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As standard of living in China continues to improve recently, foreign drinks such as coke and coffee are accepting by an increasing number of Chinese. Coffee is gradually relative to fashion and taste in China, and it becomes a way to show social status.

Nowadays, coffee shops are common in many cities in China. Many youngs become enthusiastic fans of coffee. In some large cities like Shanghai or Beijing, the consumption can be very high. China, with its strong tea culture is becoming a huge potential market for coffee brands. Famous brands like Starbucks and Costa has become a fashion place to go once they entered in China. For many Chinese coffee is a part of life now.

Development of coffee in China

The development of coffee market in China can be divided into 4 representative times.

1. Arrival of instant coffee. When Nestle came into China and said,”To the last drop”, the coffee time is beginning. It made a difference to Chinese lifestyle and let growing number of local people accepting the taste.

2. Freshly ground coffee. UBC coffee shop is a typical representative of this time. Freshly ground coffee is encouraged to the public. During this time, coffee shop retail chains rapidly developed in the mainland of China, and occupied nearly 90 percent of China coffee market.

3. Starbucks entered first-tier cites in China. As a result of this movement, coffee such as espresso and cappuccino became a kind of fashion drink then. Moreover, Starbuck development was the symbol of the consumption of coffee as westernisation of lifestyles in China. Starbuck generalize the consumption of coffee in the young consumer target in China.

4. Foreign coffee brands occupied the whole China market and broke the monopolization of Starbucks.

However, famous brands like Cite, Starbucks, Costa and so on which have already entered China coffee market used to set a quite high standard to be joined. That somehow ignored the basic national conditions of China and made many investors who are interested in coffee shop cannot join in. On the other hand, a few coffee shops with normal brands is not hard to open, but have lack of professional management which can not permit to show the inner spirit of coffee culture. Therefore, experts of Cite coffee managed researches on the China market and develop different ways of management in different Chinese cities. According to Euromonitor, it opened more than 80 retail chain shops in 28 provinces of China. So far, China coffee market has been occupied by three famous coffee brands, Starbucks, UBC and Siddhi Island.

Amy Wang, online survey in China

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