Starbucks has come a long way in making itself a household name in China -- a nation of tea drinkers -- creating a "coffee house" niche where none existed.
With the launch yesterday of its "frappucino" bottled drinks, the company, with partner PepsiCo Inc, is reaching beyond its iconic stores in marketing the brand in Chinese stores, shops and even the Shanghai subway.
To grab the attention of trendy young Shanghainese, Starbucks and PepsiCo are marketing the bottled coffee and mocha-flavored drinks with an interactive serial movie, Sunny Day, played on flat-screens TVs in Shanghai's subways.
"It's just the beginning of the growth and development of what we have planned for Starbucks in China," Starbucks chairman Howard Schultz said. "The No. 1 market in terms of growth and development of Starbucks around the world is China."
Schultz spoke in Shanghai for the product's launch at the chic Xintiandi District.
With the Beijing Olympics less than a year away, big Western brand names are jostling for an extra edge in this booming market.
Last week, cellphone maker Nokia Corp opened a flagship store along Nanjing East Rd, the traditional heart of Chinese retailing. Automakers, electronics, apparel makers -- all are rushing to gain an edge as the country readies for the big event.
Starbucks opened its first China store in Beijing's China World Hotel mall in 1999 and has about 300 stores there. Schultz said 80 new Starbucks would open there over the next 12 months.
The company has had its share of problems in China. It closed its shop in Beijing's former imperial palace following protests by critics unhappy over the presence of a US corporate symbol in a historic site.
It fought, and eventually won, a trademark dispute with a Shanghai rival that a court ordered to change its name as it sounded too similar to Starbucks.
More recently, amid a flurry of complaints over made-in-China quality and safety problems, the company recalled about 250,000 shoddy plastic cups that posed a choking risk to children.
But overall, Starbucks' China stores have proven a popular place to hang out, rare refuges from noisy, crowded city streets.
While most of the outlets are in the biggest cities, Starbucks' first outlet in Xi'an -- home to the famed terracotta warriors -- got a "great reception," Schultz said.
"There's no shortage of demand for Starbucks coffee," he said.
With the bottled drinks, the Seattle-based company is targeting a market long dominated by local and Japanese makers of tea, juice and soft drinks, hoping to replicate the success that has made bottled coffee drinks a US$1 billion industry back home.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, booked its first-ever profit from its Arizona subsidiary in the first half of this year, four years after operations began, a company financial statement showed. Wholly owned by TSMC, the Arizona unit contributed NT$4.52 billion (US$150.1 million) in net profit, compared with a loss of NT$4.34 billion a year earlier, the statement showed. The company attributed the turnaround to strong market demand and high factory utilization. The Arizona unit counts Apple Inc, Nvidia Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc among its major customers. The firm’s first fab in Arizona began high-volume production
VOTE OF CONFIDENCE: The Japanese company is adding Intel to an investment portfolio that includes artificial intelligence linchpins Nvidia Corp and TSMC Softbank Group Corp agreed to buy US$2 billion of Intel Corp stock, a surprise deal to shore up a struggling US name while boosting its own chip ambitions. The Japanese company, which is adding Intel to an investment portfolio that includes artificial intelligence (AI) linchpins Nvidia Corp and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), is to pay US$23 a share — a small discount to Intel’s last close. Shares of the US chipmaker, which would issue new stock to Softbank, surged more than 5 percent in after-hours trading. Softbank’s stock fell as much as 5.4 percent on Tuesday in Tokyo, its
COLLABORATION: Softbank would supply manufacturing gear to the factory, and a joint venture would make AI data center equipment, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) would operate a US factory owned by Softbank Group Corp, setting up what is in the running to be the first manufacturing site in the Japanese company’s US$500 billion Stargate venture with OpenAI and Oracle Corp. Softbank is acquiring Hon Hai’s electric-vehicle plant in Ohio, but the Taiwanese company would continue to run the complex after turning it into an artificial intelligence (AI) server production plant, Hon Hai chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) said yesterday. Softbank would supply manufacturing gear to the factory, and a joint venture between the two companies would make AI data
The Taiwan Automation Intelligence and Robot Show, which is to be held from Wednesday to Saturday at the Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center, would showcase the latest in artificial intelligence (AI)-driven robotics and automation technologies, the organizer said yesterday. The event would highlight applications in smart manufacturing, as well as information and communications technology, the Taiwan Automation Intelligence and Robotics Association said. More than 1,000 companies are to display innovations in semiconductors, electromechanics, industrial automation and intelligent manufacturing, it said in a news release. Visitors can explore automated guided vehicles, 3D machine vision systems and AI-powered applications at the show, along
RSS