Background
50 Lan is a popular Taiwanese drink shop chain founded in 1994 by Ma Shao-wei. Currently the chain has been divided into separate franchise headquarters in Taipei, Central Taiwan, Kaohsiung and Tainan. There are about 600 chain stores in Taiwan.¹
50 Lan adopts a regional business model. Because the operating costs (such as rent, personnel, etc.) of each region are different according to local customs, product pricing and operating methods are different. This model of operation distinguishes 50 Lan from other drink shop chains.²
2019 Hong Kong protests: controversy and confusion
Although 50 Lan was also affected by the pro-China drink shop controversy in 2019, further investigation by netizens revealed that the specific drink shops using the 50 Lan name in China, i.e. “A Little Tea” and “KOI Thé”, were respectively founded by 50 Lan’s northern region operations agent and the founder’s younger sister. Of the 4 independent 50 Lan regional operations, the founder has only retained full control over the Tainan region. One netizen created a chart detailing the complex network of relationships surrounding 50 Lan.³
After being initially boycotted by netizens, 50 Lan’s HQ announced that “50 Lan only has regional operations in Taiwan that are separately operated be local agencies. We do not have any headquarters set up overseas, and we do not accept overseas franchising. In recent years there have been several counterfeit 50 Lan shops opened in China and Hong Kong – we do not have any relations with them.”⁴
Sources
食安問題50嵐曾有塑化劑風波
沒有省啦幹，你這樣也要扣分
“50嵐皆採取全省分區經營模式 ，因各地區之營運成本”
謝謝您提醒我們!我們未來會更注意用詞
北區代理跟中部代理人都有做中國的投資擴店，這樣為什麼不用扣分？還列在推薦名單內⋯
我覺得要附註南部50嵐才推薦消費吧？
中北部的分數不應該這麼高！
您好，感謝您的回饋！因為我們一開始設定是以品牌為單位去評分，50嵐狀況特殊，我們團隊討論之後會做出相應的調整。