Save our suds from the big beer bullies_美文_趣味英语-查字典英语网

Save our suds from the big beer bullies

That piece, titled "China's New Craft-Beer Bully" outlined global beer behemoth Anheuser-Busch InBev's attempts to muscle in on the Chinese market at the expense of local players.

Apparently, the "heart of its strategy" is to "squash—or someday soon acquire—small breweries before they have a chance to capture market share". It does so by undercutting smaller operations, leveraging its size and ability to throw money around.

The reason why is simple — it doesn't want to miss the craft revolution, like it did in the US.

By offering eye-watering sums of cash, big brewers like AB InBev can induce bars to remove all competing brands from their taps. Not all outlets will do so, but many — as the Fortune article points out — struggle to turn down the kind of money that's on offer.

China's current regulatory environment also favors these big foreign companies — in the US, brewers can't monopolize the beer a bar offers or control distributors, but there are no such restrictions here.

Rules around product safety, meanwhile, prevent many local craft brewers from running in-China bottling operations, which again puts them at a disadvantage.

At present, craft beer only accounts for a tiny fraction of China's estimated $80 billion-per-year beer market.

But as the country gets ever wealthier and the size of its middle class increases, tastes will change. Perhaps it's high time to rethink policies that favor the big beer bullies over homegrown entrepreneurs?