KFC, Phuc Long Coffee & Tea most popular F&B businesses on Vietnam social media

KFC and Phuc Long Coffee & Tea were the two most popular food & beverage businesses on social media in Vietnam last year, according to local consulting firm Reputa.

Monitoring 64 million Facebook users, 500,000 YouTube channels, and various news websites and newspapers, Reputa analyzed 7.72 million entries in its 2022 report, in four ratings: positive comments; portion of comments of the business in the sector; total interactions (likes, shares, comments) in the sector; and the reach of information in the sector.

KFC topped the list with a total score of 133.19, nearly triple the runner-up. Reputa attributed KFC’s achievement to strong media campaigns during the country’s holidays such as contests and minigames, attracting great interaction from netizens.

Pizza Vietnam Co. Ltd, the operator of Pizza Hut chain, and Golden Gate Trading Service JSC, managing the Golden Gate restaurant chain, were the two other food firms in the ranking, placed fourth and sixth ranks, respectively.

The list was dominated by beverage businesses with seven names. Phuc Long Heritage Corporation (second place), VN Coffee Tea Service Trading Corporation (third), Highlands Coffee Service JSC (fifth), and Trung Nguyen Group Corporation (eighth) were four companies running Vietnamese products, namely Phuc Long Coffee & Tea, The Coffee House franchise, Highlands Coffee, and Trung Nguyen Legend coffee brand, respectively.

The other three players on the list were milk tea businesses, managing foreign brands of Gong Cha (seventh place), Ding Tea (ninth), and Koi Thé (10th) in the Southeast Asian country.

Discussions low in early and late 2022

Social media discussions in the sector were low with 123,829 in January 2022, amid the raging Covid-19 pandemic. When the disease started to fade away, the number of discussions gradually increased from 237,857 in February to 687,361 in April, then stayed above 800,000 a month from May to October, and slowly fell to 688,277 in November and 659,246 in December.

Adults were the most active people on social media, with people aged between 25 and 34 accounting for 62.05% of the discussions, followed by those aged 35-44 at 24.64%. Young adults, or people between 18 and 24 years old, only accounted for 5.79% of the discussions.

Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City featured the highest number of social media F&B posts last year with 14.94% and 13.1%, respectively, followed by HCMC’s neighbor Dong Nai province with 4.13%, the central province of Nghe An with 3.24%, and the northern province of Quang Ninh with 2.94%.

Among beverages, coffee and juice were the two most popular topics last year, accounting for 38.99% and 25.28% of discussions, respectively, followed by milk tea with 16.99% and tea with 11.02%.

Pie was the most discussed topic for food in 2022 with 36.67%, followed by vermicelli and pho (noodle soup) with 12.36%, and spring rolls and meatballs with 11.07%.