{"id":147907,"date":"2026-01-24T14:52:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T14:52:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/147907\/"},"modified":"2026-01-24T14:52:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T14:52:11","slug":"chinas-boba-behemoth-lands-in-hollywood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/147907\/","title":{"rendered":"China’s boba behemoth lands in Hollywood"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

China\u2019s boba behemoth has landed in Hollywood.<\/p>\n

Mixue, the fast-growing megachain that boasts a bigger global retail footprint than McDonald\u2019s, opened its first U.S. outpost on Hollywood\u2019s Walk of Fame last month, selling drinks for less than $5 and ice cream for about $1.<\/p>\n

Mixue spokesperson Xu Ping said in a written statement in Chinese that the company chose Hollywood as its first U.S. location because the \u201cmovie capital of the world\u201d attracts both international tourists and local consumers year-round.<\/p>\n

The store, Ping added, \u201caims to serve a diverse global consumer base and demonstrates the brand\u2019s commitment to the American market.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Hollywood opening was followed in quick succession with locations in New York City\u2019s Brooklyn, Koreatown and Chinatown neighborhoods. More Mixue stores are coming to California, Ping said.<\/p>\n

The megachain\u2019s entry into Los Angeles\u2019 boba market comes at a time when local shops are struggling with rising costs driven by tariffs and economic uncertainty.<\/p>\n

Mixue was founded as a shaved ice stand in 1997 in Zhengzhou, China, by college student Zhang Hongchao, who used money lent from his grandmother. The store\u2019s Chinese name, Mi Xue Bing Cheng, translates roughly to \u201csweet snow palace.\u201d<\/p>\n

The store has more than 53,000 stores worldwide. The lion\u2019s share are in China, but the company also has 4,700 locations across Australia, Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore.<\/p>\n

By comparison, McDonald\u2019s has more than 44,000 stores worldwide, and Starbucks has more than 40,000. <\/p>\n

Founder Zhang and his brother Zhang Hongfu, who control the company, have a combined fortune of $8.1 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. <\/p>\n

\"Customers <\/p>\n

Mixue is a fast-growing megachain that boasts a bigger global retail footprint than McDonald\u2019s.<\/p>\n

(David Butow \/ For The Times)<\/p>\n

Mixue is able to keep costs low because it is vertically integrated, said UCLA business administration professor Christopher Tang, a supply chain management expert.<\/p>\n

Mixue owns the factories in China that produce its powders, syrups and fruit purees, giving the company greater control over pricing, Tang said. The store\u2019s grab-and-go concept means lower rent costs. Having most of its locations concentrated in Asia means lower transportation costs.<\/p>\n

Tang said the chain\u2019s U.S. stores may be operating as loss leaders to expand its global footprint, test the American market, and demonstrate growth to investors after its listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey can use the profit in China to subsidize the loss in the U.S. for the sake of expansion,\u201d Tang said. \u201cOnce [they] get the traction in the US, they can grow a little bit further. Once it grows to critical mass they will be able to sustain the operations.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Thursday evening, Mixue customers stood outside \u2014 the shop does not offer seating \u2014 eating soft serve and sipping on boba milk tea and the store\u2019s signature grape drink with taro balls.<\/p>\n

Several passersby snapped photos with Mixue\u2019s inflatable snow \u201cking\u201d mascot that stands guard outside the store entrance. Across the street, actors posed on a red carpet, which had been rolled out on Hollywood Boulevard for the premiere of a Marvel TV show at the TCL Chinese Theatre.<\/p>\n

Menu items range from $1.19 for the soft serve to $4.99 for its \u201csuper-triple\u201d milk tea with tapioca pearls, pudding and coconut jelly toppings. Self-service kiosks let customers order in either Chinese or English and adjust the sweetness levels in drinks, which can range from 0% to 200%.<\/p>\n

The chain appears to be aggressively seeking franchisees in California.<\/p>\n

\"Customers <\/p>\n

Mixue owns the factories in China that produce its powders, syrups and fruit purees. \u201cThey can use the profit in China to subsidize the loss in the U.S. for the sake of expansion,\u201d said Christopher Tang, a UCLA professor of business administration.<\/p>\n

(David Butow \/ For The Times)<\/p>\n

QR codes posted on the store\u2019s front window, walls and sidewalk signs lead to an application website<\/a> for prospective franchisees in California and New York. Opening a store requires an upfront investment between roughly $220,000 and $920,000, depending on size and location, according to the website. Mixue does not charge franchisees ongoing royalty or advertising fees.<\/p>\n

Some Chinese customers were already familiar with the Mixue brand or longtime fans.<\/p>\n

Tourist Kele Shi, a tech worker living in Washington who is from Shenzhen, China, decided to stop by its first U.S. location after seeing videos on YouTube and the Chinese social media app Xiaohongshu.<\/p>\n

Shi had been in the Miracle Mile neighborhood earlier in the day to visit a museum but decided to go to the Walk of Fame to see whether the affordable soft serve was better than Ikea\u2019s version.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is 80% of the reason we are here,\u201d said Shi. \u201cIt\u2019s good, not too sweet. That\u2019s always a compliment for Asian people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Torrance resident Olivia Y, who grew up in China, was picking up five drinks for her friends after a climbing session in the neighborhood.<\/p>\n

Y said she had fond memories of eating Mixue\u2019s ice cream \u2014 her favorite menu item \u2014 and drinking fresh lemonade while pulling all-nighters as a student in Xi\u2019An, China, and wanted to pay the U.S. store a visit after hearing about it on social media.<\/p>\n

Other customers, like tourist Susannah Bartram, from Nottingham, England, had never previously heard of the chain. She had been strolling down the Walk of Fame, parched after taking a three-hour guided tour of Los Angeles, when the bright red store colors caught her eye.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s colorful and accessible, and it\u2019s a quick fix,\u201d Bartram said, holding a cup of iced tea with large slices of lemon.<\/p>\n

With pearl tea gaining popularity in her home country, \u201cit is just nice to see something fresh,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

On the other side of Hollywood Boulevard, local business Bopomofo Cafe\u2019s location in the Ovation Hollywood shopping complex was relatively quiet on Thursday night.<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, the Asian American cafe, which sells boba and snacks \u2014 including a sandwich<\/a> described by L.A. Times food columnist Jenn Harris as the \u201capotheosis\u201d version of McDonald\u2019s Filet-O-Fish \u2014 shared on social media that it was struggling with rising costs of goods, including matcha powder and paper goods due to \u201ctrade wars and economic uncertainty.\u201d<\/p>\n

The cafe initially mulled a price increase, but decided to first try removing some items from its menu and offering a limited food menu an hour before it closes, said Philip Wang, who co-founded Bopomofo with partner Eric Wang in 2019. Philip Wang also co-owns the Asian American production company Wong Fu Productions<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Bopomofo\u2019s classic milk tea costs $6.50, and blended drinks such as its guava matcha latte cost $8. Toppings are an additional 75 cents.<\/p>\n

\u201c[We] are not just chasing profits and a bottom line,\u201d the cafe wrote in the Instagram post announcing the changes<\/a>. \u201cWe\u2019re also not a massive company with hundreds of locations (or thousands overseas) bankrolling our stores.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bopomofo\u2019s Hollywood location opened in February as an experiment to see how it would perform in a tourist-driven mall, Philip Wang said.<\/p>\n

\"Customers <\/p>\n

The store is known for its ultra cheap products, such as $1.19 soft serve cones and $4 boba.<\/p>\n

(David Butow \/ For The Times)<\/p>\n

As it approaches its first year in operation, the shop, located on the shopping center\u2019s second floor, has seen less traffic than its other four locations in Southern California cities with significant Asian populations, such as San Gabriel and Irvine, he said. (A sixth location is to open in Downtown Disney this year.)<\/p>\n

Philip Wang said he hasn\u2019t seen noticeable impact on the store\u2019s performance yet in the month since Mixue opened, noting that it\u2019s still early. The holidays boosted traffic, Mixue opened in December, and business slowed in January \u2014 a dip he said is typical across the food and beverage industry.<\/p>\n

He hopes Mixue\u2019s presence in the U.S. might raise the profile of boba here and encourage more people to \u201cexpand their palette\u201d and try local shops.<\/p>\n

Bopomofo is no stranger to competing in dense markets: Its original location is San Gabriel, where there are boba and tea shops on every corner. Philip Wang said he\u2019s confident that the drinks his cafe sells, which don\u2019t use artificial flavors, syrups or powders, will continue to attract customers.<\/p>\n

But \u201cI would be lying if I said that [Mixue\u2019s] not on our minds,\u201d Wang said.<\/p>\n