McDonald’s and KFC are at odds

Wen| Source Sight Wang Yan

McDonald’s is going further and further on the road to letting itself go.

On March 5, McDonald’s issued a document saying that it would launch a new AI product on March 10, and said that it would stay tuned. On the pre-heating poster released by McDonald’s officials this time, 3.14159 P.AI and other pie related content appeared, which also seems to imply that McDonald’s will launch a new pie series.

Source: McDonald’s official Weibo

This is not the only time McDonald’s has attracted attention recently. On March 3, some netizens posted a comparison of the decoration styles of the same McDonald’s store in 2009 and 2025, with an article saying: McDonald’s has quietly become an emotionless middle-aged man.

On March 4th, the entry #McDonald’s Becomes an emotionless middle-aged Man #hit the hot search list on Weibo. McDonald’s official account posted a response that day: ? I am in a good mood, and said that people who like to eat McDonald’s are in a good mood.

Source: McDonald’s official Weibo

In addition to self-marketing, although McDonald’s and KFC, the old rivals, have always had a point-to-point competition and continued secret battles since entering the China market, the two companies have always been relatively restrained in their styles in terms of mass marketing and will not have too many too straightforward confrontations.

However, in the past two years, McDonald’s marketing style has become extremely active, and it even chooses to directly face old rivals.

 Go against McDonald’s

While KFC ‘s Crazy Thursday messages continue to be on the screen, McDonald’s seems unwilling to stay behind for a long time and make frequent marketing moves. Recently, between McDonald’s and KFC, the most eye-catching thing is a promotional poster.

In many cities, a red, yellow and white poster is erected at CFC bus stops and other places. Just when netizens subconsciously thought that this must be another KFC’s hoax, they took a closer look and found that it was actually a masterpiece of McDonald ‘s.

Photo by Source Sight

The color matching of this poster is actually very close to KFC’s daily promotional picture, among which CFC is the abbreviation for Cage Free Chicken.

It is understood that CFC is the chicken product label launched by McDonald’s China in June 2024 to illustrate the breeding model of the white chicken it selects, including non-cage breeding, chicken house site selection, flat-floor environment, grain-fed feeding, etc. A series of requirements and standards.

What’s more interesting is that many netizens found that most McDonald’s CFC posters are not far from KFC stores. In addition, McDonald’s also issues time-limited coupons on the APP and launches offline activities that allow chicken dolls to take photos next to the billboard and check in with fans. The latter can receive free fried chicken at the store with their CFC password.

It can be seen that the core of McDonald ‘s war on KFC this time is fried chicken products. Compared with KFC’s original finger-sucking chicken and other products, although McDonald’s has been working hard on chickens in recent years, it has always been overshadowed by KFC in terms of market volume.

Previously, McDonald’s was also controversial because it was exposed that chicken wings in some restaurants were not hand-wrapped in powder in stores but were processed uniformly by factories. Consumers believed that its fried chicken had no scales and no soul.

Everything we are doing today seems to imply that McDonald’s is declaring war on KFC. The chickens we make are the most authentic.

Although KFC has not responded to McDonald’s approach so far, for many consumers, it may not matter who makes fried chicken more authentic and delicious. What everyone wants to see is to see these two foreign fast food giants poke each other from time to time.

In the current Internet environment, McDonald’s’s CFC-maker confronts KFC head-on. Although it is a unilateral provocative action, it may also be a win-win marketing event that both parties are happy to see.

While promoting fried chicken and other products, the brand also attracts consumers ‘attention to the category of foreign fast food. When consumers have a dispute over whose fried chicken is better, they will also take the initiative to go to the stores of the two brands. Place orders and taste them for comparison.

 McDonald’s accelerates localization

From the perspective of brand marketing, whether they sell hamburgers or fried chicken, McDonald’s and KFC have always hoped to occupy the minds of local consumers in China. The other side of the two brands ‘love and kill each other is their localized operation in the China market in recent years.

Compared with McDonald’s, KFC localized and opened stores in the China market early, and spun off Yum China, which is responsible for China business. Watching its competitors move faster and faster, McDonald’s closely followed suit and the speed of localization began to increase.

In 2017, CITIC Capital Holdings, Carlyle Investment Group and McDonald’s reached a strategic cooperation. McDonald’s China changed its name to Golden Arch (China) Co., Ltd., entering the Golden Arch era.

The change in equity has obviously promoted McDonald’s market expansion. With the support of CITIC Capital, the number of its restaurants has increased from 2500 in 2017 to more than 7600, becoming McDonald’s second largest and fastest-growing market in the world.

Behind this, CITIC Capital’s various advantages in resources are naturally inseparable. For example, it allows McDonald’s to establish strategic cooperation with many real estate developers and obtain multiple new high-quality store addresses every year.

In terms of localization of menus and products, with the support of local supply chains, McDonald’s has also been making localization attempts to incorporate Chinese flavors and ingredients, such as introducing Chinese food such as fried sticks for breakfast, launching spicy chicken burgers, spicy chicken thigh burgers, etc.

With its positioning increasingly like a local China company, it is not difficult to understand why McDonald’s can be more down-to-earth and self-reliant in marketing.

 The confrontation is getting fiercer

Behind the commercial war like open and secret, the current market competition for foreign fast food is becoming increasingly entangled.

The latest financial report shows that McDonald’s global full-year consolidated revenue in 2024 will be US$25.920 billion, a year-on-year increase of 2%, consolidated operating profit will be US$11.712 billion, a year-on-year increase of 1%, and net profit will be US$8.223 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 3%.

However, this performance was only described as moderate growth. Among them, same-store sales in the international licensing market division, where China is located, fell 0.3% in 2024, and increased by 4.1% in the fourth quarter.

But McDonald’s has not stopped expanding, with plans to open 1000 new stores in China by 2025.

KFC’s situation in China is somewhat similar to McDonald’s. For the full year of 2024, Yum China’s total revenue reached US$11.3 billion, a year-on-year increase of 5%(excluding the impact of foreign currency conversion); core operating profit was US$1.2 billion, a year-on-year increase of 12%.

However, as same-store transaction volume rose and total revenue hit a record high, Yum China’s same-store sales growth has gone downhill. In 2024, Yum China same-store sales will fall by 3% year-on-year. During the period, KFC same-store sales fell 2%, and Pizza Hut fell 5%.

KFC, which is also facing pressure from single store growth, has also launched a radical expansion plan. In 2025, Yum China plans to add a net 1,600 – 1,800 stores, reaching 20,000 stores by 2026.

At the same time, KFC will also use the franchise model to speed up the opening of stores. It predicts that in the next few years, the proportion of franchise stores in KFC’s net new stores will gradually increase to 40%-50%, and Pizza Hut will increase to 20%-30%.

In the expansion process, under the current trend of parity and sinking demand in the China market, and in the close fight between these two fast food brands, the competition between product prices and costs, store growth and single store profitability will become a seesaw battle.

The most important thing is that more and more local brands are also joining the battle for the fast food industry. For McDonald’s and KFC, whether it is a first-and second-tier city, a county town or a small town, it is inevitable that there will be fewer and fewer locations for them to open stores. nbsp;