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On August 2, Burger King China announced that it will launch the "Signature Burger, 9.9 Yuan Every Week" campaign on August 5, which will last until September 1. During this period, Burger King will launch a high-quality burger at a great value of 9.9 Yuan every week.

The reporter of China Business News noted that this is the lowest-priced hamburger product in the history of Burger King. Previously, some hamburgers may have been priced lower, but they all had consumption thresholds, such as a single purchase of more than 20 yuan to get it, so the overall customer unit price has increased.

It's not just Burger King. Since 2024, many brands have reduced the price of hamburgers to less than 10 yuan. In February this year, KFC launched "designated hamburger coupons" in some cities, with an average price of 10 yuan per hamburger. In July this year, McDonald's launched a daily "10 yuan burger" event for several consecutive weeks.

Burger King's Chief Marketing Officer Tang Junzhang said that now is a good time for the hamburger category to quickly penetrate the Chinese catering market. In terms of market size, Burger King has a clear gap with its competitors, and currently does not have enough resources to create a category IP with sufficient influence, so it may make the momentum and scale bigger to make more people willing to try Western fast food chains. Currently, Western chain restaurants account for less than 3% of the entire catering market.

In Tang Junzhang's view, promotions during the consumption upgrade period are symbolic "discounts" based on high unit prices, but now catering companies are offering promotional prices to consumers regardless of cost. This is especially true for Western fast food chains, whose original unit prices were not high. After the big promotion, the prices are even lower than the cost of cooking at home.

As early as 2021 to 2023, many fast food brands had several rounds of price increases, but this year, the pricing of leading brands has been withdrawn. Price wars have not only appeared in the Western fast food chain track, but also in the hot pot track.

Data released by the China Cuisine Association show that the national catering market showed signs of recovery in the first half of this year, but at the same time, the catering industry has seen revenue growth but no profit growth. The China Cuisine Association analyzed that price wars, homogeneous competition and increasing cost pressure are the main factors causing the current phenomenon of "increased revenue but not increased profits" in the catering industry.

The decline in average order value of leading brands has caused the price war to spread to the entire industry. After the price war, what ultimately matters is the comprehensive strength of the companies.