China, as the world’s largest population, has attracted many chain food companies from the US. One of the most ambitious is Starbucks. The coffee chain is expanding fast in China by opening one store in every 15 hours. However, Starbucks needs to be alert because its competitor, Luckin Coffee, is growing even faster.

One more Luckin Coffee store in every four hours
If Starbucks is opening another store every fifteen hours, Luckin Coffee only needs four hours. Within less than two years since its’ first launch, Luckin has opened 2,830 stores in China. Meanwhile, it took almost 20 years for Starbucks o open 3,683 stores. That’s just how crazy the competition is for China.
The Chinese company seems trying to get under Starbuck skin. Not only opening new stores very quickly, it also opened the stores near Starbucks stores. If you happen to visit China, you’ll find a Luckin Coffee stores within a few minutes (or seconds, even) walk.
Putting itself up as Starbucks competitor doesn’t mean that Luckin is imitating the American chain. It has a completely different concept to Starbucks. Instead of opening cafes, it opened small stores purposed to sell take outs only. People can just order it from the apps, and have it delivered to their location within 18 minutes in max.
Not profitable just yet, but wait till it comes to America
Despite its rapid growth, Luckin is not a profitable company just yet. The company founded by Jenny Qian Jiya reported a $241 million loss over $125 million revenues in 2018. However funding rounds proved Luckin has a good perspective. Over four round of funding, Luckin gathered up to $550 million, with $150 million in its’ latest funding only.
Not enough with China, Luckin has just announced its plan to expand to US Market. Being a private startup, it revealed the plan of going public as IPO startup. But instead of China, it’s going public in USA. The strategy is to put Luckin on the hands of the customers to compare it directly to Starbucks.
If the strategy works out, it’ll be possible for Luckin to overtake Starbucks within a few years.