It's All About Competition Not Protectionism That Evolved Jollibee

A fat American Peter Griffin lookalike (who claims to be an "expert of the Philippines") says that protectionism made Jollibee prosperous. This is really pretty much WTF saying that if Jollibee had to deal with competition -- it wouldn't rise up and evolve! Yes, it took six years for Jollibee to kick off but there was some competition. Don't tell me there weren't any competition for Jollibee during its time?

Here's an interesting facts about Jollibee from Filipiknow which proved it did pass through COMPETITION:

In 1975, 22-year old Tony used family savings to open two Magnolia ice cream parlors in Cubao, Quezon City. The franchise was a hit, thanks to excellent customer service and bigger scoops of mouth-watering ice cream. To reach a larger market, Tony’s team sought the help of management consultant Manuel Lumba who later found out that the public was craving for hot snacks such as hamburgers. Despite threats from international brands such as McDonald, Tony officially transformed his store into a burger chain by 1978. The rest, as the cliche goes, is history.

You can think that Jollibee already had SEVERAL threats such as the McDonald's franchise. It started off as just merely an ice cream parlor. Competition made its founder Tony Cancaktiong decide to expand with hamburgers. They had to find several advantages and create their burgers that would definitely win with price and taste. The threats of international brands caused Jollibee to evolve from an ice cream parlor into the food chain it is today.

Okay, this fat guy says that protectionism is the new thing. However, just look at the countries where Jollibee invests in -- they are ALL free markets. Which countries are these? You have the following countries where Jollibee manages to invest because of free trade and NOT protectionism. Here's something that Manila Times has to say about some places where Jollibee is building:

Internationally, Jollibee will focus on expanding its Highlands Coffee brand in Vietnam, which is now said to be that country’s number one coffee chain. The company is banking on Vietnam’s growing economy and large young population to drive this brand.

“Our second biggest market is China and then United States, but Vietnam is the fastest growing and it’s understandable because Vietnam is also one of the fastest-growing economies in the world. It’s growing more than 6 percent and it has also a young population and also the size of the consumer sector, especially in the fast food, is still very strong,” Baysa said.

Jollibee said it would also increase its presence in China, Indonesia, Kota Kinabalu in Malaysia, London, Sydney, and Japan, where it deferred its planned entry last year. In London, the company is set to open a Jollibee store.

“For Malaysia, we are doing it first in the eastern part, Kota Kinabalu. There are a lot of Filipinos [there] so we first focus on the Filipinos and then start spreading,” he said.

By end-2018, Jollibee expects to have a total store network of 4,200 across all brands.

So tell me are countries like China, U.S., Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Japan, Hong Kong, Canada, London and Syndey protectionist? You will hear of Jollibee opening in communist countries like Vietnam and China -- it's because of economic liberalization. Do you think Jollibee can operate in North Korea and Venezuela? Fat chance because those countries are protectionists where nationalism is used as a facade to hide their governments' selfishness. Instead, Jollibee prospered internationally where free trade is. Jollibee would have to compete with McDonald's then they have to create different varieties worldwide where they probably get at least 50% of shares to operate. Their local partners and them have more or less a fair profit sharing to go.

If Jollibee was forever pampered by the Philippines then think it will never evolve. It would probably still remain as an ice cream parlor. Instead, Tancaktiong decided to evolve it because there's competition. By surviving against international brands -- Jollibee soon went from a Filipino brand to an international brand and not because of protectionism!