{"id":783434,"date":"2026-07-06T08:01:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T08:01:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/783434\/"},"modified":"2026-07-06T08:01:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T08:01:12","slug":"can-chinas-budget-brands-crack-developed-markets-mixue-shows-it-wont-be-easy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/783434\/","title":{"rendered":"Can China\u2019s budget brands crack developed markets? Mixue shows it won\u2019t be easy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Three months after moving from China to Japan, Alisa Lin has yet to buy a single drink from Mixue<\/a> \u2013 the Chinese ice cream and tea giant \u2013 despite being a frequent customer back home, where a cup costs under five yuan (73 US cents) during promotions.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not a very popular brand here. Only one of my friends in Japan has ever bought it,\u201d Lin said, adding that value for money was the main consideration behind her own consumer choices in Tokyo. While Mixue\u2019s basic teas are cheap, a plain bubble tea still costs about 400 yen (US$2.46) in Japan \u2013 comparable to peers offering more inventive flavours like mango.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would definitely choose the latter over Mixue, given there\u2019s no big difference in price,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Mixue, known for its affordable products, has rapidly moved into overseas markets in recent years. By replicating its domestic strategy, particularly in developing countries, the company has come to represent how some Chinese consumer brands expand globally<\/a> by winning over customers with low prices.<\/p>\n

But that playbook is now being tested in more mature markets. Three years after entering Japan, Mixue still operated only four stores in the country, far short of its initial target of 1,000 outlets by 2028, Japanese media outlet Nikkei reported in late June.<\/p>\n

The company also made a high-profile entry into Hong Kong in late 2023, opening nine stores in its first year. But it closed a third of its outlets within the first six months of 2026, with its store in Tsim Sha Tsui the latest to close, according to local media last month.<\/p>\n

Analysts said these setbacks had highlighted the need for Chinese brands going global to move beyond competing on price alone, recognising that such a strategy was far from a one-size-fits-all formula.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Three months after moving from China to Japan, Alisa Lin has yet to buy a single drink from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":783435,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[86299,86300,45,49,48,95,141141,46,15674,2454,1522,277217,3430,25456,173392,772,5801],"class_list":["post-783434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-alfredo-montufar-helu","tag-ankura-consulting","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-china","tag-david-zhang","tag-economy","tag-hong-kong","tag-japan","tag-los-angeles","tag-mixue","tag-new-york","tag-nikkei","tag-tsim-sha-tsui","tag-united-states","tag-vietnam"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/783434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=783434"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/783434\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/783435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=783434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=783434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=783434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}