Big data is helping create your pizza — at least in Taiwan, where the latest nontraditional topping features a mash of pig’s blood cake and century eggs.
As demand for Western fast food boomed during Taiwan’s recent COVID-19 outbreak, Pizza Hut Holdings LLC scraped social media posts for the most talked about foods, and created word clouds of potential new ingredients.
“We leveraged social listening to understand customers’ preferences,” Pizza Hut Taiwan general manager Antony Leung (梁家俊) said. “Online data also told us that Taiwan customers value local flavors and a food sensation.”
Photo courtesy of Pizza Hut Taiwan
It is not the first time Taiwan has seen an unconventional blend of Western and local ingredients. In 2019, Domino’s Pizza Inc created the boba — a pizza served with sweet tapioca pearls in homage to the popular bubble milk tea.
The fusion stirred a buzz on social media and Pizza Hut came up with its own toppings, including ramen and spicy hot pot. It even made a pizza topped with durian — a thorny fruit with creamy custard-like flesh and a powerful odor.
The latest concoction coincided with growing demand for Western takeaways after the government imposed a nationwide level 3 COVID-19 alert on May 19. While the nation’s food and beverages sector suffered a near 40 percent slump in sales in June, US chains such as Pizza Hut, Domino’s and KFC outperformed with a 3.6 percent rise, data from the Ministry of Economic Affairs showed.
“During the lockdown, consumers preferred meals that are clean, convenient and cheap,” said Ken Chen (程開佑), cofounder of iCHEF, a Taipei-based company that provides analytical marketing for Taiwan’s food and beverages industry. “That all worked in favor for American fast food chains.”
The flurry of demand for nontraditional pizzas also reflects the tendency of Taiwanese to follow trends, said Sungjun Park, an assistant professor at National Chengchi University’s business administration department.
“Taiwan’s Generation Z are constantly looking for attention-grabbing materials to post on Instagram,” he said.
Yum! Brands Inc, which franchises Pizza Hut, KFC and Taco Bell in more than 150 countries and territories worldwide, has followed an “adopt and adapt” strategy, also known as “localization,” in several Asian nations. South Korea has the bulgogi pizza with marinaded BBQ beef; India has butter chicken; while Japan has experimented with natto — a traditional food made from fermented soybeans.
“When international chains want to stabilize market power in a foreign location, this is the go-to method,” Hong Kong-based Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Angela Hanlee said.
The data-generated approach seems to have worked in Taiwan. The latest invention — featuring a street delicacy made of sticky rice and pig’s blood, and preserved eggs — broke Pizza Hut’s previous sales record set by the durian pizza in 2019, Leung said.
One was bought every eight seconds and the creation was sold out just four days after the launch in late June, the company said.
Like previous toppings, it aksi swiftly trended on social media.
Aaron Yan (炎亞綸), a popular Taiwanese singer and actor, with more than 1.6 million followers on Facebook, said in a post the pizza was delicious.
Sandra Chuang, a Twitter user in Taichung, said it was a “very Taiwanese taste.”
“Every now and then, Taiwanese will go crazy over a new popular, well-talked about food,” said Clarissa Wei (瀏覽者), a writer and film maker focusing on food and culture. “Taste does not seem to be their top priority.”
That seemed to be the case for Henry Hung, who works in the information-technology industry in Taipei and turned to Pizza Hut’s latest creation to spice up an “online hangout” with friends during lockdown.
“I only bought the pig’s blood pizza out of curiosity and the temptation to try something weird and new,” he said.
While the “overall taste was acceptable and flavors were balanced,” Hung said he would not order it again.
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