Sanrio is both a Japanese company and shorthand for a line of adorable cartoon characters, most notably Hello Kitty. Here’s a look into what’s been a cultural and financial phenomenon around the world for well over half a century.

Hello Cute, Goodbye Snoopy

In 1962, two years after forming the Yamanashi Silk Company, founder Shintaro Tsuji added rubber sandals with flower designs to his product line. They sold so well that he decided to only make cheap merchandise bearing the images of cute things. He bought the Japanese merchandising rights to Snoopy, and made a fortune. After changing the name of the company in 1973 to Sanrio (it translates loosely to “happy sound,” and is based on alternate reading of the Japanese characters that spell “Yamanashi”), Tsuji advocated for original, house-made characters to appear on his company’s various consumer goods because he was tired of paying for the Snoopy license. 

Croquettes, anyone?

Sanrio’s first character: Coro Chan, a sweet little bear invented by company designer Yuko Shimizu. Fun fact: His name is a variation on “croquettes,” because that’s what Coro Chan’s cheeks are made of, and he is likely to eat them if he gets hungry enough. Now obscure, Coro Chan is the cousin of Thomas, a bear friend of Shimizu’s next character suggestion: the mouthless, expression-less, but still somehow enchanting Hello Kitty.

Kitty has cash

Accounting for all of the various Hello Kitty media sales, along with various merchandise including clothing, games, and toys, Hello Kitty pulls in about $85 billion a year in revenue. That makes it second only to Pokémon in terms of worldwide money-making franchises.

Feline firsts

The first product bearing Hello Kitty’s image: a coin purse, sold in 1975. The first TV show starring the character in the U.S.: CBS’s Saturday morning cartoon Hello Kitty’s Furry Tale Theater. Some other random facts about the character: Her real, full name is Kitty White, she was born in and still lives in London (not Japan), and her favorite food is her mother’s homemade apple pie.

Cat’s all

During the promotion of a 2015 Hello Kitty museum exhibit, Sanrio sought to de-emphasize the fact that Hello Kitty was a cat for some reason. They wanted to let the world know that they “think of her like a friend, like a girl.” That led to a long-standing urban legend that Hello Kitty isn’t really a cat, but a human girl. But Sanrio has since confirmed the felinity of Hello Kitty, who you can tell is the genuine article due to the red bow on her left ear. (Her twin sister, Mimmy, wears a yellow bow on her right ear.)