Once a friend of mine visited Shanghai and asked me to recommend some quick restaurants. After listing a few options, I realized that he was not interested in them as he just wanted to find a simple restaurant providing real Shanghai cuisine. It dawned on me that, we were surrounded by national and international franchised stores with standardized products and services which often provide little local flavor. Franchising is ubiquitous in China, and not just the fast food chains.
By Cecilia Lou, Partner at King & Wood’s Intellectual Property Group