China's Billion Dollar Brands -- Just Opened in America – YouTube Dictation Transcript & Vocabulary

1.mcdonald's is no longer the world's biggest  fast food chain it's actually this and you've   never heard of it today I'm going inside three  massive chains you've probably never heard of   the first thing you see when you walk into this  mall in China is a McDonald's then a Subway and   here nope not a Starbucks but a Luckin coffee the  Starbucks killer behind Starbucks and Duncan is   the world's third largest coffee chain Lucken  next it wants to take on Starbucks in America   and it just opened its first location in  the US starbucks is emphasizing a premium   instore experience but Luckin is focusing on  a quick convenient and more affordable option   and there's another brand blazing from China to  the US tea culture is absolutely insane chagi a   massively growing Chinese tea chain that even  just listed its stock in New York City on the   NASDAQ and they just opened their first location  ever in the United States the same way Starbucks   brought China into coffee culture can Chagi bring  tea culture to America i'm even flying back to   the US to find out this is like the Asian variant  of the very recognizable you know Starbucks woman   with her little green like she's a mermaid right  luck and coffee was China's answer to Starbucks   fast digital and everywhere back in 2019 it made  a huge splash with a $645 million IPO on the   NASDAQ but just a year later scandal turns out  they cooked the books faking over $300 million   in sales the stock tanked the CEO got fired and  Lucken got kicked off the NASDAQ everyone thought   it was game over but Lucken didn't just survive  it thrived in China and restructured and get this   they just opened their first US location it's in  New York so will we see Luckin coffee pop up in   street corners across America everything here is  super digital so most people are ordering on their   phone they're skipping a cashier entirely and even  if they come the cashier the first thing they see   is a QR code but because I'm not fully immersed  in China's tech ecosystem I'm going to need some   help so I do see an actual menu with English about  70% of the menu is coffee and then another 20 30%   is teas and snacks so it is interesting it is a  coffee chain right now in China I'm noticing a lot   of tea chains that are popping up but Lucken is  the original kind of company to take on Starbucks   but Starbucks is often credited with making going  out and buying a cup of coffee in China a thing   hi Niha can we please have one coconut milk ice  sugar level low i'm going to pay using Alipay as   nice as digital payments is sometimes especially  as a foreigner it's actually more complicated   honestly tapping my Visa or MX would have been so  much easier right now now sometimes Alip Pay is   great cuz all I do is I just show them my QR code  and they charge me but this time she's asking me   to scan her code and then send her the money so  it's now scanning her QR code scan yeah scan oh   Jennifer yeah so I'm literally sending money  to Jennifer 35 yan for two drinks it's crazy   that's less than 250 per drink so I just paid her  Ali Pay I think is it Is that going to Lucken or   going to her wallet and then she sends it to the  company let's see if it went through oh so now   I'm going to put in a code to officially confirm  that I'm sending money to Jennifer okay did you   receive my payment thank you so much see most  Chinese customers are placing their order and   paying directly on an app but because I'm visiting  I don't know how to do that so apparently the   barista has me pay her directly to her personal  account and then she will submit the order in   the app it's really interesting to me iced is a  really big deal in China even at the tea shops   I'm going to it's mostly ice i'm usually the only  one getting a hot it looks like the customers will   scan a QR code here and then it'll tell them which  lane their drink is on so you've got 0 1 2 3 and   it goes all the way to nine lanes so imagine the  kind of volume they're doing on a busy moment and   it's kind of interesting actually because most  coffee shops you go to they're shouting either   names or numbers here it's relatively quiet it's  all done on the phone me oh wow sh she's giving   me cute Luckin stickers along with my coffee sh  look at that some cute stickers with my coffee   i'm not sure why she gave me these stickers maybe  it's for kids and foreigners in China lucken is   often introducing new flavors like coconut latte  apparently this is super popular here in China   one thing I'm a bit surprised by was how kind  of simple and small the menu is much smaller   than Starbucks and when a company does that it  allows them to obviously be much more efficient   another thing I've noticed in seeing Luckkins  around China is that they come in all sorts of   sizes typically Starbucks has a lot more seats um  and lounging areas some Luckkins I've seen have   no seats at all they're kind of just meant for a  quick takeout coffee but Luckin is focusing on a   quick convenient and more affordable option so  even though they're direct competitors they're   kind of operating in two different segments of  the market a few minutes later I noticed something   I've never seen before it's called Starbucks Now  because Starbucks is seen as a premium lifestyle   brand in China a place where you go sit down and  enjoy your cup of coffee i'm seeing a place called   Starbucks Now which presumably is a place for  just a quick grab and go you literally are here   to just grab your coffee there's no place to  sit inside there's not even a cashier inside   it's literally just a counter where you order  on your phone grab and go this is a way for   Starbucks to grow in China without needing large  retail locations this is kind of like an express   version of Starbucks so it's super chill super  small and it's a way for Starbucks to grow quite a   bit in China without needing massive retail space  chagi it's a fast growing Chinese tea chain that   even just listed its stock in New York City on  the NASDAQ the first thing I notice is the logo   it's oddly similar to Starbucks with the women in  the green circle now I see a woman in a red circle   so many options no coffee so you won't find any  coffee here it's all tea there's about 15 to 20   options I see on the menu lots of milk teas fruit  teas and then fresh tea but you can see the most   popular things here is the milk tea i'm ordering  a milk tea he's asking if I want a lot of ice a   little ice and sugar little please less yes one  i'm going to pay with Alipe i explained how big   Alipe is here in China on my TikTok as well as  YouTube short so make sure you subscribe so you   don't miss that this place was only started in  2017 but today it has over 6,500 locations and   it's not just in China it's already expanded to  Southeast Asia but I will say I've been to a bunch   of tea chains and coffee chains here in China this  is definitely one of the more quiet ones i've been   going every day to a place called Hey Tea that one  is always packed you can never find an empty seat   sometimes you have to wait up to 15 or 20 minutes  just for your tea to be ready so as much hype as   I've been reading about this place firsthand I'm  not necessarily seeing it i also went to another   location of Chagi which was located in the food  court of a mall two people told me it's not there   now I don't know if that means that it moved  to a bigger location or if it just wasn't doing   well and it shut down but you got to wonder but I  can't judge a book by its cover just cuz there's   not a lot of people here doesn't mean it's not  extremely busy i mean look at all these mobile   orders and a lot of delivery people are coming to  pick up these bags and deliver them and in each   bag you're talking two or three teas so maybe this  is just a kind of place where you want to order   from to go this is the milk tea I got the price  was $2.75 for a large so even though this place   wants to expand to the United States it's going to  be interesting because a tea chain is a bit tricky   in the US americans in general see tea more of a  wellness drink or just an alternative to coffee   but it's not top of mind people don't wake up and  say "I want to go to a tea chain." Can that change   will that change i guess time will tell i'm also  really curious about the stock here will investors   buy the stock especially after what happened to  Lucken where people lost potentially some trust   in the fundamentals of Chinese consumer companies  so let's see hey let me know what you think a   couple weeks later I head to Los Angeles where  Chagi just opened its first American location   so it's really interesting to see Chagi here in  the United States there's a lot of viral there's   a lot of buzz but it's opening weekend basically  so of course there's going to be one thing that   I found pretty interesting is about 90 to 95% of  the people here are Asian so you don't see a lot   of non-Asians here right and so obviously if Chagi  wants to really be successful in the United States   sure there's a lot of Asianameans in this country  but is it going to be enough to really expand and   to become a big business probably not you're going  to need to appeal to a lot more types of people   and in general Americans are coffee drinkers  we've never seen an example of a successful   tea chain but of course preferences change times  change we're seeing a huge boom around like matcha   and matcha lattes which is a green tea so look  there is potential here it's going to be really   interesting it reminds you of Starbucks but it  doesn't look identical to a Starbucks they have   their own brand image and they clearly thought it  through well the tea is amazing really actually   the tea is amazing because this is a tea latte i  don't know if I've ever had a tea latte but you   can taste this like some foamed milk or something  and I'm not even a big tea drinker but honestly I   think I would actually prefer this especially like  in the afternoon yeah coffee gives you jitters tea   has like a smoother caffeine i mean this says it  has 208 millig of caffeine so I think that that's   less and honestly I love the cup actually I think  if you look at this this kind of looks like the   Starbucks lady right if I had to say you know is  Chagi going to be a big thing is Chagi going to be   around even in 5 years i would say I'm optimistic  i'm cautiously optimistic i don't see it becoming   on every street corner absolutely not but I do  see it having a sizable location base and sizable   momentum here in the United States you go to a  food court in a mall and at least 50% of those   places are just selling fruit teas and milk teas  and cool trendy hip teas mishu is the Chinese ice   cream and tea chain that's been growing insanely  fast so much so that it now has over 45,000   stores worldwide that's more than McDonald's and  Starbucks in terms of number of locations a lot   of places I've come to in Shanghai have English  version of the menu even if it's super little or   super off to the side but this place not at all  most of these stores are in China in fact 95% of   them are but the company is also spreading quickly  in places like Indonesia and Vietnam even the name   is never written in English so you can really tell  that it's totally catered to China obviously the   Chinese market but it's not even interested in  seeming like a western chain the way Luckin is   the prices here are super interesting everything  is under 10 yuan that's about $130 what really   sets this place apart is how super low its prices  are you can grab like a bubble tea or an ice cream   cone for as little as 15 cents their mascot is  the snow king and it's everywhere it's become   a fun recognizable symbol especially with younger  people everyone who is coming here they've already   placed their order they're just here to pick up  there is no ordering so I'm going to pay again on   Alip Pay mishu went public in Hong Kong earlier  this year and is now valued at over $23 billion   and they're not stopping they have plans to expand  even more globally aiming to open in the US and to   keep their brand growing around the world so just  like that I paid 12 yuan i'm not exactly sure what   drink I got i just pointed to something at the  menu but this drink plus an ice cream cone is   $160 now that is crazy cheap and you might be  thinking "Okay well you're in China." But think   again because in Shanghai prices are not this  cheap a cup of coffee at Starbucks is between   $4 and $7 and it's probably one of the main  reasons that it's been able to grow so quickly   i mean even Lucken Coffee is supposed to be like  an inexpensive coffee chain compared to Starbucks   but that's nothing this was literally about  a dollar they keep costs low by controlling   their supply chain and selling ingredients and  equipment directly to their franchises so that   quality stays consistent without the big price  tag one thing I've noticed here in China is that   yeah coffee culture has grown in popularity  obviously Starbucks loves this country but   more than that and this has probably happened  more recently in the past couple years is tea   culture starbucks has grown and everything  like that but let me know what you think   below can these Chinese chains become global  and overtake the likes of Starbucks [Music]