Last year Chinese energy drink sales reached 5 billion yuan, registering an annual growth of 45%, according to the market research group China Investment Research Consultant.
When Coca-Cola began looking for a suitable Chinese version of its name after launching the drink there in 1927, it found that some local shopkeepers had produced homemade signs using Chinese characters to replicate the sound of the words "Coca-Cola, " without noticing that the characters in combination could be read as "female horse fastened with wax" or "bite the wax tadpole, " according to Coca-Cola researchers.
Soft-drink consumption is relatively tiny in developing nations: The Chinese average 23 servings a year, compared with Germans' 344 and Americans' 872.