The fall of Labubus and the mush of modern internet trends

https://www.michigandaily.com/arts/digital-culture/the-fall-of-labubus-and-the-mush-of-modern-internet-trends/

by gnabgib • 8 months ago

115 165 8 months ago

michigandaily.com

rvz• 8 months ago

Labubus were always a cringeworthy fad, equivalent to the modern day beanie babies.

Zero value, fuelled and pushed by celebrities far and wide and they are not even rare to begin with.

MengerSponge• 8 months ago

But what if a beanie baby was also a random drop? Then they'd be faddish and addictive!

Terr_2• 8 months ago

I hope some future society is almost unanimously appalled at what we today treat as "normal" for advertising and gambling dark-patterns.

SchemaLoad7• 8 months ago

Maybe I wasn't in the circle enough, but I felt like there was never even the pretence of resell value or "investing". But that they were more like wealth flex fashion items.

jryle70• 8 months ago

So which hobby do you have, and what are you into?

ginko• 8 months ago

The reality is that the internet has become decentralized; rather than people staying in one gigantic, unified group with shared trends and moments like they used to, users go their separate ways, with social media algorithms providing hyper-curated content that pushes users toward smaller groups with niche shared interests.

Huh, this feels exactly backwards. The web used to be WAY more decentralized.

bluefirebrand3• 8 months ago

Huh, this feels exactly backwards. The web used to be WAY more decentralized

I think you're referring to something different than the article

I agree with you the web used to be more decentralized in terms of unique websites, blogs, communities, etc. It is much more homogenous now, with majority of traffic and community forming on a few social networks instead of across hundreds of sites and forums

However, within the social media sites users have become much more siloed than they used to be. Algorithms are trying to isolate us into our own personal echo chambers rather than just giving us the raw feed and letting us navigate it

SchemaLoad7• 8 months ago

To be fair, the raw feed is absolute slop. If you ever look at youtube without an account or cookies, there's almost nothing worth watching. Youtube has become the biggest social media on the planet by showing people stuff they actually like rather than whats hot.

Youtube will show me an in depth technical video from 3 years ago over the latest MrBeast slop even if the MrBeast video is getting far better numbers.

I do feel like _something_ has been lost by the lack of monoculture though. It's been most evident in music where there almost is no pop music anymore. There is nothing everyone knows and generally likes. DJs either have to play highly targeted events or pop music from 2012.

SchemaLoad7• 8 months ago

OP is talking about culture rather than technology. Two people both on youtube see entirely different content. Both people will have their own set of big famous creators in their bubble and have never heard of the other persons famous youtubers.

thrdbndndn• 8 months ago

I can see that, but to me it's more about the fact that there just didn't used to be that much content.

zeroonetwothree• 8 months ago

True but that’s how the web always was. I don’t see it as a change. In the 90s if you found some niche community most likely no one else knew about it.

flooq• 8 months ago

If you swap decentralized for personalized then the point about hyper-curated media bubbles do make sense. It feels backwards because it’s not how we use decentralized in the industry, it’s probably the same reason you correctly said web instead of internet.

sfRattan• 8 months ago

I think "balkanized" is a better way to describe communities and users online. As in sorted and separated into non-overlapping algorithmic cul-de-sacs which mostly do not interact with each other and which are (often) hostile when members of one algorithmically isolated community happen upon members of another.

paxys• 8 months ago

Internet services have become centralized. Internet culture has fragmented, or really just disappeared entirely.

Being chronically online doesn't make you part of a special group anymore. It's just how everyone lives their lives. There are no inside jokes, no nerd lingo. Even memes are basically dead now.

dylan6043• 8 months ago

If not a nerd lingo, there's absolutely inside jokes and new lingo. Skibidi, 6 7, blah blah. Even people saying things like "bet" are all part of new lingo that kids think is cool because the olds don't know what they are talking about. Only the words/phrases change, but the desire of kids doing something different than olds is never going to change.

SchemaLoad7• 8 months ago

I don't think this is true. There has been an explosive growth in cultures which are interest based rather than location based. Board games, furries, car people, kpop, etc. These groups all have their own inside jokes, terminology, events, etc.

What has been lost is gathering a random sample of people in the same city and them all being on roughly the same page about culture.

mcmoor• 8 months ago

Feels like culture in general has become fragmented, or in other words, more personalized. It was said that Top 10 Hit Songs or Movies would be recognized by everyone because it'd be the only thing playing in radio. Now that everyone can have their own preferences, no more shared experiences.

parpfish2• 8 months ago

doesnt the existence of a widespread fad like labubu imply a degree of homogeneity and centralization?

if things were decentralized there'd be tons of ongoing fads that tiny groups would get excited about but they'd never get to the scale that would cause shortages and price spikes

procaryote• 8 months ago

Especially as you can just pay influencers in whatever your target group is to pretend to care about unboxing ugly dolls

venturecruelty• 8 months ago

What do you mean? We have us-east-1, us-east-2, us-west-1, us-west-2... The options are endless!

Ekaros3• 8 months ago

I think it is probably both. There is separate cultures and groups. And then there is trends. All happening on handful of platforms. Trends can travel between groups when they come big enough. So in that sense it is centralized. On other hand outside trends things can stay inside sub-cultures.

So there is larger centralized culture that reacts to trends like Labubus or Dubai Chocolate. And then there are smaller niche communities that don't really go outside their own.

tofuahdude• 8 months ago

it’s clear that Labubus are on the downswing

On the other hand, they've only recently penetrated my greater social circle, so I'm not so certain as this author that the trend has ended.

SchemaLoad7• 8 months ago

They have just started showing up in stores around me. I can believe they have fallen off social media feeds while still growing in sales silently as people get them to put on bags or gift rather than post on tiktok.

lmm2• 8 months ago

Most sales are made on the way down, that's the case for any trend.

conductr3• 8 months ago

My 7 year old son just recently got a few keychain ones as birthday party favors bag gifts. Basically one of the lowest form of toy for fashion, but very good for consistency in sales. He’s also rolling his eyes at anything “6 7” related after a month or two of leaning in hard on it, the parents ruined that one I think.

tokioyoyo3• 8 months ago

The social commentary i’ve read is that some fast trends are made and followed by the “top trend makers”. Then they fade out in those circles, and dwindle to “common people”. But at that point, it’s not really cool or status symbol.

The way I understood is, if you’re hyper-online and very consumerist, you’ll want to onto the train fast, and get off it fast so you would be deemed as a “trend maker” rather than “trend follower”. I’m not sure if I’m making sense, but it’s a bit more visible within Tokyo/Shanghai subcultures. It was less visible to me in Vancouver, where there’s a single main culture (everything outdoor and outdoor related) and not participating is also “not cool”.

rjdj377dhabsn• 8 months ago

Isn't that the whole idea of hipsters? They existed far before online culture. And not much different to how teenagers have always rebelled against the traditional culture.

dylan6043• 8 months ago

I’m not sure if I’m making sense,

Not sure how you could make sense when the topic it self is nonsensical?? Trying to rationalize internet fads just seems as futile as getting involved with the fad itself.

daseiner1• 8 months ago

i’m confident that this phenomenon is accelerated in “internet culture” but this is how all trends function, whether flare-cut jeans or beanie babies

Ekaros3• 8 months ago

Part of it might be the influencer culture. Which some people fall under. Be the first to have this cool thing (Labubu) or present it visibly Dubai Chocolate, could drive some engagement and thus money or clout.

I think this might also fall lower in hierarchy, just being seen as early for your friend circle.

thaumasiotes2• 8 months ago

Is your social circle also into Dimoo, or just Labubu?

mpalmer• 8 months ago

Feels like there's a contradiction in a piece that claims a fad is definitively over while simultaneously asserting the unknowability of our fragmented Internet culture.

Everything's decentralized, but at the same time, I have my finger on the pulse.

ronsor• 8 months ago

I've genuinely never seen anyone outside with one; I haven't even seen anyone online mention them outside vague memes I do not understand.

I don't use TikTok or any of the hyperconsumerist social media platforms.

resonious• 8 months ago

I see them outside. I live in a big city though which may explain it.

RandallBrown• 8 months ago

South Park did an entire episode about them about 3 months ago.

I've seen them around, but they're definitely not popular with anyone I know.

PunchyHamster2• 8 months ago

I only know of them from South Park episode, and thankfully I haven't seen any of those live, maybe they will fade completely before they reach my country coz they frankly are just ugly

razingeden• 8 months ago

same. i didnt know they were even real. i get the blankest stares when i ask labubu collectors if they ever saw that episode

nicbou2• 8 months ago

I know it’s over because I have already seen Labubu clones sold in convenience stores next to sunglasses and other crap.

Nursie• 8 months ago

I’m in my late 40s. I know what a Labubu is.

Trust me, it’s over :)

rsynnott4• 8 months ago

Yeah, I think they're probably declaring it dead before its time, really. It has only just started to penetrate the mainstream, AFAICS.

There was, separately, a bubble in the stock of the manufacturer, but that won't necessarily be strongly linked to the trend.

tracerbulletx• 8 months ago

Maybe things go a little faster now, but doesn't seem too different from Pogs, or Beanie Babies or any other trend in a long line of them.

m0llusk• 8 months ago

Labubus got extra kick from being gambling also. Many were sold in boxes without labels or with minimal labels that listed possible contents. That makes the actual product into more of a loot box kind of thing. That might have contributed to the speed of the trend passing.

firecall• 8 months ago

I recently learned that many collectables are sold this way!

Labubus just happened to get a wide appeal and had a moment in the US for some reason..

wahnfrieden• 8 months ago

So were pogs

somnic• 8 months ago

I think I heard it was a bit more than that - you'd buy them online direct, blind, and be informed immediately after purchase what it was you'd actually bought, so bringing in the immediacy and "convenience" of online gambling/gacha/etc. too, compared to ordering a mystery box and opening it when it was delivered, or buying foil packs of trading cards where you need to actually be present at a particular location.

georgefrowny3• 8 months ago

Pogs, Tazos, Pokémon cards (all cards actually), Happy Meals, Knuckleheads/Gogos were/are still all sold lootbox style.

I think a Labubu novelty was lots of direct sales and a deliberately(?) flaky website that had people frantically strategising for secret methods to get an order placed successfully. When you did, they told you what you got without having to wait for it to arrive for an instant dopamine payout.

I suspect if the website worked very predicably and you could easily and calmly reserve what you wanted, even with the gacha mechanism, it would not have been such a frenzy.

yieldcrv3• 8 months ago

beanie babies were rational, there was a supply constriction that seemed permanent, the founder resolved it and flooded the market, leaving bagholders and decades of mockery

but I would content it was not an example of irrational exuberance

labubu’s are part of a flooded market as well, but there was never anything to suggest it wouldnt be flooded only an expectation for demand to keep up longer than just half of this year

bluefirebrand3• 8 months ago

Beanie Babies were irrational because it is irrational to go into a collector craze over stuffed animals

miladyincontrol• 8 months ago

Im not so sure, the big "fall" of labubus so far was for flippers and their profits, Popmart on the other hand has been selling more than ever with their restocks still selling out almost instantly.

Them being accessible and there being supply for much demand is having hit equilibrium. Give it another year or two before grave dancing. Many are still just only buying them now with them being accessible.

mikepurvis• 8 months ago

Adam Conover argued that the craze is an indicator of economic nihilism, that people who can’t afford these things buy them anyways as an expression of hopelessness that they’ll ever have a pathway to legitimately changing their station: https://youtu.be/l1O6bN2zWSM?si=QGd51tfmh8lOjezk

quickthrowman2• 8 months ago

That accurately describes the one person I know in real life who collects Labubu.

elyobo• 8 months ago

They're falling already? Excellent, I was hoping I could get to this point without ever having to figure out exactly what they were.

fijiaarone3• 8 months ago

Do they have real beans in them?

morkalork• 8 months ago

Didn't even make it to the holiday season boxing day shopping rush, talk about lack of stamina smh

Propelloni• 8 months ago

I never even heard of them, which I take for a good sign.

dluan• 8 months ago

As a subculture dedicated to being in the know on certain things, HN commenters purposely showing theyre being out of touch on this specific subculture is pretty funny.

It's not that serious, I promise. When you were a kid you probably also had beany babies, furbies, crazy bones, magic cards, tamagotchis, tech decks, steel bearing yo-yos, or whatever else thing was a fad. Guess what, those were all made in China too.

mc32• 8 months ago

The source of the story isn't HN commenters though and it expresses the same sentiment. So, you want to lay blame blame the non-HN publication.

danielodievich• 8 months ago

This summer I walked main Newbury street (one of main shopping street in Boston) and parked on it was a sweet, sweet looking brand new McLaren (had to go on their web site to identify from my picture, I think it was an Artura Spider) in a very classy matte-black paint, with custom license plates saying LABUBU. A very incongruous combination between what that car is and the plates it was sporting. I did not observe a labubu hanging on the rear view mirror which I expected should have been present.

Avicebron• 8 months ago

First time running into a Chinese undergrad?

jacquesm• 8 months ago

I don't think that is incongruous at all.

PaulRobinson• 8 months ago

And yet here you are talking about it. And I'm sure if I go digging into Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, X, reddit, whatever, I'm going to find photos, videos, discussion, reactions.

Have you noticed that most adverts are a bit weird? They have some absurdist element to them, to make them more memorable, to hold a little more space in your brain. At the simplest level it's a jingle. At the most nuanced it's two relatable people sat in a kitchen talking about life insurance in a way that never happens in real life. A car with a meme license plate sits on that spectrum.

It's all about attention, and here we are, proving it works.

rsynnott4• 8 months ago

Clearly that car simply belonged to the CEO of Pop Mart.

conductr3• 8 months ago

I think this speaks more to using the trending TikToks of the world as a gauge for what is popular. It’s not a great gauge. Just because the trend there is waning, IRL this toy/brand has a huge opportunity to stick around for awhile. It’s still selling plenty, has a platform to do more, etc. Just because people aren’t posting it, or because the algorithm isn’t surfacing those posts, doesn’t mean the trend is dead.

fijiaarone3• 8 months ago

When a trend only reaches mainstream awareness as a mockery, like labubu, it’s not destined to last long.

randerson• 8 months ago

And yet, Sony Pictures is working on a Labubu movie. The meme-fuelled peak may be over, but the final death of the labubu is a long way in the future.

conductr3• 8 months ago

I think that’s how it reached mainstream awareness for adults. Kids still are into it to some degree. I’m not sure how much staying power it has, I just know it’s not really dead.

yanhangyhy• 8 months ago

It feels like the article doesn’t really say anything. The popularity of Labubu is something worth analyzing, and many similar phenomena have existed in the past or will appear in the future. But Labubu also has its unique aspects; it’s just that the article’s author wasn’t capable of properly studying what makes Labubu distinctive.

I only have some vague ideas, not enough to write an article. But if you want to write an analysis, it’s best to come up with something new.

shmatt• 8 months ago

Labubus peaking and falling doesnt really say much about scarcity and trends. Labubu is made by a public company, who's stock skyrocketed, and essentially decided to go all in and mass produce to meet the popularity

thats one option. But other companies sometimes choose to keep the scarcity and secrecy for years, even decades, and if they play their cards right it keeps working

Labubus fall is more about its makers decision to increase sales numbers instead of keeping them flat and generating more and more and more hype

Hermes can sell a $15,000 Birkin to everyone, im sure they can figure out the supply chain aspects if they really wanted to. and within a month everyone that wanted one would have one and sales would drop. Hermes will have a spike in sales, followed by a drop

Instead they force you to play years long games with their sales staff to get an opportunity to spend $15,000. And decades later people still opt in to spending thousands of dollars on plates and scarves hoping one day they will be offered one

This is just as true about a $40 Supreme, or Aime Leon Dore T-shirt, than it is for a $15,000 handbag. If you keep the scarcity going just right, it lasts much longer

f33d51732• 8 months ago

That might be true of handbags, I am doubtful it is true of dolls. A handbag is a necessary accessory and has been for decades. The popular brands grew their way there slowly over many years. A company that explodes into popularity suddenly for a product people never knew they needed is likely to only stay in the spotlight for a short while and is best served taking advantage as best they can.

takinola• 8 months ago

I agree that cashing in quickly before the fad faded was probably the right move for Labubu. However, there’s no world where Birkins (or other designer handbags) are a “necessary accessory”.

Uehreka• 8 months ago

Hermes can sell a $15,000 Birkin to everyone

Wait hold on, what?

Like, I get that you were referring to the fact that they keep things scarce even for rich people, but you literally said “everyone”, so I just gotta check: Are you saying that everyday people would be willing and able to spend $15000 on a luxury handbag?

RobRivera• 8 months ago

I didn't read anything about the everyperson beung able to do this.

strken• 8 months ago

The sale of new Birkin bags is famously invite-only. In that context, to "sell" to "everyone" means making the bag available for sale to everyone. "Anyone" would have been a less ambiguous word choice, but it's a minor grammatical issue and the meaning is still clear.

quickthrowman2• 8 months ago

There was an implied ‘who is on the waiting list for a Birkin bag currently’ in ‘everyone’. They did not mean every single person on Earth, they meant Hermes could sell a Birkin bag to every interested buyer.

georgefrowny3• 8 months ago

Hermes can sell a $15,000 Birkin to everyone

It's sad and petty I know, but if I were a billionaire edgelord like Elon Musk, rather than Twitter, I'd buy Hermes and sell their products in supermarkets. All the past limited editions too. Just to fuck with the kind of people who buy them.

Then again Hermes is worth 200 billion and upsetting an oligarch's sidechick might just get me killed so maybe not.

taberiand• 8 months ago

All that would happen is the Birkin would lose its appeal and some other company would step in to fill the role, and people would empty their closets of orange boxes and fill them with some other colour box

RealityVoid• 8 months ago

He probably couldn't buy it if he wanted. They built their stock structure to be resistant to takeover attempts and instead they are controlled by a family holding. I _guess_ if Musk slings his whole fortune at it he might get it, but unlikely. Hermes is a very interesting company, I recommend the Acquired episode on them, along with the one about LVMH.

ErroneousBosh3• 8 months ago

This is just as true about a $40 Supreme, or Aime Leon Dore T-shirt, than it is for a $15,000 handbag.

According to a more fashion and design orientated friend of mine, you can buy knockoffs of Birkin or any other high-end bag. And, guess what? Some of those knockoffs and their manufacturers have developed a certain cachet, and actually sell for quite high prices. So of course, those have spawned knockoffs too.

It's like the bit in Pattern Recognition, isn't it?

libraryofbabel3• 8 months ago

Knockoffs? please, we call them “reps” ;)

There are whole subreddits devoted to this, the most well-known being repladies, which went private after it got too famous due to an NYT article. People will spend $1000 or more for a really good Birkin knockoff with high quality leather and hardware. The bags are almost all made in workshops in China. Getting one is apparently (I haven’t done it myself) an interesting exercise in trust and reputation: how do you know the seller isn’t going to send you a cheap knockoff from China rather than a “real” $1000 knockoff? In practice there is a whole world of trusted Chinese middlemen with reviews etc. who have a strong stake in keeping their reputation high in the “reps” community (but you’d better make sure the reviews are real…).

ndespres• 8 months ago

The article is too optimistic in its view of how short-form video allows everyone to partake in these trends. In an attention-driven culture where nothing cool can be kept a secret, as the very essence of coolness would be defined not by the thing itself but by how many people watched your tiktok about it, you end up with these nonsense low-quality “viral trends” that everyone is talking about because everyone is talking about it.

Very little of it is actually good. So what then, if it’s able to spread faster than ever before? It stinks!

protocolture• 8 months ago

Thats interesting if true, but my cause to doubt it is that I have seen shops catering to the labubu format, that is the expensive mystery box toy, popping up with heaps of varied stock. In fact they dont even seem to center the labubus. Labubu might go away but I think its cultural significance of tiktok 200 dollar toy unboxing is going the distance.

ImPleadThe5th• 8 months ago

The reality is that the internet has become decentralized; rather than people staying in one gigantic, unified group with shared trends and moments like they used to, users go their separate ways, with social media algorithms providing hyper- curated content that pushes users toward smaller groups with niche shared interests.

Erm. What's with the optimism at the end here? Isn't this the example of the exact opposite? Despite being promised "curated niche interests" somehow these attention algorithms on huge centralized platforms find a way to turn everyone on the platform into a consumer of a particular trendy item?

I find it so disturbing that a lot of "niche interests" on the Internet these days seem very consumer focused.

darthoctopus• 8 months ago

Indeed, I find it very hard to take the article seriously given that every one of the notionally decentralised trends it's described has propagated on a very small handful of highly centralised platforms. For that matter, it's very difficult for me to imagine how these trends might have spread in the first place without access to large-audience virality directed by algorithmic recommendations precisely enabled by such severe centralisation.

emblaegh• 8 months ago

The point the article is trying to make is that Labubus were an abnormally short lived fad, and that’s their attempt at an explanation.

I don’t know if that exactly explains the short life of the Labubu fad, but I find the disappearance of shared culture quite evident these days.

Ekaros3• 8 months ago

I think viral marketing has limits. There is only so many times you want to see the same thing.

And on other hand I think cycle of competing products is faster than ever. Get a trend going on and other companies cashing on it will happen very fast. Thus lowering value of original and flooding the market it mad rush.

rsynnott4• 8 months ago

The point the article is trying to make is that Labubus were an abnormally short lived fad

Is that actually true, though? I feel like furbies, say, were if anything a bit shorter. Possibly people were expecting Labubus to be like beanie babies, but really beanie babies were the exception in lasting abnormally long for a toy fad.

rolandog• 8 months ago

I can't help but think of these wild and free (of regulation) markets as a capitalistic jungle of sorts: "These troll farms are the resting place of one of Capitalism's most resourceful predators: the Artificial Scarcity Hype Schemer. These capitalist pack hunters are cunning; they collaborate with the Treacherous Influencer to create what is known as an influencer-driven pump-and-dump trend scam. First, they use sophisticated techniques like algorithms to lead potential victims towards the Influencers who will help the Schemer to isolate, dazzle and confuse their prey. After the Influencer has gained their trust, the Schemer can swoop in and use strategies such as spambots, fake trends and disinformation in order to peer-pressure impressionable minds so they both get a chance at gnawing at the victims pockets. Having gotten their way, the cycle begins anew: the Influencer begins drawing future victims into a false sense of security, and the Schemer starts devising a ne w set of scams."

blitzar• 8 months ago

The reality is that the internet has become decentralized

6 7

Insanity2• 8 months ago

6 7?

fhennig3• 8 months ago

Maybe it's a nitpick, but

The reality is that the internet has become decentralized

What the author seems to mean is that internet _culture_ has become fragmented ("decentralized").

The internet (servers etc) always was decentralized by design. And the web built on top of it (commonly referred to as the internet) certainly hasn't become decentralized, rather it got more centralized.

It's unfortunate that the language isn't used precisely here, I think.

NoboruWataya2• 8 months ago

It's a newspaper, not a technical publication. I think most of its readers would correctly understand references to "the internet" to be referring to internet culture/community rather than the servers that host it.

NoboruWataya2• 8 months ago

I knew barely anything about this trend, despite spending a decent chunk of my day online, which I think is evidence of the modern web being decentralised.

However it's not so much due to the algorithms, which probably are trying to funnel most people towards the same products, but just the fact that there are so many people online now that you're naturally going to see the emergence of niches.

You don't have to read this optimistically if you don't want to - some of these "curated niche interests" can be pretty dark...

DuperPower• 8 months ago

you are on the nerd algorithm and there is a sport algorithm and some others but probably like 10 algorithms not 5000 like they try to say, advertisers need to concentrate as much as possible but also to exclude as much as possible as showing an untargeted ad to a wrong demographic IS wasting money to them

illwrks• 8 months ago

I only know about it from my child. They were the most important thing until they weren’t. Thankfully no thought was wasted on them!

To add to everyone else… the internet has allowed you and everyone else to be put into categories, what you see is tailored to you and your demographic alone. You and your neighbors live in the same physical community but your mind and thoughts belong to a community that could be a million miles from you.

dreamcompiler• 8 months ago

I started seeing the word "Labubus" everywhere a few months ago and thought "Are we still talking about those red-soled high heels? Weren't they popular like 10 years ago?"

That's how in touch with fashion I am.

Freak_NL• 8 months ago

A Labubu in Louboutin heels sounds just like the kind of mash-up which would at least sell a couple of T-shirts.

(T-shirt punch line: Louboubou. Coming to fast-fashion textile dumps in Lagos soon.)

oytis• 8 months ago

The reality is that the internet has become decentralized; rather than people staying in one gigantic, unified group with shared trends and moments like they used to, users go their separate ways, with social media algorithms providing hyper-curated content that pushes users toward smaller groups with niche shared interests.

Isn't it weird to describe as a societal or cultural trend something that can be changed with a pull request?

ensocode• 8 months ago

It feels like the article’s point about the “mush” of modern internet trends maps surprisingly well to the IT world. We see the same dynamic with tech stacks: rapid micro-trends, constant novelty, and a tendency to adopt tools because they’re circulating in the feed rather than because they solve a real problem.

I think it’s not catastrophic, most of this churn is harmless — but it does create noise. The challenge is simply recognizing when a trend is signal vs. when it’s just another iteration of the cycle. A bit more intentionality in how we pick technologies would already go a long way.

nicbou2• 8 months ago

I found the whole thing so depressing from an environmental perspective. A completely pointless and manufactured hype cycle to push something with no utility whatsoever. Now some factories in China are pumping out labubu clones that will end up in the bargain bin of a dollar store.

It makes any effort to reduce my environmental footprint feel so pointless. Why even bother?

Tarsul• 8 months ago

Don't do it for the world. Do it for your own clear conscience. That way you can always say to yourself: At least I did my part (even though it's clear everyone can do more, but perfectionism doesn't help either. Personally I am content if my climate impact is better than 70-80% of my cohort.).

piyuv• 8 months ago

Also good for your overall mental health. Consumerism is a disease. Only way to beat the hedonic treadmill is to step off it.

toto• 8 months ago

Pokémon is also a high volume business but is reaching 30 years in 2026. Keeping alive a trend for so long is impressive. Jean-Claude Biver (watch personality) famously said: « people want exclusivity, so you must always keep the customer hungry and frustrated ».

brazzy• 8 months ago

Pokémon is not a trend, it's a franchise. PARTS of it were at one point or another a trend.

st0ffregen• 8 months ago

somebody wants to buy my labubu? I'm giving a 20% discount. Anyone? Please?

Havoc• 8 months ago

Don’t really care for it. Bit like the Stanley cup craze.

But if it makes someone happy then sure whatever. Crazes like this have been a thing for centuries and wouldn’t treat too much into it re internet

fhennig3• 8 months ago

And yet, as cringeworthy as the modern internet may be, it will never go back to the way it was before.

Interesting take. What exactly is meant with "the way it was before", and when was that?

benbojangles• 8 months ago

It talks about decentralization as though all those cookies/trackers/analytics & data care one hoof about which website you think you are decentralizing yourself from the next one. THEY ALL KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING AND THEY ARE ALL STEERING YOU

misja111• 8 months ago

The writing style of the article reeks of AI. It seems to tell a lot at first but at closer inspection tells almost nothing.

RobotToaster• 8 months ago

That's just how modern journalists write, they need a minimum word count to insert ads, the AI probably learnt it from them.

zonghao• 8 months ago

agree

serf• 8 months ago

Labubu , to me, was nothing more than a consumer spending false-scarcity based trend exactly like Beanie Babies, but even more short-lived.

It told me nothing unique about humans or internet trends -- these kind of things seem to pop up regardless of the favored media at the moment.

lbu• 8 months ago

I had no idea what a Labubus was before I came to this article, and I still don’t.

stopthe• 8 months ago

The author (if there was any) stops short of admitting that it is yet another product that was heavily promoted via so-called influencers and failed to reach escape velocity and sell on itself. Like, nobody remembered Clubhouse already in 2021.

JohnMakin• 8 months ago

Looks like it's just an opportunity to buy! /s

The fall of Labubus and the mush of modern internet trends

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