By Lara PuReum Yim and MingXuan Lee
Intro
Bubble Tea’s popularity on GrabFood has captured our attention and we want to celebrate its fascinating growth with you! We have deep-dived into Grab’s Big Data to find the most interesting bubbles of treasures that can excite your palette. Hopefully these insights can help you understand what’s behind the Bubble Tea craze in GrabFood in Southeast Asia!
Bigger and More Bubble Tea!
Bubble tea orders on GrabFood has been constantly and dramatically increasing with an impressive regional average growth rate of 3,000% in the year of 2018! Just look at the percentage increase over the year of 2018, across all countries!
| Countries | Bubble tea growth by percentage in 2018* |
| Indonesia | >8500% growth from Jan 2018 to Dec 2018 |
| Philippines | >3,500% growth from June 2018 to Dec 2018 |
| Thailand | >3,000% growth from Jan 21018 to Dec 2018 |
| Vietnam | >1,500% growth from May 2018 to Dec 2018 |
| Singapore | >700% growth from May 2018 to Dec 2018 |
| Malaysia | >250% growth from May 2018 to Dec 2018 |
*Time period: January 2018 to December 2018, or from the time GrabFood was launched.
What’s driving this growth is not just die-hard bubble tea fans who can’t go a week without drinking this sweet treat, but a growing bubble tea fan club in Southeast Asia. The number of bubble tea lovers on GrabFood grew over 12,000% in 2018 – and there’s no sign of stopping!
With increasing consumer demand, how is Southeast Asia’s bubble tea supply catching up? As of December 2018, GrabFood has close to 4,000 bubble tea outlets from a network of over 1,500 brands – a 200% growth in bubble tea outlets in Southeast Asia!
If this stat doesn’t stick, here is a map to show you how much bubble tea orders in different Southeast Asian cities have grown!
And here is a little shoutout to our star merchants including Chatime, Coco Fresh Tea & Juice, Macao Imperial Tea, Ochaya, Koi Tea, Cafe Amazon, The Alley, iTEA, Gong Cha, and Serenitea.
Just how much do you drink?
On average, Southeast Asians drink 4 cups of bubble tea per person per month on GrabFood. Thai consumers top the regional average by 2 cups, consuming about six cups of bubble tea per person per month. This is closely followed by Filipino consumers who drink an average of 5 cups per person per month.
Favourite Flavours!
Have a look at the dazzling array of Bubble Tea flavours available on GrabFood today and you’ll find some uniquely Southeast Asian flavours like Chendol, Durian, and Gula Melaka, as well as rare flavours like salted cream and cheese! Can you spot your favourite flavours here?
Let’s break it down by the country that GrabFood serves, and see who likes which flavours of Bubble Tea more!
Top the Toppings!
Pearl seems to be the unbeatable best topping of most of the countries, except Vietnam whose No. 1 topping turned out to be Cheese Pudding! Top 3 toppings that topped your favorite bubble tea are:
Best Time for Bubble Tea!
Don’t we all need a cup of sweet Bubble Tea in the afternoon to get us through the day? Across Southeast Asia, GrabFood’s data reveals that most people order bubble tea to accompany their meals at lunch, or as a perfect midday energizer!
Conclusion
So hazelnut or chocolate, pearl or (and) pudding (who says we can’t have the best of both worlds!)? The options are abundant and the choice is yours to enjoy!
If you have a sweet tooth, or simply want to reward yourself with Southeast Asia’s most popular drink, go ahead – you are only a couple of taps away from savouring this cup full of delight.