Answer Tea franchised 250 stores off a Douyin hit — on a trademark it didn't own

Answer Tea (答案茶) was a 'fortune-telling' milk tea launched in late 2017 by Henan Mengmou Network Technology, a Zhengzhou startup whose founder Gu Tiefeng had run the errand-service UU Paotui. A customer wrote a question on the cup; a printed 'answer' appeared under the lid. In January 2018 clips went viral on Douyin: within two months the brand drew 350,000 followers, 1.13 million likes and views past 100 million. People queued for hours.

Mengmou turned the traffic into franchises immediately. The first franchise signed on 17 January 2018; within roughly three months it had signed about 250 stores across 27 provinces. To each franchisee it promised a 500-metre zone of exclusivity — no second Answer Tea inside it.

The promise was unenforceable, because Mengmou did not own the name. The '答案' (Answer) trademark belonged to Nanjing Kerunte Intelligent Technology; Mengmou held only a licence, and not an exclusive one. Multiple companies — including a Guangzhou firm and a Henan 'Answer Tea Catering' — claimed the rights too. As clones opened, the zone protection Mengmou had sold could not be kept: a franchisee's neighbour could open an identical 'Answer Tea' under another licence and Mengmou could not stop it.

Franchisees who had paid for exclusivity found none. At the Zhengzhou Erqi Wanda store, franchisees blockaded the premises and demanded their money back. Stores closed in waves; the founding trio of partners — Zhang Jinrui, Zhu Feng and Gu Tiefeng — all quietly left in July 2018, and a manager, Hong Shanshan, took over what one report called 'a battered brand'.