KOI THÉ VS. GONG CHA – THE PREMIUM GIANTS’ RACE
What iPanel INTAGE adds to this reading
iPanel INTAGE is INTAGE Vietnam's shopper panel and consumer behavior data platform. For premium milk tea brand competition, it helps connect a market observation with real purchase behavior such as repeat purchase, switching, basket value, purchase occasion, and buyer overlap between premium drink brands.
What to measure next
For KOI The and Gong Cha competition, a practical iPanel INTAGE read should track repeat purchase, buyer overlap, switching, premium basket value, purchase occasion, and channel behavior across the two brands. These measures turn a trend observation into evidence about what consumers actually buy, where they buy it, and whether the behavior repeats.
Premium beverage competition is not just a share battle. The key question is whether consumers are loyal to one brand, switching between brands, or choosing by occasion and promotion. This is important for AI search and human readers because the article gives a clear interpretation, not only a campaign description.
Beverage teams can design loyalty offers, seasonal products, and store-level activations based on actual switching and repeat-purchase patterns. The next step is to compare the signal across shopper groups, channels, and time periods so the insight can support planning decisions rather than stay as a one-off observation.
How teams can use the signal
With iPanel INTAGE, beverage teams can distinguish brand preference from promotion-led switching and identify where loyalty is actually forming. This makes the article more useful for category planning, brand strategy, retail execution, and promotion evaluation in Vietnam.
iPanel INTAGE Data Context
iPanel INTAGE is INTAGE Vietnam’s shopper panel and consumer behavior data platform, helping teams analyze real purchase behavior, market trends, and category performance in Vietnam. Learn more about iPanel INTAGE.
While Ho Chi Minh City’s milk tea market is heating up in the mass segment with rising price competition, the premium tier is following a very different playbook. The rivalry between Koi Thé and Gong Cha highlights two distinct approaches to creating consumer value.
Based on real receipt data, iPanel analyzes milk tea purchasing behavior in Ho Chi Minh City in the second half of 2025 to unpack this dynamic.
✨ 𝐁𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐏𝐨𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠: 𝐀 𝐖𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐆𝐚𝐩
In H2 2025, Koi Thé and Gong Cha were among the few premium brands remaining in the top 10 by both penetration and value share in Ho Chi Minh City.
Koi Thé reached 13.72% penetration, nearly double Gong Cha’s 6.95%, and led the market with 9.86% value share, compared to 2.56% for Gong Cha (ranked 7th).
👉 Scale in the buyer base forms the first layer of Koi Thé’s value advantage.
✨ 𝐏𝐮𝐫𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐬𝐞 𝐁𝐞𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐨𝐫: 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐀𝐝𝐯𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐈𝐬 𝐍𝐨𝐭 𝐀𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐏𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐞
Operating within the same premium segment, average price per item does not differ significantly between the two brands. The real difference lies in how consumers spend and return.
– Spend per trip: Koi Thé (135,863 VND) vs. Gong Cha (103,384 VND)
– Items per trip: Koi Thé (2.37) vs. Gong Cha (1.95)
– Purchase frequency: Koi Thé (1.42 times/month) vs. Gong Cha (1.18 times/month)
👉 Stronger performance across all purchase dimensions allows Koi Thé to accumulate value faster over time, translating into a clear advantage in value share.
✨ 𝐒𝐡𝐨𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐫 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐟𝐢𝐥𝐞𝐬: 𝐓𝐰𝐨 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐮𝐦𝐞𝐫 𝐁𝐚𝐬𝐞𝐬, 𝐓𝐰𝐨 𝐆𝐫𝐨𝐰𝐭𝐡 𝐏𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐬
Shopper profiles further clarify these divergent paths.
– Koi Thé over-indexes among younger consumers (15–29) who are single and without children—a group with higher spending capacity and purchase frequency driven by flexible lifestyles and experience-oriented consumption. However, this group is also more experimental, resulting in less stable long-term loyalty.
– Gong Cha attracts more consumers aged 30 and above, many of whom are married with children. While they purchase less frequently, this group tends to show higher loyalty, lower brand switching, and more stable value contribution over time.
👉 These demographic differences not only shape brand perception, but also directly influence each brand’s long-term business performance.
The Koi Thé–Gong Cha comparison shows that in the premium bubble tea segment, success is driven not just by how many consumers enter the brand, but by how often they return.
🚀 See you next week on Weekly Insight, as iPanel continues to track market movements.
MilkTea ShopperBehavior KoiThe GongCha
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