Benchmarking LABUBU to build YOYO, Ye Guofu takes on Bubble Mart If there's a Bubble Mart in the same venue, the store efficiency of Miniso's YOYO store must surpass it - this is Ye Guofu's latest directive. "If they do 3 million yuan a month, we must do 3 million yuan; if they do 2 million yuan, we must do 2 million yuan," Ye Guofu said at Miniso's 2026 mid-year earnings conference.
Taking aim at LABUBU, YOYO is being built, Ye Guofu takes on Bubble Mart He cited the Harbin Bailian store as an example, saying the two stores are about 10 meters apart, and currently, Miniso's daily average sales have already surpassed those of Bubble Mart.
Aiming to create YOYO to rival LABUBU, Ye Guofu takes on Pop Mart However, this is not just a competition over store sales. What Ye Guofu truly wants to achieve may be a business that excites him more than just selling daily necessities.
In a bid to rival LABUBU by building YOYO, Ye Guofu takes on Bubble Mart. In recent years, Miniso has relied on international licensed IPs such as Disney, Sanrio, and Marvel to fill its lifestyle stores with IP products, with trendy toys making up only a small part of the business. However, it is now making its main brand more like a trendy toy company - now when you walk into a Miniso store, you will find that the proportion of trendy toys has increased, and its own IP YOYO is appearing at store entrances and mall atriums to create a buzz.
Benchmarking Against LABUBU, YOYO Takes Shape, Ye Guofu Takes on Bubble Mart YOYO Image (Photo: Jiemian News, taken by Xia Hanxiang)
Benchmarking Against LABUBU, YOYO Takes Shape, Ye Guofu Takes on Bubble Mart Photo: Interface News Lu Yibei
Benchmarking LABUBU to build YOYO, Ye Guofu takes on Bubble Mart This is the most obvious strategic change for Miniso in the past year.
Aiming to create YOYO to rival LABUBU, Ye Guofu takes on Bubble Mart Ye Guofu said in January this year that the company was cooperating with nearly 180 international licensed IPs at the time, but had only 16 self-created original IPs, 15 of which were developed in 2025. "Previously, we didn't realize the need to create our own IPs, (we thought) working with international IPs was good enough, but in 2025, we woke up, and we want to have our own IPs," Ye Guofu said.
Benchmarking Against LABUBU, YOYO Takes Shape, Ye Guofu Takes on Bubble Mart Infographic: The Interface News Lu Yibei
Benchmarking against LABUBU to build YOYO, Ye Guofu takes on Bubble Mart It's hard to say that Ye Guofu's transformation wasn't stimulated by LABUBU's global popularity last year.
Benchmarking LABUBU to build YOYO, Ye Guofu takes on Pop Mart In 2025, Pop Mart's revenue increased by 184.7% year-over-year to 37.120 billion yuan, with self-developed product revenue accounting for 99.1%. Ye Guofu said at the earnings conference in August that year that Pop Mart's good performance indicates "first, consumers are paying, and second, the capital market is paying".
Benchmarking LABUBU to build YOYO, Ye Guofu takes on Bubble Mart YOYO is the first character to be rapidly scaled up after this round of transformation.
Benchmarking LABUBU to create YOYO, Ye Guofu takes on Bubble Mart In June 2025, Miniso launched its first YOYO series, created by artist Wang Yongquan. It has a similar appearance to Bubble Mart's IPs, with a rounded face and no specific expression. However, this design setting is easier for different consumers to understand and can be more easily extended to plush pendants and other shapes.
Benchmarking LABUBU to build YOYO, Ye Guofu takes on Bubble Mart Miniso is leveraging its existing stores, supply chain, and membership system to focus on YOYO.
Benchmarking LABUBU, YOYO was created, Ye Guofu takes on Bubble Mart On August 31, Interface News visited MINISO LAND, the largest MINISO theme park store in Shenzhen. Inside the three-story store, YOYO and CHOUCHOU were placed at the entrance and main traffic areas, both with large installations and independent display areas; authorized IPs such as Disney, Marvel, and Chiikawa were distributed in other themed areas.
In a bid to rival LABUBU with YOYO, Ye Guofu takes on Bubble Mart. Additionally, Miniso held YOYO birthday-themed pop-up events in Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen, launching over 30 products, including a global limited edition of 500 resin figurines and 10 YOYO-shaped ice cream flavors. At MINISO LAND, YOYO created a sense of scarcity through large installations, limited releases, and member-exclusive purchases.
Benchmarking LABUBU to build YOYO, Ye Guofu takes on Bubble Mart According to further information from Interface News, YOYO has entered 53 countries and regions worldwide within a year of its launch, with related revenue approaching 500 million yuan in the first half of 2026. Monthly sales exceeded 100 million yuan in both June and July. The group's initial goal of breaking 1 billion yuan in self-owned IP sales has also been completed ahead of schedule by the end of July.
Benchmarking LABUBU to build YOYO, Ye Guofu takes on Pop Mart In fact, this is also a logic that Pop Mart has repeatedly verified over the past few years.
For trendy toy companies, the value of an IP does not just come from a single blind box or plush toy, but from whether it can continue to capture consumers' attention. For example, apart from putting its IPs on more products, Pop Mart has created city parks and held global exhibitions for LABUBU or CRYBABY. By constantly creating "events" for its IPs, the company allows characters to reappear in front of consumers at different times, fostering a habit of continuous collection and pursuit of new products.
Minni Soho is replicating LABUBU to create YOYO, with Ye Guofu taking on Pop Mart. Currently, Miniso is replicating the easiest part to standardize. For example, it has also launched YOYO-themed ice cream carts in first-tier cities, similar to Pop Mart's Starry People theme. YOYO set up a pop-up exhibition at Shanghai IAPM during the summer, while LABUBU was putting on a similar "show" at Shanghai Xintiandi, just outside a subway station.
Benchmarking LABUBU, YOYO Takes Shape, Ye Guofu Takes on Bubble Mart Image of YOYO-themed ice cream truck from Weibo @Miniso
Benchmarking LABUBU to Create YOYO, Ye Guofu Takes on POP MART Bubble Mart Image of Starry Night-themed ice cream truck from Weibo @POPMART Bubble Mart
Benchmarking LABUBU to build YOYO, Ye Guofu takes on Bubble Mart To achieve trendyization, Miniso's advantage lies in its vast network of physical stores, mature supply chain, and high-frequency new product development capabilities.
Aiming to create YOYO to rival LABUBU, Ye Guofu takes on Pop Mart. However, this still differs from Pop Mart's truly mature IP operations. Setting aside the element of luck in IP popularity, Pop Mart has spent nearly a decade focusing on character-based collectibles and fan relationships, and then continuously expanding its products and scenarios. Miniso's investment in this area is still in its early stages.
In terms of financial data, the same is true. In the first half of 2026, THE MONSTERS, a subsidiary of Pop Mart, generated revenue of 4.454 billion yuan, which, despite a 7.5% year-over-year decline, is still nearly 9 times that of YOYO. Meanwhile, Dimoo, another subsidiary, earned around 2.65 billion yuan in the same period, exceeding YOYO's revenue by more than 5 times.
Benchmarking Against LABUBU, YOYO Takes Shape, Ye Guofu Takes on Bubble Mart Infographic: Jiemian News, Yi Hanxiang
In addition, a more direct issue is that as Miniso continues to trendify, the positioning of TOP TOY, another brand under the group, has become awkward. Meanwhile, Ye Guofu is gearing up to take on Pop Mart with YOYO, benchmarking LABUBU.
Aiming to create YOYO to rival LABUBU, Ye Guofu takes on Pop Mart. TOP TOY was established in 2020, initially tasked with helping Miniso enter the trendy toy market and compete with Pop Mart. It sells blind boxes, figurines, assembly models, and vinyl plush toys, while operating its own IP, licensed IP, and third-party brand IP. Now, stores like MINISO LAND and MINISO SPACE are also selling blind boxes and plush toys, with IP products accounting for as much as 100% of sales in some store types.
Benchmarking LABUBU to build YOYO, Ye Guofu takes on Bubble Mart As of the end of June, the Miniso brand had 8,309 global stores, with TOP TOY accounting for 365. In the first half of the year, TOP TOY's revenue increased by 32.7% year-over-year to 985 million yuan, maintaining growth. If TOP TOY continues to position itself as a trendy toy collection store, it will need to differentiate itself from Miniso's increasingly high-IP-density large stores; if it further strengthens its own IP, it will overlap with the direction that the main brand is promoting.
Benchmarking LABUBU to build YOYO, Ye Guofu takes on Bubble Mart TOP TOY is currently in the preparation stage for its initial public offering, and its positioning and future direction will also become factors for the capital market to judge its valuation.
Benchmarking against LABUBU to build YOYO, Ye Guofu takes on Bubble Mart At its core, the key to determining whether Miniso can become trendy lies in whether YOYO can be replicated.
Benchmarking against LABUBU to build YOYO, Ye Guofu takes on Pop Mart In fact, this is a problem that all trendy toy brands are facing. Even Pop Mart, which has established a relatively complete IP incubation system, has not proven that a trendy toy IP can be popular in the long term. In the first half of 2026, THE MONSTERS, which was once driven by LABUBU to achieve rapid growth, saw its revenue decrease by 7.5% year-over-year to 4.454 billion yuan, while new IPs such as Starry People are becoming new sources of growth.
In a bid to create a YOYO to rival LABUBU, Ye Guofu takes on Pop Mart. As consumer aesthetics and popular trends continue to evolve, leading IPs experience fluctuations, posing a challenge that Pop Mart is currently facing. For Miniso, which has burst onto the scene, this challenge is even more direct.
Aiming to replicate the success of LABUBU with YOYO, Ye Guofu takes on Bubble Mart. In addition to YOYO, Ye Guofu is also using the same approach to incubate CHOUCHOU. This IP made its debut at MINISO LAND in Chengdu's eastern suburbs, with Miniso setting up a dedicated theme area for it. The company is creating buzz through limited-edition stores, concentrated launches, and celebrity collaborations. Ye Guofu predicts that CHOUCHOU also has the potential to grow into an IP with annual sales exceeding 1 billion yuan.
Miniso's Ye Guofu Takes on Pop Mart With YOYO, a LABUBU Challenger Miniso's winning odds may hinge on its commercialization efficiency once an IP breaks out.
Benchmarking LABUBU to build YOYO, Ye Guofu takes on Pop Mart Relying on the supply chain and product development capabilities accumulated from operating daily necessities in the past, it can quickly expand YOYO or other IPs into more categories such as stationery, home goods, electronic accessories, and even food, and then rapidly roll them out through global stores - which is precisely the weakness of Pop Mart and Wang Ning.