00:00Chagi now has over 7,000 stores globally. Where are you seeing the fastest growth and which regions are you prioritizing for your expansion plans going forward?
00:12In the previous two years, our business expansion focus was the Chinese market.
00:18This year and next year, we will have more business expansion in overseas markets, especially in the second half of this year and the first half of the next year.
00:26Southeast Asia will become an important focus for our market expansion.
00:30So you have opened two stores in the U.S. so far. How has sales been like and what is your expansion plan in the U.S.?
00:36We've seen strong performance from the newly opened stores in Los Angeles.
00:43On the opening day, our sales has exceeded 5,000 cups, which is an outstanding performance for us.
00:49The American consumer indeed has the strongest purchasing power in the world, and the U.S. market is one of the most valuable markets for us.
00:56There is no doubt as to how much we value it. The U.S. market has been playing a leading role in global consumption trend.
01:03Has the U.S.-China trade war had an impact on your business, especially in the U.S.?
01:07When we talk about political geography, we don't think it's particularly relevant for our consumer companies.
01:15From the point of view of making a product, we think that having a good taste, a good smell, and good look, also even the good experience in our stores, these are the things that our consumers mostly cared about.
01:26To us, there is no impact on us.
01:28This summer, we have seen a very intense price war. How big of an impact does that have on your business?
01:38We did not fully participate in the price war. It has some impact on us.
01:42But we believe this is only temporary, and we hope this is a continual process of value building.
01:48Domestic sales this year has been better than the same period of time last year, but overseas sales has seen bigger growth.
01:55There has been talk about how Chaji is looking to become the Starbucks of the East.
02:03What lessons are you learning from Starbucks, and what challenges do you face in trying to be this very unique and ubiquitous brand in China and across the globe?
02:14Starbucks is a great company, which has always been a role model for us.
02:19I think Starbucks, through decades of development, has been able to bring coffee to the world.
02:24We also hope that, like how coffee culture develops, we would like to take tea culture to go further.
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