The encyclopedia · Strategy & Leadership · Strategic decision · 2018–2019
Instant-noodle cafés: China's 2018 fad charged ¥30 for ¥5 ramen and died in a year
Stores serving instant noodles — 20 to 80 yuan a bowl, under 5 at home — spread across China in 2018 on short-video hype and closed en masse from 2019.
泡面小食堂 · 宜百味 · 泡面英雄 · 2019
What happened
In 2018, 泡面小食堂 (instant-noodle cafés) became one of China's fastest-spreading food fads: hundreds of registered franchise accounts opened stores across the country, selling the same instant noodles that cost under 5 yuan at a supermarket — served in styled bowls for 20 to 80 yuan, with operators advertising gross margins of 80%.
The concept imported a South Korean trend and rode short-video hype to a one-time check-in visit. There was no repeat business — a customer could make the same bowl at home for a fraction of the price — and franchise chains such as 宜百味 and 泡面英雄 grew by selling the store-in-a-box dream to newcomers just as traffic peaked.
From 2019 the closures came en masse: reports of shuttered stores in Nanjing and Changsha surfaced as the fad cooled, and by 2021 the concept was largely gone, with industry watchers saying a store that survived half a year had done well.
Why it happened
- The product was a commodity at a tenfold markup: a bowl that costs under 5 yuan at home sold for 20–80 yuan, with nothing else on the table — no reason to come back existed.
- Growth was hype, not demand: short-video virality recruited franchisees and customers at once, so supply overshot demand within months — hundreds of stores chasing one wave of attention.
- The franchise machine amplified the bust: operators sold the 80%-margin story to franchisees, who paid for fit-outs and franchise fees just as foot traffic collapsed.
The lesson
A store whose product is a photo opportunity has a fixed lifespan: hype fills it once, and nothing brings the customer back. The instant-noodle café had no reason to exist beyond the trend.
Aftermath
The fad became the archetype of the 网红店 (internet-famous store) bubble in Chinese business media: the franchise chains faded with it, and the pattern — a photogenic commodity at a huge markup, hyped by short video, dead within a year — repeated across later food crazes.
Sources
- 网易 (NetEase), 2019 — 泡面小食堂观察 (spread across China in 2018 on short-video hype; hundreds of registered accounts; franchise chains 宜百味 and 泡面英雄; bowl prices of 30–40 yuan; Nanjing and Changsha stores closed; from 2019 closures en masse; a store surviving half a year counted as lucky)
- 搜狐 (Sohu), 2021 — 泡面小食堂为什么开不下去了 (by 2021 the instant-noodle café stores were largely gone; no repeat customers; the fad's rise and fall)
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