Pizza Hut and KFC

Two of the Most Popular
Restaurants in China Are American Icons:

Yum Brands, the parent company of Pizza Hut, KFC, Taco Bell, Long John Silver's, and others, is the largest restaurant chain in the world. It has over 34,000 stores, but more than 14,000 of them are outside the U.S. and concentrated in Asia.

In China alone, Yum operates more than 2,000 KFCs and 300 Pizza Huts. In fact, more than 50% of Yum Brands' revenues come from outside the U.S.

According to A.C. Nielsen, KFC is the top consumer brand in China, even ahead of Coca-Cola and Nike. You see, very few Chinese will ever have the chance to set foot in the U.S. so dining out at KFC or Pizza Hut is as close as they will get to visiting America.

Plain and simple, the Chinese love KFC and Pizza Hut!


Yum plans to expand its hugely successful home delivery services to target the huge nocturnal populations of crowded Chinese cities.
Get this: The swarm of customers waiting to get into the grand opening of a new KFC in the city of Qiandaohu was so thick that eight security guards had to be brought in to help manage the crowds. "This happens every time KFC opens a new store," says Wang Weiming, manager of the Qiandaohu KFC.

The reason is that Yum has been able to take advantage of the Chinese's love affair with American products. And they have succeeded in tailoring their menus to local tastes across China.

The menu is different from the United States, with smaller portions and new entrees featuring popular local ingredients. For example, at Chinese KFCs, you can get a Beijing Duck Wrap served with scallops and hoisin sauce, chicken skewers that come with the cartilage, shredded pork soup, and congee (rice porridge).

Pizza Hut takes that localization strategy even further:

In Taipei, they serve sashimi pizza ...

In Kualu Lumpur the locals love chicken satay pizza ...

In Shanghai, sea eel is #1 ...

And as unbelievable as it sounds, the Thai people love to dollop a can of tuna fish on top of their pizza!

The packaging is American, but the tastes are definitely Asian.