Pop Mart: Wang Ning
Learn more →The man who sells the moment before the box is opened. Wang Ning was 23, with a degree in advertising and a year at a corporation behind him, when he went to Hong Kong and saw something that didn't yet exist in China. He returned to Beijing and in 2010 opened a Pop Mart store in Zhongguancun. He sold everything at once. He almost went bankrupt. Until he realised the only category that truly works is figures. He started talking to artists. In 2016 he signed a deal with Kenny Wong and Molly — and that was the moment when everything changed. Wang understood something that billion-dollar marketing departments didn't: the moment before opening the box is more valuable than what's inside. Surprise as a product. Hope as a business model. Today Pop Mart operates in more than 33 countries, and Wang Ning is the youngest member of the top 10 Chinese billionaires. But he still reinvests profits into artists, not luxury. Because he knows that without them — there's nothing to open.