fast food restaurants dominate markets
all over the world Burger King has more
than 16,000 locations in over 100
nations and McDonald's has over 36,000
there's one in a decommissioned airplane
in New Zealand and there's even one in
Vatican City fast food is a more than
half a trillion in your business but
there's one place where these chains
can't seem to take off and that place is
Vietnam here's why McDonald's and Burger
King are failing to find a mass
following in Vietnam there was a lot of
hype with McDonald's first opened its
doors in Vietnam in 2014 the launch drew
crowds of locals who waited hours to get
her hands on a Big Mac but fast-forward
to today and the hype has slowed way
down McDonald's which launched in
Vietnam in 2014 has only 17 stores there
and Burger King which entered the market
in 2011 has only 13 as of 2018 failure
to capture the attention of the
Vietnamese market was odd given that
these burger chains had previously been
met with success on expanding into Asian
countries McDonald's has seen tremendous
growth in countries like China and Japan
where has thousands of storefronts in
both countries and Burger King has grown
its franchise in Japan from 12
restaurants in 2008 to 98 last year
McDonald's has ranked second out of all
foreign fast food in mainland China
behind KFC and Burger King is ranked
fourth a Vietnam was a different story
when McDonald's finally entered the
Vietnamese market in 2014 it plan to
open a hundred stores in Vietnam within
ten years but so far today it's only
long 17 the same thing happened at
Burger King the company invested 40
million dollars in Vietnam in 2012 with
the goal of opening 60 restaurants by
2016
according to Vietnam Business Review and
as of 2018 they're just 13 Burger Kings
in Vietnam
both McDonald's and Burger King did not
respond to seeing DC's questions about
why they face such trouble breaking into
the Vietnamese market fast food in the
States is popular because you can get it
now Vietnamese food is the same thing if
you go to street vendors you can get
your bowl of pho or year by me also may
be even faster than McDonald's
so that kind of defeats the the value
proposition of facts we know Vietnam but
part of the problem seems to be that
fast food giant's underestimated their
local rivals Vietnamese diners are
spoiled for choice in top-tier cities
like Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City which has
made it tough for international fast
food chains to compete
for the Vietnamese we have our bunny
sandwiches and those sandwiches are sold
on the streets at rock-bottom prices
compared to McDonald's and Burger King
according to the European Commission
Viennese consumers dedicate a sizable
portion of their income to food and of
that money spent on food seventy-eight
percent of that cash went to local
vendors
street stalls and kiosks just one
percent went towards fast-food
restaurants in Vietnam Viet Nam's food
service sector has over five hundred
forty thousand outlets over 430,000
outlets our local vendors and COO kiosks
there's nearly 80,000 full service
Vietnamese restaurants in almost twenty
two thousand eleven bars and cafes but
as for fast-food chains they account for
just over seven thousand outlets in
Vietnam fast-food chains are so
outnumbered in Vietnam partly because of
the severed diplomatic ties between the
US and Vietnam after the United States
withdrew forces from Vietnam following
the war in 1973 all diplomatic relations
were severed between the two countries
in 1975 it was until 1995 that the
United States and Vietnam mended fences
and opened the door for trade if you
know anything about like the frustrated
Nam like the last thirty to four years
there was a lot of growth but only
really in the last 20 a lot of
storefronts are literally just people's
homes they live upstairs and Lotus
convert the downstairs into any sort of
street vending option in 1997 KFC was
one of the first American brands to open
up shop in Vietnam I was entering an
already crowded food market it took
seven years for KFC to open just ten
restaurants so KFC changed course and
updated its menu to better fit local
tastes the brand introduced the KFC
chicken rice and the KFC shrimp burger
for Vietnamese customers and today the
company has a hundred and thirty KFC
stores in 21 Vietnamese cities with a
hefty price tag for KFC meals seem to be
worth it for customers
the comparatively high prices weren't
unique to KFC McDonald's and Burger
Kings prices are also considered be at a
premium compared to local vendors local
vendors can feed twice as many people as
a single mill does at Burger King
McDonald's but these high prices are
only part of the problem for McDonald's
and Burger King the way food is served
in Vietnam has a lot to do with it when
Americans go to a restaurant they
normally find something on the menu that
they like in order for themselves in
Vietnam it's more of a family-style
serving experience burgers have a tough
sell in Vietnam because they're not
really a food you want to share need to
be king when you look at the burgers
it's not shaking this hotel and and I
think it's not it's not a cuisine that
that it is exciting to go to the
Vietnamese and it doesn't look like
things will be getting better fast food
chains any time soon more Vietnamese
customers are retreating from fast food
chains each year traffic to fast food
chains drop 31 percent from 2016 to 2018
while visits during a two year span but
not all fast food chains have failed to
appeal to locals just take KFC and Pizza
Hut McDonald's and Burger King make up
2.8 percent of the total share of
foreign fast food chains in Vietnam but
KFC makes up 11.4% and Pizza Hut makes
up 21.3% McDonald's and Burger King
aren't giving up just yet the companies
have made efforts to adapt their menus
to reflect the cultural influences of
Vietnamese cuisines like the grilled
pork rice with egg from McDonald's and
the fish rice combo from Burger King
experts say that's gonna take a lot more
than revamping a menu to compete with so
many local foods crowding the market
space with the popularity of fast food
in Vietnam on the decline McDonald's and
Burger King have a hard future ahead
when it comes to satisfying the
Vietnamese tastes
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