Author: Sleepy Not Found, 404 Youth
You must have noticed that Labubu is really popular recently.
It always appears in some posture, grinning, looking silly and naughty, on schoolbags in the subway, on office desks, and next to selfie cameras in WeChat Moments.
It is this strange-looking little guy that is placed in the most conspicuous corner of the lives of more and more young people.
It is not the most expensive, nor the rarest, and it does not even have a clear setting. But the popularity of Labubu is obviously not as simple as "blind box" or "luck".
You will find that people who like Labubu don’t just buy it to display.
They make clothes for it, and even stick false eyelashes and dental drills on it. Young people buy such a doll not to show off, but like taking care of a child with a little attitude, a kind of participatory emotional companionship.
In recent years, there are more and more "blank IP" like Labubu. Without a clear world view setting and no big biography of the characters, people are more willing to project emotions and weave stories.
Labubu is not noisy or assertive; it is just there when you want to stop and take a breath.
Labubu is popular because of its sense of connection
Labubu’s sudden popularity was not a coincidence of traffic luck.
Among many seemingly "companionship economy" tracks, it hits a particularly precise point: it is not about talking to you or entertaining you, but about accompanying you to perform an intimate relationship of your ideal: controllable, non-clingy, stress-free, and customizable.
In it, we can experience a kind of intimate imagination that is unique to contemporary people:
+ I can approach it at will, but it won't demand any response from me;
+ It's there when I want to express myself, and it won't ask any more questions when I don't want to talk.
This is an increasingly common phenomenon in contemporary society: projecting emotions onto "non-human objects" in order to gain a lightweight, controllable sense of intimacy.
You will find that Labubu's "explosive changes" are more and more like taking care of a digital child: dressing up, putting on makeup, decorating the room, taking photos. Each operation is not a pure hobby, but a light emotional interaction of "projection-feedback".
This is essentially the same logic as the popular Otome game character development, two-dimensional millet, and pain bag in recent years:
It is not to satisfy the need to be understood, but to gain emotional sovereignty.
In these relationships, we are no longer the individual trying to cater to the expectations of others, but the emotional director who "has the final say". Labubu is like a gentle blank canvas on which you can write your own story.
This is also the biggest difference between Labubu and traditional trendy toys.
Classic figures or IP peripherals pull you into someone else's world. You have to understand the character settings and the plot background to feel immersed.
But Labubu is the opposite. It doesn’t tell a story. It only provides a cute outline, a shell with a little expression, inviting you to write in your own emotions.
It is much freer than many "IPs with complete settings".
And "freedom" is exactly what young people lack most in real social interactions today.
It is not expensive, has a friendly and malleable image, and has found a precise balance between popular culture and niche expression. You won’t feel it is vulgar because it is too popular, nor will you feel it is marginal because it is too niche.
It is a community symbol that means "you like it, and I like it too", like a collective understanding that does not require words.
So when we say that Labubu is popular, what is essentially popular is not just the "IP", but a kind of "sense of relationship" between people that has long been on the verge of disappearing. It preserves this sense of relationship in the form of a toy.
In the rhythm of the city, we begin to get used to not disturbing each other, but we still long for a kind of existence that can be treated gently. Labubu just fills the gap of "wanting to be close but not wanting to be disturbed". It is not an antidote to loneliness, but an accomplice of loneliness.
Pop Mart’s blank space strategy: telling half of the IP is more complete
Labubu has almost no setting. You don't even know what kind of creature it is, and no one tells you what its "mission" is. Its emotions are clear, but its background is almost blank.
This is not a defect, this is well designed.
This is actually Pop Mart's killer feature. They have long abandoned the old method of "creating a complete character" and instead constructed an IP narrative that is more in line with the contemporary psychological structure: not telling the whole story, but only telling half of it.
In the traditional sense, if an IP wants to survive, it must rely on the setting, plot, and complex character relationships. But today, a complete setting has become a psychological burden.
Young people are becoming less and less patient to listen to stories.
In an environment of limited attention, severe social anxiety, and information overload, more and more young people actually prefer this kind of "I can get close if I want, and I can participate a little bit if I want" relationship, rather than a complete story with full settings and huge pressure.
In other words: we have entered the era of "fragmented identification" from "immersive narrative".
You don’t need to fully understand Labubu’s past, nor do you need to know where it is headed. You just need to meet its eyes at a certain moment.
This is actually a transfer of contemporary narrative power: the initiative of storytelling is handed over from the creators to the audience.
You can set a setting for it, saying that it is "a slightly irritable city worker"; you can also say that it is "the misunderstood self in childhood"; you can even say nothing, just put a set of baby clothes on it and let it sit with you for a while.
The biggest difference between this and traditional narrative logic is that we don’t really need a character who “wait for us to understand”, but rather want a carrier that can hold our own emotions.
This also explains why IPs with blank spaces have become increasingly popular in recent years. Most of Pop Mart’s IPs tend to blur the background, dilute the settings, and leave more space for the audience to fill in.
It’s not because they don’t want to tell stories, but because they know: in an era when everyone wants to express themselves but no one wants to be defined, blankness itself is the strongest setting.
It satisfies a core emotion of the "era of cultural uncertainty": I don't need you to give me answers, I just want to decide for myself where to speak and where to remain silent.
The success of Labubu is that although it does not construct a complete world, it gives everyone a way to get close to it. This is a new cultural structure: decentralized, anti-setting, and participatory emotional completion .
It is not a role, but a position; it is not a story, but a way of opening.
Because of this, it can quietly occupy so much "blank space" on young people's desks, school bags, and bedside tables.
A light trend product that is "a bit of a gamble, but not too much of a gamble"
Regarding the blind box business, many people say that it is "cutting leeks", but their bodies are very honest.
To put it bluntly, its charm is a kind of excitement within a controllable range : the uncertainty of opening the box, the little surprise when drawing a hidden model, and the small transaction of "you give and I trade" with friends. These constitute the psychological reality of contemporary young people who want some surprises but cannot bear big risks.
Labubu actually hits this point: it has a bit of a "gambling" element, but it won't make you feel like you're being ripped off.
It is not like NFT and sneakers that are often sold for thousands or tens of thousands of yuan. Most people can accept the current unit price of Labubu in the secondary market. Moreover, even if you can't get the hidden version, there are still many "cute versions" that people like, so the gap is not too big.
This combination of "a light bet + looking comfortable" is right in the comfort zone of young people's emotional consumption.
Moreover, buying blind boxes does not rely heavily on knowledge thresholds like some trendy cultures.
You don’t need to understand the trendy toy circle, nor do you need to study the background, nor do you need to queue up all night, nor do you need to rely on your connections, nor do you need to fight for the lottery. You just need to walk by the mall, see it, buy one and try it out, and the whole threshold of “entry” is completed.
This is actually the product philosophy of Labubu and even Pop Mart: not to create anxiety, but to create the urge to own it.
It is like a "low-pressure version of fashion": you can participate, get addicted, share, and discuss, but you will not feel excluded from this circle because you did not buy a model. Even its design language is "fuzzy and cute", which does not make it look too delicate, nor does it make you look like a "friend circle knower".
It is a trend that can be brought into life, and you don't need to declare yourself a trendsetter. It can be a decoration when you put it on the table, an emoticon when you take a photo, and a social topic when you put it in your bag. It has social adhesion but no sense of social oppression.
This positioning happens to be at the intersection of the triple demands of contemporary young people for "social + fashion + emotional consumption":
+ Want to buy something to make yourself "different today";
+ I want to post something to let others know that I am living;
+ Want to gamble something, but don't really break the bank.
The product logic of Labubu is like a disassembled fashion experience package: price controllable, feedback instant, low participation threshold, high psychological satisfaction. It is a smart "daily stimulation", not an addiction, nor a financial management, it is a small excitement point that you can control.
More importantly, although Labubu can indeed be circulated in the secondary market, its price has always been controlled in the range of "if you like it, you can afford it", so it will not be hyped as a financial product. Its value growth does not rely on scarcity to create anxiety, but on social and emotional circulation to generate consensus.
This value system based on cultural identity is more lasting and healthier than "financial speculation" that relies entirely on scarcity (yes, I'm talking about NFT).
The manipulation of trends: designed frenzy and reasonable sense of participation
Any trend is precisely manipulated, and Labubu is no exception. It does not make a big splash, but it is everywhere.
Of course, we can say that it is "cute", "healing" and "characterful", but without strong operational strategies and content delivery to support it, Labubu would not have been able to stand out from a group of trendy toy brands with numerous IPs. Its popularity must have been designed.
More specifically, I think Labubu’s popularity is due to three things: controllable scarcity, a fair price structure, and just the right amount of social buzz.
It does not pursue the "out of stock myth" of the whole network frantically rushing to buy, but it will definitely let you know that "someone has grabbed it". It does not make you feel that you can't buy it, but it will definitely make you feel that "if you want to get that model, you really need some luck." This kind of participation that has a threshold but is not unattainable, and has expectations but does not make you collapse , is the most difficult ratio for many fashion brands today.
From sneakers, star cards, to CS2 skins, and NFTs, the trend of consumption in the past few years has become more and more "financialized." You are not buying a thing, but betting on whether it will rise in the future.
It makes people addicted, but it also compresses the original "interest" part into a financial operation of "competing to see who knows earlier, buys faster, and hoards more."
And Labubu, in a sense, is a "light rebellion" after all this.
It does not turn "scarcity" into a tool for the contempt chain. It uses an extremely restrained strategy to maintain its popularity: certainly not everyone can buy the most popular model, but as long as you are willing to buy it, the secondary price is acceptable to you; not every one can appreciate in value, but every one is cute enough, and you will not regret putting it on the table.
This is its brilliance: controlling financial attributes under cultural attributes.
You can exchange, sell, and show off your products, but the purpose behind these actions is not to make a profit but to participate. It is a way for people to "feel like they are in the trend."
It doesn't tell you "what you should do", but provides a cultural rhythm that you can join, quit, and participate in repeatedly.
What’s even more rare is that the trading logic behind it is not “driving up the bid” but “maintaining enthusiasm”.
This is actually a very new trend operation concept: not to create authority, but to create replicable enthusiasm .
It does not rely on elites to define aesthetics, but delegates power to users; it does not rely on "limited anxiety" to create desire, but uses "low-pressure participation" to cultivate relationships. Trends are no longer a status symbol that requires a lot of time and money to acquire, but have become a lightweight social and cultural space that everyone can enter.
Behind this "moderation of trends" is actually a quiet shift in values:
Trends used to be a threshold, a question of “do you understand it?”; but now, they are more like a companionship, a question of “are you willing to accept it?”
You don’t want to use Labubu to prove that you are a hipster. You just want to leave a small corner for yourself in the fast-paced life, to accompany you, to be dressed up by you, without any explanation.
This is not going against the trend, but redefining the trend after cooling it down .
Labubu never explains who he is. He just sits there, baring his teeth, puffing his fur, and quietly accompanies you.
But because of this, it has become an emotional outlet, an intimate practice, and a trend sample that can be participated in. You can dress it up, show it off, or do nothing, just take a look occasionally, and then continue to live your life.
We are used to too many "response-required" relationships and too much "investment-required" enthusiasm. But Labubu is not like that. It doesn't make noise, doesn't teach you anything, and doesn't ask for your feedback.
It just stays there to let you know that in this age where everything is talked about, there are still things willing to leave a little space for you.
And that little bit of blank space may be exactly what we need most.
