Chinese giants in the services sector are betting big on Brazil. After the arrival of the online retail platform Temu in June 2024, the country is preparing to welcome two more major multinationals. On May 11, during President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s visit to China, the food delivery company Meituan announced an investment of 5.6 billion reais (€879.7 million) in Brazil to launch its operations by the end of 2025. The following day, on May 12, ice cream and tea chain Mixue also unveiled a 3.2 billion reais investment plan to open its first stores in Brazil in the coming months.
These announcements have marked a turning point in China-Brazil economic relations. In 2023, nearly 72% of Chinese investment in Brazil – totaling $1.63 billion – was concentrated in the energy and automotive sectors. The arrival of these new players represents, therefore, “a migration of Chinese investment toward services,” said Livio Ribeiro, an economist specializing in China at the Foundation Getulio Vargas.
According to Ribeiro, this diversification is partly explained by the current Chinese economic context. With a slowdown in activity, notably caused by the prolonged real estate sector crisis, the country has faced “a lot of uncertainty about the pace of consumption growth,” he said.
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