Chinese Restaurant Chains Race Overseas, but the Real Test Is Moving Money

Chongqing - As Chinese restaurant chains expand overseas, the biggest challenge is shifting from customer acquisition to managing payments, cash flow, currency settlement, and multi-market operations.

That shift was on display on May 8 in Changsha, Hunan Province, where global payment platform PingPong signed strategic cooperation agreements with four Chinese restaurant brands: Chongqing hotpot chain Zhuguangyu, tea drink brand Ningji, full-service restaurant brand Green Tea, and dumpling brand Xiongdaye. The companies also launched a global development alliance to help Chinese restaurant brands expand overseas efficiently and at scale through an integrated "Payment+" ecosystem.

POS, supply chains key challenges in overseas expansion

The partnership reflects a wider shift in Chinese restaurant brands' global expansion. After years of focusing on supply chains, branding, and standardized operations, many are now turning to a more technical but essential challenge: financial infrastructure.

The market opportunity is large. According to the China Restaurant Brand Overseas Development Report 2026, released by Hongcan Industry Research Institute, the global Chinese food market grew from 233 billion U.S. dollars in 2020 and is expected to reach 449.9 billion U.S. dollars by 2027. The China Chain-Store & Franchise Association, or CCFA, said more than 200 Chinese restaurant chain brands had opened overseas stores or begun global expansion by the end of 2025.

Tea drink brand Mixue has already opened more than 5,000 stores overseas. In hotpot, brands including Zhuguangyu, Haidilao, and Xiaolongkan are expanding in Southeast Asia, Europe, and the United States.

But the expansion story is becoming more complex as chains move from single-store tests to multi-country operations. Wang Linlin, chief information officer of Yang Guo Fu, a leading Chinese restaurant chain, said that the main digital challenges for large-scale overseas expansion are unifying regional point-of-sale, or POS, systems, connecting global supply chain data, and managing cross-border team collaboration.

Stamp duties and currency risks challenge Zhuguangyu in Malaysia

"In the unification of POS systems, companies need to connect payment channels across multiple overseas markets, ensure real-time exchange-rate conversion, and keep cross-border capital flows secure and compliant," Wang said. "This makes digital construction for chain brands exponentially more difficult."

Zhuguangyu offers a case study. The brand was founded in Chongqing, a municipality in southwestern China, where hotpot is a prominent part of the local consumer economy. It opened its first store in Chongqing's Guanyinqiao area in 2020 and later built a following around its store design and menu items such as lemon tea and tiger-skin chicken feet.

The company announced its overseas push in April 2023, but suspended cooperation one month later. According to founder partner Li Yang, the team had not yet determined the brand's core expression for overseas markets.

Its first overseas market was Malaysia. A 2,500-square-meter directly operated store in Kuala Lumpur officially opened on August 16, 2025. After opening, the store recorded an average of seven table turnovers per day and daily revenue consistently above six figures.

The Kuala Lumpur model reflected both cultural targeting and local adaptation. Malaysia has about 6.9 million ethnic Chinese residents, accounting for 22.6% of the population. Zhuguangyu positioned the store toward Chinese communities and used design elements including red lanterns, Guan Gong statues, and Chinese calligraphy and paintings.

The brand also introduced a "Tracing China" food series, using ingredients from places including Mount Emei, Aba, and Yunnan. Operationally, it set aside more than 400 square meters for an overseas training center and completed the replacement of staff with local employees within six months. It operated nearly 10 private traffic communities, with private-room bookings largely converted through those groups and a repeat-purchase rate above 30%.

The store also adjusted its layout and menu for local habits, reducing 20 open tables, adding 13 private rooms, and introducing a dedicated menu that included M-grade wagyu beef.

Yet Li has said overseas expansion remains difficult. He cited foreign-exchange settlement, capital collection and management across multiple stores, revenue sharing, and account reconciliation as hidden costs that can slow growth.

For the Malaysia store, Li said the financial and cost structure was very different from China. The store faced an 18% stamp duty, losses from multi-currency settlement and exchange, and revenue-sharing challenges under a mixed direct-operation and franchise model.

"Rent, labor costs, and ingredient procurement are all different from China, and the profit model has to be rebuilt," Li said.

PingPong launches “payment+” for overseas restaurant chains

That is where payment companies see an opening. PingPong Vice President Tong Jianlei said that varied local payment methods create checkout difficulties, expanding franchise networks create multi-store accounting challenges, and multi-currency exchange and long payment collection chains can generate foreign-exchange losses.

Founded in 2015, PingPong said it has processed more than 350 billion U.S. dollars in cross-border transactions. The company holds more than 60 global payment licenses and permits, has 38 branches in 15 countries, and operates a payment network covering more than 200 countries and regions. It works with nearly 200 global financial institutions, including Citi and JPMorgan Chase, allowing companies to conduct local-currency receipts and payments in more than 40 countries.

For restaurant chains, PingPong has introduced a "Payment+" overseas ecosystem solution. The system includes front-end acquiring through a single API connection to mainstream local payment methods in Southeast Asia, Japan, and South Korea; middle-stage revenue splitting that lets headquarters set rules for store income, management fees, and supply-chain payments; and back-end remittance through local acquiring, local-currency settlement, real-time exchange rates, and multi-currency wallets.

"Payment has upgraded from a tool to an overseas growth engine," Tong said. He said payment-linked operations, such as membership registration, coupon collection, and community entry, can help brands increase repeat purchases.

PingPong said it has served more than 50 restaurant chain brands, including Luckin Coffee, Ningji, Green Tea, Zhuguangyu, Auntea Jenny, Yuan Ji Yun Jiao, and KKV.

The company has positioned itself as a partner to banks rather than a replacement. PingPong Global Vice President Aaron Xu said cross-border payments are no longer only about receiving and sending money. They also test a platform's compliance, network connectivity, capital efficiency, and localized service capabilities.

For Zhuguangyu, Malaysia is set to serve as its overseas headquarters. The brand plans to expand globally through direct and joint-operation models.

For Chinese restaurant chains, the overseas opportunity is increasingly tied to operational control. As store networks spread across currencies, regulators, and consumer payment habits, digital payment infrastructure is becoming part of the basic system that determines whether brands can scale beyond isolated overseas successes.