What does Huawei's coffee move mean for coffee knowledge?

Huawei exclusively invested in Jiangsu Bageai Coffee Operation Co., Ltd.'s tens-of-millions-yuan angel round, backing a 24-hour unattended shared coffee and tea space. The company had earlier applied to register the trademark "One Standard Coffee Absorbs Cosmic Energy," which is no longer findable. No physical coffee shop has opened.

The move fits a broader pattern of non-food conglomerates entering coffee-related projects since the sector heated up. For Huawei, coffee and tea appear to be ancillary services in an independent third-party space, and the company seems to value coffee's connective value as a global medium more than retail beverage sales.

In recent years, the coffee sector has continued to heat up, with giants from various industries vying to enter the fray. Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. previously applied to register the trademark "One Standard Coffee Absorbs Cosmic Energy." Although it has not opened a physical store, its coffee strategy has not come to a halt. Recently, Huawei exclusively invested in Jiangsu Bageai Coffee Operation Co., Ltd.'s tens-of-millions-yuan angel round financing, drawing widespread attention. This 24-hour unattended shared coffee and tea space provides an independent third-party space, reflecting Huawei's judgment on the future trends of intelligent perception and shared spaces. Coffee and tea here are more of an ancillary service, and what Huawei values may be coffee's connective value as a global medium.

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In recent years, coffee has become a hot field pursued by giants across industries. Whether capital tycoons inside or outside the food and beverage circle, they have successively invested in or ventured into coffee-related projects.

In May last year, Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. submitted a registration application for the trademark "One Standard Coffee Absorbs Cosmic Energy" (hereinafter referred to as "One Standard Coffee"), with the international classification falling under food and beverage and accommodation. (This trademark can no longer be found at present.)

As soon as the trademark registration news came out, many people speculated whether Huawei was going to enter the coffee shop industry. Although subsequent developments showed that this was not the case, it was enough to show that Huawei was trying to use coffee's internet-famous effect to attract traffic. At the same time, it also hoped to use the Western habit of drinking coffee to convey the ideas of openness, communication, and exchange, thereby achieving Huawei's strategic thinking: a bucket of paste binds Huawei's strength, and a cup of coffee absorbs cosmic energy.

Although "One Standard Coffee" did not materialize as a physical store, Huawei's coffee strategy did not stop there. Recently, reports said that Huawei had made its latest exclusive investment in a coffee shop.

On February 8, Jiangsu Bageai Coffee Operation Co., Ltd. secured tens of millions of yuan in angel round financing, exclusively invested by Huawei, with Zhongyueju E-commerce serving as financial advisor.

Public information shows that this is a 24-hour, unattended shared coffee and tea room dedicated to providing customers with an independent third-party space, suitable for business negotiations, gatherings with friends, leisure and entertainment, and other scenarios. The room is equipped with tea sets and coffee equipment, and customers can use the relevant facilities by themselves after renting the shared space.

The funds injected by Huawei in this round will mainly be used for research and development of Bageai's core technologies, product iteration and upgrades, implementation of industry application scenarios, and market promotion.

In 2017, Huawei CEO Ren Zhengfei pointed out during a speech at the Cameroon representative office that a coffee shop is merely a place for communication. No matter when or where, opportunities and places for communication are everywhere, and its form should not be understood narrowly.

A Huawei managing partner once said: "The future development trend of intelligent perception is real-time, online, and miniaturized." These remarks also seem to reveal that Huawei has a strong interest in small shared-space projects and believes this will become a future trend. Coffee and tea play only an ancillary service role in them.

Whether now or in the future, intelligence is a direction to which many food and beverage brands attach great importance. As people's pace of life continues to pursue speed and convenience, the demand for shared independent spaces will also grow increasingly.

In November 2021, Starbucks took the lead in taking this step by opening a new multifunctional space on the first-floor lobby of an office building, incorporating shared office elements and further strengthening its integration with coffee culture.

The concept of the "third space" has always been emphasized by Starbucks. That is because they know well that when customers walk into a coffee shop, it is not just for a caffeinated drink; they also hope to find a place to breathe in a busy life. These new multifunctional spaces are precisely a better concretization of the "third space" concept.

A "simple" cup of coffee can connect people with one another. What Huawei values more may be precisely coffee's function as a global medium. What investors focus on is not coffee itself, but the role the word "coffee" can play.

Image source: Internet

The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.