Image Source: Visual China

BEIJING, June 9 (TMTPOST) — Huawei filed to trademark the slogan “a cup of coffee to absorb the energy of the universe” on Wednesday, suggesting that the telecom company might enter the coffee industry.

The slogan was coined by Huawei’s founder Ren Zhengfei, who has talked about coffee, café shops and coffee culture on multiple occasions. Ren believes coffee is an important part of western culture. He believes that drinking coffee signifies some values and traditions in western culture, such as openness, emphasis on communication and exchange. 

“There are coffee shops everywhere at our company. But our employees at the research and development departments are unwilling to spend money on coffee. They think coffee is expensive,” Ren said.

In China, many companies have started to build their own coffee brand. For instance, state-owned enterprise China Post has been opening its own coffee shops in first and second-tier cities in China. While providing postal services, China Post’s coffee shops also offer coffee beverage and cultural products to their customers.

Sports brand Li-Ning has also announced that it would enter the coffee market and open coffee shops at their own outlets. During the May 1 national holidays, Li-Ning opened its first Ning Coffee in South China’s Xiamen.

Statistics show that there are around 159,000 coffee-related companies in China. In 2021, 24,000 new companies involving coffee were registered in China, representing a year-on-year increase of 18.9%.

China has become a huge market for coffee brands. Shanghai alone has over 7,000 coffee shops, making Shanghai the city with the most coffee shops in the world. It is estimated that there are 300 million consumers of coffee in China.

In 2021, the market size of coffee in China was 381.7 billion yuan. It is estimated that the market scale of coffee in China would reach one trillion yuan in 2025.