This case study examines the meteoric rise of Mixue, China’s largest freshly-made beverage chain. It compares Mixue with the business model of Starbucks. It highlights Mixue’s aggressive overseas expansion—particularly in Southeast Asia—by leveraging partnerships with smartphone distributors.

This case follows the entrepreneurial journey of Wang Ning, founder of POP MART, the leading player in China's booming pop toy industry. POP MART initially struggled in an unfamiliar market environment but achieved rapid growth after strategically pivoting to innovative IP-based toys and leveraging the blind-box business model, capturing the consumption preferences of Generation Z.

The case examines DeepSeek, the Chinese AI startup that shook global markets in 2025 when its groundbreaking models caused Nvidia shares to plummet 17% in a single day while its app surpassed ChatGPT on Apple's App Store. Founded in 2023 by Liang Wenfeng, DeepSeek achieved what seemed impossible—creating a world-class AI model at just 1-5% of competitors' costs.