Rise of Chinese F&B: How Chagee, Mixue and Haidilao are conquering South-east Asia

F&B players from China are like tech firms — cost-efficient and data-driven. Can local firms match this model?

- Mark Greeven

What began as a trickle of milk tea and hotpot outlets has become a flood. Chinese food and beverage brands — names like Mixue, Haidilao and Chagee — are expanding across South-east Asia at some of the fastest rates on record.

But what is remarkable about these companies is not just their breakneck pace of growth. They are changing the rules of the game, introducing technology-enabled business models that are raising the bar for incumbent businesses in markets from Singapore to Vietnam.

Years of intense competition within China, where the players are engaged in a brutal price war, have pushed these companies to streamline every part of how they run. The Chinese entrants are exporting a business model honed in one of the world’s most competitive consumer markets.

The disruption is already well under way. More than 6,100 outlets had been opened by about 60 Chinese brands across South-east Asia by the end of 2024. At the same time, the region’s food and beverage market grew by 4.6 per cent in 2024, reaching US$132.9 billion (S$170.6 billion).

Bubble tea chain Mixue alone has opened around 4,900 outlets outside mainland China including roughly 2,600 in Indonesia and 1,300 in Vietnam — since launching its overseas expansion in 2018. That far outpaced beloved American brand Starbucks, which took 17 years from 1996 to 2013 to build about 700 stores in the region.

Other Chinese beverage brands are employing low-cost, high-volume strategies to capture market share. Founded in China in 2017, tea company Chagee entered Malaysia two years later. By the end of 2024, it had opened 148 outlets across the country. All told, the brand has grown to more than 6,400 stores globally — and went public earlier in 2025.

Both Mixue and Chagee operate mainly through franchises, with the brands supplying ingredients, equipment and branding directly to their outlet owners.