It designs, licenses, and manufactures products focusing on the kawaii ("cute") segment of Japanese popular culture.

In the late 1960s the company began producing goods with the dog character Snoopy, from the American comic strip Peanuts, after acquiring the Japanese licensing rights.

In late 2003, Sanrio won the "Top Brand with a Conscience" award from the Medinge Group of Sweden for its communication principles.

Beginning with Jewelpet in 2008, Sanrio started collaborating with Sega Toys in creating characters intended to become media franchises.

In conjunction with this, Build-A-Bear Workshop released limited edition stuffed toys of several Sanrio characters, including Hello Kitty, Chococat, My Melody and Keroppi.

On August 26, 2010, Mercis BV, representing Miffy's creator Dick Bruna brought suit against Sanrio.

They claimed that one of Hello Kitty's companion characters, a rabbit named Cathy, infringes on the copyright and trademark of Miffy.

[22] On November 2, 2010, a Dutch court ruled against Sanrio and ordered the company to stop marketing Cathy products in Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands.

In April 2010, the first and only Sanrio-licensed eatery (Sanrio Cafe) in the U.S. opened at Pearlridge's Downtown phase in Aiea, Hawaii.

It began in the Strawberry Newspaper (ja:いちご新聞) published by Sanrio in Japan, but now voting also takes place online.

After A Journey Through Fairyland, Sanrio switched gears and started doing short films, OVAs, and TV shows based on their characters.

Sanrio began its involvement in the production of TV and direct-to-video animation during the late 1980s and early 1990s, starting with the US-made Hello Kitty's Furry Tale Theater in 1987.

!, a game by Sanrio and Geechs got an anime adaptation produced by Bones in 2015 - and was licensed in the United States by Funimation.

Hello Kitty Island Adventure (2023) is a Sanrio game created for Apple Arcade, PC and Nintendo Switch.