Matthew Yglesias » The Lure of the East

Jul 21st, 2009 at 8:28 am

The Lure of the East

Eric Rauchway posted this map showing per capita Coca Cola consumption around the world in 1996:

It’s fascinating to consider how much money could be made if 15-20 years from now consumption in China and India is up to the level currently seen in, say, Brazil. Coke’s most recent annual report indicates that Chinese consumption of Coca-Cola Company products increased from eight servings per capita in 1998 to 28 in 2008.

Comments
25

25 Responses to “The Lure of the East”

stras Says:
July 21st, 2009 at 8:43 am
It’s fascinating to consider how much money could be made if 15-20 years from now consumption in China and India is up to the level currently seen in, say, Brazil

Fascinating, and gross. Coke’s operations are destructive to human rights and the environment, and there’s a damn good reason why it isn’t terribly popular in India right now.
bc Says:
July 21st, 2009 at 9:11 am
Yeah, Coco-Cola can blow me. In bed with Wal-Mart AND a major funder of a batshit creationism museum. The only question for me is to wonder how much deeper they can sink.

Not that Pepsi is any better.
Contractor Usa Guide Says:
July 21st, 2009 at 9:12 am
Wow, loving the two photos you posted. You got potential. Please come visit my site Contractor Painter Business Directory when you got time.
musa Says:
July 21st, 2009 at 9:22 am
Whoever made this map has a poor understanding of how to, um, make maps like this. This looks like a Mercator projection, which is usually best avoided when giving details like this. I can barely even see the countries of Central America. I would suggest a Peters or a Robinson projection here.
As Coca-Cola Takes Over the World « The Daily HIT Says:
July 21st, 2009 at 9:34 am
[...] 21, 2009 by Daniel Redwood, DC From Matthew Yglesias blog today, a chart on worldwide Coca-Cola consumption in [...]
Daniel M. Laenker Says:
July 21st, 2009 at 9:37 am
stras: I was going to bring up the controversies of Coca-Cola’s operations in India, but you already did. And yes, Indians are unfond of Coke for a number of reasons.

Contractor Usa Guide: You do realize this is one of the most widely-read blogs on the Internets, right? Hearing someone I’ve never heard of try to lecture Matt Yglesias on “potential” is strange at best.
James Gary Says:
July 21st, 2009 at 9:51 am
Hearing someone I’ve never heard of try to lecture Matt Yglesias on “potential” is strange at best.

Well, it’s not really surprising to hear it from a web-crawling bot that can’t count to two, either.
Ashok Khosla Says:
July 21st, 2009 at 10:02 am
I’d echo comment #6 by Daniel Laenker. There is a “coke” in India. It’s called Thumbs Up – it’s native made, and is more suited to Indian tastes. That said, Coke/ThumbsUp is (mostly) only a drink foreigners have in India.

Same can be said for China.

The idea that you can grow a market for Coke in China is often used as an example of false strategy in biz school. It’s as one wit put it, a zero-billion dollar market.
Jeremy Says:
July 21st, 2009 at 10:24 am
After moving to Japan, I basically cut out drinking Coke. The only time I ever have it anymore is when I go to the movies, which in itself is a rare occasion (although even there, I usually just have a beer).

The wide availability of tea is probably why. I was amazed going home to Indiana this spring and not being able to find a decent drink sold in the convenience store.
Brett Says:
July 21st, 2009 at 11:03 am
That was a very fascinating chart. Who knew that Chile, Norway, and Greece were massive coca-cola consumers?
Brett Says:
July 21st, 2009 at 11:04 am
To add-

Some of the others weren’t so surprising. Mexico wasn’t – I remember a Mexican professor I had semi-seriously referring to Coca-Cola as the Mexican National Beverage.
MosBen Says:
July 21st, 2009 at 11:18 am
I’m pretty sure i remember hearing a story recently that china blocked coke’s attempted buyout of local juice company, which was seen as coke’s attempt to break into the chinese market.
vanya Says:
July 21st, 2009 at 11:30 am
It looks like Anderson Valley, Australia is now firmly in the red. I guess Becker won.
Chilly Says:
July 21st, 2009 at 11:51 am
Damn you Vanya! You beat me to it by a hair.
85º vs Starbucks Says:
July 21st, 2009 at 12:15 pm
Frappucinos seem to have locked up the cold, caffeinated, syrupy beverage market in urban China already.
Adam Villani Says:
July 21st, 2009 at 12:48 pm
Aren’t a lot of Chinese people, at least older ones, averse to drinking cold beverages?
Taubes-bot Says:
July 21st, 2009 at 1:08 pm
Its fascinating to think of how much money could then be spent on treating diabetes and other metabolic syndrome diseases in these countries!

I think Coke should buy a pharmaceutical company or three…
Dilan Esper Says:
July 21st, 2009 at 4:07 pm
Another country on that map with lower Coke consumption is Peru. That’s because the local product Inka Kola (which tastes like carbonated bubble gum) is popular.
Steve Sailer Says:
July 21st, 2009 at 5:20 pm
Colas aren’t very popular unless they are refrigerated. Poor countries usually start with orange soda pop because more people find its taste tolerable when warm. As countries progress up the economic ladder to having more refrigeration available, colas become more popular than orange sodas.
Dan Cock Says:
July 21st, 2009 at 7:26 pm
Ashok –

Thums Up is now owned by Coca-Cola.
Keith M Ellis Says:
July 21st, 2009 at 10:55 pm
It looks like Anderson Valley, Australia is now firmly in the red. I guess Becker won.

As an alumnus of St. John’s College myself, I found it a strange and unexpected detail of Becker’s bio that he was a johnnie (seen briefly in the shot of the teletype containing said information). He didn’t seem like a johnnie to me; more like a some business school graduate.

For those not aware, we’re referring to the 1985 film, “The Coca-Cola Kid” about a Coke agent who attempts, and fails, to establish a foothold for Coca-Cola in a remote Australian region already happily home to a native soft-drink manufacturer.
Evan Says:
July 21st, 2009 at 11:14 pm
Equally fascinating is the amount of money made by drug companies and other healthcare companies taking care of the people who will inevitably develop all the soda-induced illnesses that we have. According to the new head of the CDC Friedman, 30% of the avg American’s caloric intake is from soda.
Colatina Says:
July 22nd, 2009 at 2:45 am
I am unfortunately addicted to HFCS-sweetened soft drinks and I like Coke. And I seriously doubt that I drink 250 10 oz servings of it per year. Are they counting Sprite, Diet and all “Coke” soft drinks.

“Inka Kola (which tastes like carbonated bubble gum)”

I tasted an Inca Cola once and I thought that it tasted like the cheap yellow suckers you get at the bank. In other words, it was awesome.

A less developed industrialized countries like those in Latin America are going to have their local bottlers and brands. But I don’t think they have any chance, long-term, against Coke. Brazil has Guarana which most Brazilians think is better than Coke (rightly). So Coke bought the most popular brand. The other major brand of Guarana is I think owned by a major Brazilian beer maker.
Dilan Esper Says:
July 22nd, 2009 at 2:49 am
I like Inka Kola. (I like bubble gum too.) But that’s exactly what it tastes like– take the same artificial flavors in bubble gum and add carbonated water.

In any event, it is wildly popular in Peru and reduces Coke’s market share as shown in the map.
ViewFromMidtown Says:
July 24th, 2009 at 6:49 pm
Wow, Coke is a large company with its share of problems but there’s a good bit of misinformation in these comments. For example, Coke is NOT a “major funder of a batshit creationism museum”. Having the best-known trademark in the world and being so closely associated with America as a symbol makes the company a target for all sorts of attacks from those with agendas in other countries, not to mention some in the US.

The post says the volume was in Coca-Cola Company products, not just the mainline brand. That means sodas, coffee, teas, water, sports drinks, juices and juice drinks, etc. Jeremy might be surprised how many teas Coke produces and Ashok Khosla, they seem to be doing just fine growing their Chinese market.

Matt Yglesias

The Lure of the East

25 Responses to “The Lure of the East”

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