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Starbucks dominates in China where it has over 3,000 stores and is growing fast, even as in the United States it comes under pressure from a "third wave" of boutique coffee sellers and cheaper rivals. The cafe – one of thousands of trendy, artisan coffee shops in the city – reflects a growing cafe culture in China that's driving growth for chains like Starbucks Corp and attracting more competition. At a Shanghai launch event on Tuesday of its first overseas "Reserve Roastery" – an opulent flagship store with gourmet coffees and a bakery – Starbucks executive chairman Howard Schultz said store numbers in China would hit 10,000 within a decade. (Image: Reuters)
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China is going to be bigger than the United States in less than 10 years. (Image: Reuters)
Starbucks held a 54.8 percent share of China's 25.2 billion yuan ($3.81 billion) specialist coffee shop market last year, far ahead of rivals like McDonald's Corp's McCafe and Whitbread Plc's Costa Coffee, Euromonitor data show. (Image: Reuters) -
Unlike in the United States, Starbucks' challenge in China has been winning over traditional tea drinkers to coffee, rather than fending off local rivals. That could be changing. (Image: Reuters)
Shanghai alone has an estimated 6,500 coffee houses, with small chains, independent stores and bakeries battling for a slice of a market that Mintel says could grow to 79 billion yuan by 2022 from 60 billion yuan this year. (Image: Reuters) 
Starbucks itself is doubling down on China, where in the latest quarter it saw 8 percent same-store sales growth and said it would buy out its joint venture partner in east China for $1.3 billion. (Image: Reuters) 
As well as its new Shanghai coffee "roastery", Starbucks has rolled out higher-end coffee bars in China, is looking to improve its food offering, and has leveraged popular mobile payment platforms from Alibaba Group Holding Ltd and Tencent Holdings Ltd. (Image: Reuters) 
That premium push may be too late to win back consumers like Zhou Hanwen, a market analyst in Shanghai who says she's a "serious coffee user", but has switched from Starbucks' lattes to smaller, trendy coffee houses. (Image: Reuters) 
For now at least, China's developing cafe culture is likely to be more a boost than burden for big names like Starbucks. (Image: Reuters) -
The Shanghai Roastery will features design touches with a Chinese twist. (Image: Reuters)
