If you are a Chinese woman, you are 3 times more likely to order milk tea than if you’re male – at least that’s what Chinese food delivery giant Meituan tells us.
A recent report published by the company shows that 95% of female Meituan users under the age of 26 ordered milk tea on a weekly basis last year.
The food delivery giant’s users have placed more than 210 million milk tea orders in 2018, which makes Starbucks challenger Luckin Coffee’s 90 million cups sold annually pale in comparison. Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hangzhou and Beijing are the top five milk tea spenders, according to Meituan.
As of the end of 2018, China had more than 450,000 milk tea shops and the annual sales revenue for the industry passed RMB 90 billion, according to Guangzhou-base market research firm iiMedia.
With the huge success of Heytea – the Guangdong-based milk tea brand has become an internet sensation, and people wait in queue for hours to buy its drinks – milk tea startups emerged as investor darlings.
At least four milk tea startups closed funding rounds last year. Among them Shanghai-based Lelecha, founded in 2016, which slurped up a delicious RMB 200 million Series A round (USD 30 million).
Editor: Nadine Freischlad
Write to Luna Lin at lunalin@kr-asia.com