Twosome Place连续3个月超过星巴克韩国，7月刷卡额1170.5亿韩元对1100.6亿韩元

The top spot for card spending among coffee franchises has been under new ownership for three straight months. Twosome Place has repeatedly edged out Starbucks, while Mega MGC Coffee is also raising its profile with monthly spending approaching 100 billion won.
According to Mobile Index from IGAWorks, an artificial intelligence (AI) data company, Twosome Place's estimated credit and debit card spending last month totaled 117.05 billion won, data showed on the 5th. Over the same period, Starbucks came in at 110.06 billion won, trailing by about 7 billion won.
The reversal began in May. In statistics over the past three years, May of this year marked the first time Twosome Place surpassed Starbucks in monthly spending.
At that time, Twosome Place recorded 123.65 billion won and Starbucks 121.19 billion won, a gap of 2.5 billion won. In June, the gap widened significantly. Twosome Place held at 120.68 billion won, while Starbucks fell to 100.39 billion won, a difference of 20.3 billion won. Combining the three months from May through July, Twosome Place totaled 361.38 billion won and Starbucks 331.64 billion won, a gap of more than 29.7 billion won.
After first surpassing 100 billion won in monthly spending in May last year, Twosome Place maintained spending in the 100 billion won range for 15 consecutive months through last month.
However, the trend shifted in July. Starbucks' spending rose 9.6% from the previous month, while Twosome Place's declined 3.0%, narrowing the gap again. This is why some say it remains to be seen whether Twosome Place will solidify its lead or Starbucks will reclaim the top spot.
The race for third place is also tightening. Mega MGC Coffee's spending last month was 98.21 billion won, up 1.6% from the previous month, approaching the 100 billion won mark. Paik's Coffee held at 24.5 billion won, similar to the previous month.
'Tank Day' on May 18... A Marketing Mishap That Escalated into a Boycott
The point at which the rankings began to shake overlaps with the period when Starbucks was embroiled in trouble over a marketing phrase. Starbucks Korea held a tumbler discount event starting May 15, assigning names to each date, and labeled the event on May 18—the anniversary of the May 18 Democratization Movement—as "Tank Day." The promotional image even included the phrase "tak on the desk."
Both expressions immediately drew criticism. The criticism was that "tank" recalled the martial law troops deployed to Gwangju in 1980, while "tak on the desk" recalled the false explanation given by police during the 1987 torture death of activist Park Jong-chul. On social networking services (SNS) and online communities, a boycott movement spread along with reactions that it was hard to view as coincidental.
The company changed the event name to "Tank Tumbler Day" and replaced the problematic phrase with "ttak during work," but the backlash only grew. As criticism continued that the company had effectively admitted the problematic nature of the phrases, it ultimately halted the event entirely and made the related page private.
Son Jung-hyun, CEO of Starbucks Korea, issued an apology the same day, saying he apologized to the spirits of the May 18 victims, the May groups, the citizens of Gwangju, and the bereaved family of activist Park Jong-chul. He also said the company would conduct training for all employees and strengthen prior review procedures to prevent a recurrence.
Immediately after the controversy, Starbucks' weekly spending and new app installations both declined. The industry views that while the growth of Twosome Place and low-cost coffee brands had continued even before this incident, the shift in the competitive landscape accelerated as brand trust wavered and consumer defections overlapped.