By Mark Seavy  

Long known for its appetite for international IP, China is developing a taste for home-grown properties. 

And while international brands across luxury goods, entertainment, and other categories continue to have strong followings in China, domestic IP is now becoming a prime candidate for export. 

That is a major change for a country that began accepting foreign IP concepts at the start of the 20th Century only to see that focus shift dramatically when the People’s Republic of China was established. The tide turned once again in 1978 when China’s Reform and Opening-Up program was initiated, moving the country from a centrally planned economy to a market-oriented one. And, with that shift, China began joining international IP treaties and the World Trade Organization (2001), moves that led to an influx of foreign IP and laid the groundwork for domestic properties. 

Today, the growing global demand for China-based IP is illustrated by the massive popularity of the Labubu brand, plush toy monsters created by Hong Kong designer Kasing Lung and sold exclusively by Chinese retailer Pop Mart.  

It’s a business that generated $423 million in related revenue in 2024 for the chain, which has more than 550 global locations and 2,500 vending machines. The plush toys are sold in the U.S. through Pop Mart’s 37 stores and 52 vending machines, as well as Hot Topic and other retailers. Pop Mart also has other character IP, including Molly and Pucky. 

And while Pop Mart has launched several collaborations with Labubu—many of which carry a split of revenue—there are no immediate plans for outbound licensing of the brand, company officials have said.  

“Because of the supernova nature of Labubu, they are putting other things on pause and right now they don’t have to do much in terms of licensing,” a licensing agency executive said. “The volume [of sales] is significant, and the hype is bigger than toys and is pop culture at its best. How do you weigh the over commercialization of an IP when you don’t need to? For licensing, it must be conversational rather than marketing or revenue.” 

And Labubu isn’t alone in generating viral interest in Chinese IP. Videogame developer Game Science’s Black Myth: Wukong launched for PlayStation 5 and PCs last year and will arrive on Xbox in August. Game Science has developed a licensing program that has landed the popular brand on game controllers (8BitDo), electronics (Lenovo), jewelry (Chow Tai Fook), and soda (PepsiCo).  

And Beijing Enlight Pictures’ movie Ne Zha 2: The Devil Child’s Sea Adventure was released in January and has so far generated $2 billion in box office revenue, making it the highest grossing non-English film and first animated title to surpass that mark. The film included a licensing program that featured a minimum guarantee of several million dollars. That amount was increased after the box office success, a move that has caused some licensees to struggle, a licensing industry executive said. Among the licensees on board for the program was Yuewen Goods, which worked in partnership with FunCrazy. A dubbed version of the film is being released in the U.S. in August. 

Many other licensing programs were central to the recent China Licensing Expo in Shanghai. Futabasha Publishers’ animated program Crayon Shin-Chan had a booth at the show and the IP has struck several licensing agreements, including one with a 21-year-old fan who took over his family’s sheep farm and spent $400,000 recreating the series’ Shinnosuke Nohara’s house.  

Fourteen Chinese museums also took booth space at the show along with the National Library of China and there was a section dedicated to artificial intelligence (AI). But while the show spanned 50,000 square meters and featured 400 exhibitors, some hurdles remain to exporting Chinese IP around the world, industry executives said. 

“There seems to be a partition between Chinese content and how it performs outside the country, but not every big U.S. property translates to China either,” a China-based licensing executive said. “Chinese companies aren’t always set up to do licensed consumer products outside the country. There is paperwork, translation, how money transfers between countries, and tax implications. And then the subject matter must resonate and, if it does, the question is whether the company is culturally ready to do business outside China and equipped to do so.”