare labubu that is one in every 72 boxes you have a chance of getting. And so people are constantly buying these, trying to be the cool person who has the Secret Rare clipped to their bag. The other thing is that it's a way for people to connect with each other. It's been a social media craze where people are unboxing Labubus left and right, connecting with other people online. It's a way to bond with your family members. And like Pokemon or Beanie Babies, it's a way to get kind of a dopamine hit, if you will. I think in today's economy, a lot of people feel like they can't as Adults afford a house or a car, but they can waste 100 bucks on a Labubu if it means getting that joy for a moment. And there's almost this kind of gambling casino like effect to it where you get the blind box and you want a chance at getting the secret rare. So you keep buying them, you keep filling out your collection, trying to get every color, hoping that you're lucky today. And so I see a lot of appeal there, and it actually appeals to adults just as much, if not more than to children.
- [09:08]
C
And, Kelly, I mentioned earlier that the Labubus have this counterfeit cousin called the Lefufu, which has kind of come out because Labubus are just so popular. So how common are these fake loboos?
- [09:22]
B
These.
- [09:23]
C
These lefufus?
- [09:24]
B
Oh, man, lefufus are everywhere. When I was searching for a real Labubu because they were sold out at Pop Mart, I honestly could not tell which ones were real and which ones were fake. And I actually walked around this street market for like, two hours trying to figure it out because some of them look really, really close to the real thing. Some of them look really, really bad.
- [09:49]
C
Yeah, like, how can you tell? Are there any telltale signs of a fake Le Booboo?
- [09:55]
B
The old Lefoufu's, when it first started, used to have 10 teeth, sometimes instead of nine. So that's often a tip that people will give you. I found that the. The Lefoufuu have gotten very sophisticated. So at this point, just because there's nine teeth doesn't mean that it's a real Labubu. And so you end up with this problem where the only way to tell is you rip open the box and you check the tag on the back of the actual plushie doll. It's attached to its leg. But at that point, you've already spent your money.
- [10:27]
C
Yeah.
- [10:27]
B
The other thing is. And you can't do this until you buy it, but the QR code on the back of the box is like a scratch ticket. So you have to take a coin and scratch the back of it, and it will reveal a ser. And that's how you can authenticate it. But again, you can't really do any of this until you buy the product already.
- [10:45]
C
Yeah. And it sounds like it's hard to say how many fakes there are out there.
- [10:49]
B
I mean, we know that Chinese authorities have taken in at least 49,000 at various customs and border points in the last couple of weeks. That's actually a fairly old statistic. New ones haven't come out so I'm assuming it's a lot more than that. In my own kind of weird investigation into this, I found plenty of lefoufoos being sold on Aliexpress. And I think people are purposely buying them and putting them in their retail stores. So I'm guessing that at this point there's probably hundreds of thousands of them and there's actually a market demand for ones that are fake. Another offshoot of this is that we see people trying to almost one up each other on who has the ugliest or the most mangled lefufu.
- [11:35]
C
Oh, wow. After the break, China's crackdown on counterfeits and how China is using the le booboo to bolster its cultural cachet abroad. We'll be right back.
- [12:10]
A
Think about why you listen to podcasts. It's like having a friend who makes you think or can help you wind down, right? Well, the Washington Post has a lot of people you can turn to at any hour. You can read the most important and interesting stories. We can help you cook something delicious, give you advice on a tricky friendship. Rave about a movie or book that you shouldn't miss. When you become a Washington Post subscriber, you have a companion for whatever part of your day needs it most. Get it all for just $4 every four weeks. That's for an entire year. After that, it's just $12 every four weeks. Cancel anytime. Go to washingtonpost.com subscribe. That's washingtonpost.com subscribe.
- [12:53]
C
What exactly is China doing? Doing to stop the lefufu?
- [12:58]
B
Chinese media has reported that, for instance, there are cops or authorities patrolling street markets in some cities that are known to sell lefufus and trying to seize them at customs offices at various border points. They've seized thousands of lefufus. In its crackdown on lefufus, China state broadcaster actually gave people guidelines on how to tell what is real and what is fake when they're trying to buy a labu boo. And so what we see with Pop Mart is that the Chinese authorities, even though they're famous for not protecting IP belonging to other countries. So in China, you can get fake Chanel bags and Louis Vuitton bags galore, but they really seem to be cracking down on lefufus or fake labubus before le booboos no longer become a status symbol or something that's difficult to obtain because as we've seen, if things get counterfeited left and right and anybody and their mother can get them, they stop being cool. Right?
- [14:04]
C
Well, and also I have to Underscore the irony of China cracking down on a counterfeit Le Booboo, when, as you alluded to, there are plenty of American companies and other companies that, you know, their counterfeit and fake versions of their products are manufactured in China. And it seems like the government there just turns a blind eye to it and they have no recourse. So then why is China cracking down on these fakes now?
- [14:31]
B
China, I think, really sees Pop Mart's rise to fame, and particularly through Labubu, which has really skyrocketed the company's sales globally as a form of soft power, if you will, kind of a charm offense, especially in the west and certainly in the East. I mean, the Labubu craze has taken over the entire planet at this point.
- [14:53]
C
Kelly, can you explain a little bit more about what you mean by soft power here?
- [14:58]
B
I think China recently has shown that it really embraces opportunities when it arises to improve its reputation abroad, particularly in the West. And so we saw this a little bit when Trump was ratcheting up tariffs or at least threatening to do so. You started seeing a lot of social media posts flooding my feeds that Chinese companies, or maybe in some way China, they've really made an effort to change the reputation of products manufactured in China. China is a very export driven economy. It has a surplus of goods that it's manufacturing and consumption within China is down. Right. So basically, to keep the economy growing at a good pa, you have to sell things abroad if you're a Chinese company. And what I've noticed is that I've seen more and more videos purportedly from Chinese company owners and manufacturers showing their products and basically saying, look, our quality is not bad. You know, we actually make some of the nicest stuff out there. And so what you see with Le Booboo is maybe this shift in mindset from Made in China to Made by China. Essentially this idea that the hot product that we want is actually something that comes from China and is a part of its soft power.
- [16:28]
C
With these tariffs coming from US President Donald Trump, will that impact the cost of Leboo Boost for the consumer?
- [16:37]
B
Interestingly, on the US PopMart website, there's a message that says that PopMart will cover tariffs for US customers and they will not be required to pay any additional customs fees if they're ordering Labubus directly from the website. But what's not clear to me is one, when they wrote this, if they're talking about the current tariff regime that's in place, and two, if that will stand, if the United States does really enact 145% tariffs on Chinese goods. But, I mean, they're already prohibitively expensive for some people, and people still want them. They're still willing to go several hundred dollars deep to get them.
- [17:18]
C
You know, Kelly, hearing you talk, like, in some ways, this just feels like a pinnacle point in consumerism. And, I mean, we've seen it time and again. Like we mentioned Beanie Babies and how at some point they were viewed as incredibly valuable on the resale market. People thought they had a lot of money tied up in these Beanie Babies, and then the bottom fell out from under them. And it's just like this volatile thing around consumerism. And really, should we be, like, encouraging people to, like, buy these things and consider them to be so valuable when the value is just really tied up in the demand? Which feels so fickle right now, because, like you said, it's on trend now. But it's an open question for how much longer are these things going to be popular?
- [18:02]
B
That is one of the biggest critiques I see of the trend that essentially, a year from now, we're going to have landfills full of Labubus. Right? I mean, these things are made of plastic. The packaging is not great for the environment, and people usually don't just buy one, they buy many of them. And some people have even risen to fame on social media, unboxing hundreds, if not thousands of them. And you just wonder, what is the consequence of that? A lot of people also brand it as this very, like, cringe, excessive way of spending money that we're all short of, for the most part. Right. So I think there's a lot of criticism of the trend, but we see that with anything that young people go crazy for, for the most part.
- [18:52]
C
Yeah. Kelly, just stepping back and thinking about your kind of journey down the Loboo rabbit hole, what are you left with in thinking about what these little creatures mean and say about us? And also about the way the world is kind of organized right now?
- [19:09]
B
I've thought about this a lot, and considering how popular it has become with adults, for me, Lavubus have kind of revealed an adult craving for childlike joy. You know, it's expensive, it's gratuitous, it's a little ridiculous. But at the same time, if it makes you happy for a day, then it makes you happy. And I also have felt that at first I told myself I would never buy one. I felt almost cringe when I actually did it. But, you know, whatever gets you through the day, right? And so I have wondered if when we're surrounded by a lot of worries and anxieties about the future, if this just gets us through the moment and if it allows us to feel like we're participating with something that's bigger than us. I have showed my secret, rare Labubu to my nieces and nephews, who now think I'm the coolest person around. I've texted old friends about it. I mean, it's just like, it's funny. It's like saying that you scratched a scratch ticket and you got 700 bucks yesterday. It's just like a fun thing to talk about.
- [20:17]
C
Well, Kelly, I have to say, after learning about all this, I'm still not going to buy one. But I get it. Why you and others would. Whereas before I was like, I'm not going to buy one and I don't understand why anyone would. So it makes a lot of sense.
- [20:32]
B
Yeah. I still haven't decided if I actually think they're cute or what. They're actually quite ugly. So I get it.
- [20:39]
C
Well, Kelly, thanks so much for joining me.
- [20:41]
B
I appreciate it. Thanks for having me.
- [20:46]
C
Kelly Kasulis Cho is a reporter and editor based in Seoul. After I had my conversation with Kelly, the US Consumer Product Safety Commission put out a warning about Labubu knockoffs. The commission said that the fake lefoufuu are a choking hazard because they can break apart easily and release small pieces. They also said they're small enough to fit into a child's mouth and block their airway. The commission urged consumers to stop buying and using the knockoffs quote immediately. That's it for Post reports. Thanks for listening. If you love the show, help other people discover it by leaving a rating on Spotify or a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. We really appreciate it. Today's show was produced by Thomas Liu. It was mixed by Reni Svirnofsky and edited by Ariel Plotnik. Thanks to Anna Fifield. I'm Elahe Izadi. We'll be back tomorrow with more stories from the Washington Post.
- [21:55]
D
If you eat too many ultra processed foods, you could be starving your gut microbes and they'll get hangry. That's one of many things I learned after working on a new audio course about the gut microbiome. You can learn how to keep your gut happy by listening to Try this from the Washington Post. I'm Christina Quinn. I host Try this. Dig in with me on practical advice for life's common challenges. Follow Try this right now, wherever you're listening. Seriously, try it.