Eugene Lee’s move from McDonald’s to Chinese tea brand Chagee illustrates the evolving corporate dynamics as Chinese companies expand globally. After 16 years at McDonald’s, where he served as international chief marketing officer, Lee joined Chagee in 2025 as its Asia-Pacific chief marketing officer and encountered a markedly different business environment.
At McDonald’s, launching a new initiative typically involved six to nine months of strategic planning and alignment, with about 70 percent of effort devoted to research and preparation. In contrast, Chagee’s approach, reflecting the intense competition within China’s consumer market, prioritizes rapid execution and iterative improvement, often rolling out ideas within a week. Lee attributes this to a distinctive Chinese business mindset that embraces the possibility of failure as a learning opportunity, driving a culture of urgency and experimentation.
Chagee, founded in 2017 by Zhang Junjie, a 33-year-old entrepreneur with a modest background, now operates more than 7,600 outlets worldwide and is listed on the Nasdaq. Zhang’s decision in 2021 to focus on milk teas and streamline the product range away from fruit teas—previously 60 percent of sales—enabled automation in drink preparation, allowing a customized cup of tea to be made in eight seconds. This simplification has supported consistent quality and rapid expansion.
Lee acknowledges that Chagee draws on successful features pioneered by other Chinese beverage chains, such as operational efficiency and digital innovation, combining these elements into its own distinctive brand proposition. Internally, competitors are referred to as "teachers," reflecting an emphasis on learning from rivals’ successes to advance the company’s offerings and customer experience.
This shift also represents a broader transformation in Chinese businesses’ approach from merely manufacturing products to building emotional connections with consumers. Lee highlights the importance of winning not only on functionality but on emotional appeal, citing Starbucks’ success in turning coffee into a lifestyle choice. Chagee aims to do similarly for Chinese tea, emphasizing elegant packaging, premium store locations, and inviting environments where customers can linger.
Other Chinese companies, like BYD, Xiaomi, and Pop Mart, are also leveraging cultural identity and emotional marketing to distinguish themselves beyond price and technical specifications. Increasingly, Chinese brands emphasize their heritage openly, although international success remains a significant challenge.
Chagee’s experience underscores some of the difficulties in rapid expansion. After its Nasdaq listing in April 2025 with a valuation around US$5.1 billion, the company’s market value dropped by more than half to about US$2.3 billion amid falling same-store sales in Greater China and overseas during the second quarter of 2026. Lee explained that domestic sales were affected by aggressive food-delivery price wars, which pressured competitors to offer steep discounts that conflicted with Chagee’s premium positioning strategy.
In Singapore, Lee views the influx of Chinese chains as part of ongoing waves of foreign influences that reshape local service and customer experience standards, raising the bar for the broader industry. However, rising rents and heightened competition pose challenges for smaller local businesses.
Drawing on his experience at McDonald’s, where corporate processes and principles were well established, Lee is contributing to defining Chagee’s organizational culture and global brand identity. He has worked closely with founder Zhang and company executives to articulate the company’s brand pillars—culture, well-being, and connection—and is adapting these values to resonate across varied markets in the Asia-Pacific region.
Lee’s bilingual background and cultural fluency, developed growing up in Malaysia, position him to navigate the intersection of Chinese commercial dynamism and multinational discipline, a balance that may be key to Chinese companies’ success on the global stage. As Chinese brands continue their overseas expansion, understanding diverse consumer preferences while maintaining authentic cultural identity will be critical for winning acceptance and loyalty worldwide.