Want Want
Corporate brand
UnclaimedAn Asian food and beverage brand best known for rice crackers, snack foods, and milk drinks.
Last updated November 4, 2026
AI crawler reads
No AI crawler has read this profile since Oct 28, 2026.
Overview
Want Want is a Taiwan-founded food and beverage brand and the consumer-facing flagship of Want Want Group. Its corporate origins trace to Yilan Food Industrial Co., established in 1962 as a producer of canned foods for contract manufacturing and export. Tsai Eng-meng joined the business in the 1970s and took operational control in 1977. After an unsuccessful early attempt to develop products independently, the company shifted toward branded rice snacks and pursued technical cooperation with Japan's Iwatsuka Confectionery. That relationship helped establish the production capabilities behind the brand's rice-cracker business. The Want Want name emerged in Taiwan in the early 1980s, alongside the company's recognizable child mascot, Wangzai. Rice crackers, including Want Want Senbei and related varieties, became the foundation of the business. The brand combined Japanese rice-snack technology with locally adapted packaging, auspicious language, festival distribution, and high-frequency advertising. This approach helped it become a leading rice-snack brand in Taiwan and gave it a distinctive visual and verbal identity. Want Want expanded into mainland China during the early 1990s. It registered the Want Want trademark there in 1989 and established a production operation in Hunan in 1992. The company selected Changsha rather than beginning in the most competitive coastal markets, and subsequently built a broad manufacturing and distribution network. Mainland China became the group's principal operating market and the main base for the scale of its food business. The portfolio broadened from rice crackers into milk drinks, dairy products, candies, baked snacks, puffed and extruded snacks, beverages, and other packaged foods. The best-known products include Want Want Snow Cake, Want Want Senbei, Wangzai Milk, Wangzai Small Mantou, Wangzai QQ Candy, and O-Pao fruit milk. Packaging and advertising consistently use the Wangzai character, bright colors, repeated slogans, comic performance, and deliberately exaggerated situations. Older television campaigns built strong recognition among children and families, while later digital campaigns adapted the same playful identity for social platforms, animation, short video, nostalgia marketing, and product collaborations. The group's corporate structure has changed over time. Want Want Holdings was listed in Singapore in 1996, subsequently delisted and reorganized in 2007, and China Want Want Holdings Limited was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2008. The listed company is the principal public-market vehicle for the group's food operations. Beyond food and beverages, Want Want Group has also developed or invested in businesses associated with media, hotels, healthcare, insurance, agriculture, and property, although packaged food remains the brand's central consumer activity. Want Want's positioning is broad and mass-market rather than narrowly premium. Its products are sold through supermarkets, convenience stores, traditional retail, e-commerce, and institutional or regional distribution networks. The brand's strength comes from combining inexpensive, accessible snacks with unusually persistent brand codes: the Wangzai mascot, red-and-white packaging, rice-snack formats, family sharing occasions, and humorous advertising. Its principal strategic challenge is maintaining relevance as consumers seek healthier formulations, newer flavors, and more contemporary channels while protecting the familiarity that made its core products enduring. Official company materials identify Tsai Eng-meng as chairman, chief executive, executive director, and strategy committee chairman, with Tsai Wang-Chia serving as chief operating officer and executive director.
History
Want Want's roots lie in Yilan Food Industrial Co., founded in Taiwan in 1962 for canned-food manufacturing, contract production, and exports. Tsai Eng-meng joined the family business in the 1970s and assumed operating control in 1977. The transition was difficult: an early product initiative reportedly generated substantial losses, encouraging a strategic move away from dependence on contract manufacturing and toward proprietary brands. The turning point came through rice crackers. Tsai pursued cooperation with Iwatsuka Confectionery in Japan and obtained access to rice-snack production know-how after extended negotiations. The company introduced its own Want Want identity in Taiwan in the early 1980s, supported by the Wangzai child mascot. Want Want Senbei and related rice snacks combined Japanese manufacturing techniques with Taiwanese cultural and retail practices. Advertising connected the products with auspicious language, family occasions, and festival gifting, helping the business achieve strong domestic recognition. The company began preparing for mainland expansion by registering the Want Want trademark there in 1989. In 1992 it established a plant in Changsha, Hunan, becoming an early Taiwan-invested food manufacturer in the province. The group expanded from its initial rice-snack base into a large manufacturing and distribution system. It used scale, local production, broad retail coverage, and aggressive promotion to defend its position as competitors entered the rice-snack category. Mainland China eventually became the group's principal operating market and the center of its food-industry growth. During the 1990s and 2000s, the portfolio widened substantially. Rice crackers and snow cakes were joined by Wangzai Milk, candies, small steamed-bun-shaped snacks, baked goods, puffed snacks, fruit drinks, and other packaged products. The Wangzai character became a durable brand asset across categories. Television advertising relied on repetition, catchy lines, comic acting, and deliberately excessive performance. This style made the products memorable among children and later became a source of nostalgia for consumers who had grown up with the advertisements. Want Want also developed a broader corporate group with interests beyond packaged food, including hotels, healthcare, insurance, agriculture, property, and media. The group's capital-market structure changed as it expanded. Want Want Holdings listed in Singapore in 1996, was delisted and reorganized in 2007, and China Want Want Holdings Limited listed in Hong Kong in 2008. The Hong Kong-listed company became the principal public vehicle for the food business. In the 2010s and 2020s, the brand continued to use its established mascot and product symbols while adapting its communications to digital media. It used online animation, short videos, social interaction, nostalgia, limited-edition merchandise, and topical cultural moments. A 2013 company campaign linked Want Want products with a Shenzhou space mission, while a 2021 campaign translated the manufacturing story into a whimsical food-universe narrative associated with public enthusiasm for space exploration. These efforts illustrate a broader shift from television-led repetition to product-centered content distributed through social and video platforms. Want Want remains associated with accessible snacks and dairy beverages, especially in mainland China and Taiwan, while maintaining international distribution across Asian and other overseas markets. Its long-term challenge is balancing heritage products and highly recognizable visual codes with changing expectations around nutrition, product innovation, convenience, and digital commerce. The group's leadership remains closely associated with founder and chairman Tsai Eng-meng, with younger family executives involved in operations and governance.
- 2021
Food-universe digital campaign
[4]A space-inspired short-film campaign turns six products into fictional planets and dramatizes ingredients and production processes.
- 2013
Want Want products travel on a Shenzhou space mission
[1]Company history materials record a space-themed brand exposure campaign involving Want Want products and a company flag.
- 2008
China Want Want Holdings lists in Hong Kong
[3]The food operating holding company joins the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
- 2007
Singapore structure is delisted and reorganized
[3]The group delists from Singapore and reorganizes its food-investment structure ahead of a Hong Kong listing.
- 1996
Singapore listing
[3]Want Want Holdings lists on the first section of the Singapore Exchange.
- 1992
Changsha production operation is established
[8]Want Want opens a Hunan operation and begins building a mainland China manufacturing platform.
- 1989
Want Want trademark is registered in mainland China
[8]Trademark registration precedes the group's mainland manufacturing expansion.
- 1983
Want Want brand is established
[8]The company formalizes the Want Want name and builds its business around rice crackers and related snacks.
- 1979
Wangzai identity enters the Taiwan market
[8]The Wangzai product and mascot help the company re-enter the domestic market with a branded offering.
- 1977
Tsai Eng-meng assumes operating control
[2]Tsai Eng-meng becomes general manager and begins redirecting the business toward branded food products.
Products and positioning
Mass-market, family-oriented packaged food and beverage brand built around distinctive mascot branding, accessible pricing, nostalgic products, and humorous high-frequency marketing.
Rice crackers · 1983
Want Want Senbei
A flagship rice-cracker line and one of the products most closely associated with the Want Want name. It helped establish the brand's Taiwan business and later supported mainland expansion. The range uses the company's familiar mascot-led packaging and is commonly positioned for individual snacking, family sharing, and festival or gifting occasions.
Rice snacks · 1984
Want Want Snow Cake
A sweet, crisp rice snack sold as part of Want Want's core shelf-stable portfolio. Snow Cake extends the brand's rice-based expertise beyond savory senbei and is marketed through the same colorful packaging and nostalgic visual language that defines the wider Want Want range.
Milk beverage · 1996
Wangzai Milk
A sweetened milk drink sold under the Wangzai character identity. It is one of the group's most recognizable beverage products and a major contributor to the brand's family-oriented image. Advertising frequently uses the mascot and playful child-centered situations to make the product memorable across generations.
Baked snack · 1994
Wangzai Small Mantou
Small, dry, bite-sized baked snacks associated with the Wangzai range. The product extends the brand into a format suited to children, sharing, and convenient everyday consumption while retaining the mascot and bright package design used across the portfolio.
Confectionery
Wangzai QQ Candy
A chewy candy line promoted through playful advertising and simple product demonstrations. Its campaigns use humor and exaggerated challenges to communicate texture and entertainment, reinforcing Want Want's reputation for highly distinctive, memorable commercials.
Fruit beverage
O-Pao Fruit Milk
A fruit-flavored milk beverage remembered for its repetitive, music-led advertising. The line illustrates Want Want's expansion from rice snacks and plain milk into flavored drinks aimed at younger consumers.
Snack assortment · 2020
Tiao Dou Sharing Pack
A sharing-oriented snack product promoted through the online animation series 'A Family That Cannot Resist Tiao Dou.' The campaign emphasized a crisp eating experience, humorous reversals, and the idea that family members of different ages could enjoy the product together.
Controversies
2026
Want Want plans layoffs of about 1,000 employees
Want Want Group is reported to plan layoffs of about 1,000 employees, with nearly 400 already cut, after an internal letter from chairman Tsai Eng-meng described a major operating crisis and called for underperforming staff to be eliminated.
2026
Want Want plans layoffs of about 1,000 employees
Want Want Group plans to cut about 1,000 jobs, with nearly 400 already laid off, according to Caixin, and some departments plan to cut 8% of staff; employees were asked to fill in self-reflection forms that managers score, with the lowest scores possibly being laid off, while top unit supervisors are exempted.
Marketing campaigns
- 2021Want Want Food Universe
Mainland China
Want Want responded to widespread interest in space exploration with a short film that represented six products as separate planets. Microscopic imagery and imaginative factory scenes translated ingredients, sorting, and production into a playful visual story.
Outcome. The campaign strengthened the brand's youthful and imaginative image while using entertainment to communicate manufacturing and product attributes.
- 2020A Family That Cannot Resist Tiao Dou
Mainland China
A six-episode animated series used puns, black-and-white line art, colorful product packaging, and comic reversals to promote Tiao Dou as a crisp snack suitable for family sharing.
Outcome. The serialized format generated discussion among the brand's online followers and demonstrated a product-centered approach to social content.
- 2013Want Want and Shenzhou space exposure
Mainland China
Company history materials describe Want Want products and a company flag accompanying a Shenzhou spacecraft mission, linking the brand to a high-profile national space theme.
Outcome. The activity provided distinctive cultural visibility for the brand and became part of Want Want's corporate marketing history.
- 2000Classic Wangzai television advertising
Taiwan · Mainland China
Want Want built mass recognition through high-frequency television advertisements featuring the Wangzai mascot, repeated slogans, comic scenarios, and direct demonstrations of products such as milk, candy, and snacks.
Outcome. The approach created durable cultural recognition and later became a source of online nostalgia and meme-oriented discussion.
Brand decisions
2020
Launch and promote Tiao Dou sharing snacks through serialized contentProduct launchBackground
Want Want sought to make a newer snack line relevant to younger digital audiences and family-sharing occasions.
Action taken
The brand paired the product with a six-part online animation emphasizing crispness, humor, and intergenerational sharing.
Aftermath
The campaign expanded the brand's social-media touchpoints while keeping the product at the center of the creative idea.
2008
List China Want Want Holdings in Hong KongStrategyBackground
The reorganized food business required a public-market structure aligned with its mainland-centered operations.
Action taken
China Want Want Holdings Limited listed on the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
Aftermath
The Hong Kong-listed company became the principal public vehicle for the group's consumer food operations.
2007
Restructure the Singapore-listed groupStrategyBackground
The group reorganized its corporate structure around the food business after the earlier Singapore listing.
Action taken
Want Want Holdings was delisted from Singapore and the food operations were reorganized under a new holding structure.
Aftermath
The reorganization preceded the Hong Kong listing of China Want Want Holdings in 2008.
1992
Enter mainland China through Hunan manufacturingStrategyBackground
The company sought overseas growth while competition in the coastal Chinese food markets was increasing.
Action taken
Want Want established a production operation in Changsha, Hunan, and developed a mainland manufacturing and distribution network.
Aftermath
Mainland China became the group's principal operating market and the core base for its food business.
Recent events
- Unconfirmed
Reported
Want Want plans layoffs of about 1,000 employees[9]
Want Want Group is reported to plan layoffs of about 1,000 employees, with nearly 400 already cut, after an internal letter from chairman Tsai Eng-meng described a major operating crisis and called for underperforming staff to be eliminated.
- Unconfirmed
Reported
Want Want plans layoffs of about 1,000 employees[10]
Want Want Group plans to cut about 1,000 jobs, with nearly 400 already laid off, according to Caixin, and some departments plan to cut 8% of staff; employees were asked to fill in self-reflection forms that managers score, with the lowest scores possibly being laid off, while top unit supervisors are exempted.
- Unconfirmed
Reported
Want Want chairman calls Q2 performance a 'major operating crisis'[11]
Want Want Group chairman Tsai Eng-meng sent an internal letter to all employees in early August calling the April-June performance shortfall a 'major operating crisis', attributing it to insufficient product innovation, unchanged distributor cooperation, customer loss and declining distributor profits; China Want Want issued a profit warning on July 26 on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange citing slowing traditional wholesale channel sales and rising promotion and staffing costs.
Reported
Want Want Group warns of major operating crisis as Q1 net profit falls 38%[12]
Want Want Group founder and chairman Tsai Eng-meng said in an internal letter dated August 14 that the company's first-quarter results missed expectations and it faces a major operating crisis, with total revenue down about 6% year on year and net profit down 38% for the three months ended June 30, 2026.
Wangwang Group wins 2019 New Domestic Goods award[13]
Wangwang Group received the 2019 New Domestic Goods Annual Trendsetting Model Award at an event held in Shanghai on October 31.
Sources14 sources
- 1Want Want Group official historywant-want.com
- 2Want Want Group executive directorswant-want.com
- 3Want Want Groupzh.wikipedia.org
- 4Want Want advertising and food-universe campaign analysisdigitaling.com
- 5Tiao Dou online animation campaign analysisjiemian.com
- 6Want Want advertising history and creative styledigitaling.com
- 7Yilan Food Industrial is establishedzh.wikipedia.org
- 8Wangzai identity enters the Taiwan marketzh.wikipedia.org
- 9旺旺计划裁员约1000人163.com
- 10旺旺计划裁员约1000人163.com
- 11旺旺董事长将二季度业绩定性为「重大经营危机」163.com
- 12旺旺集团预警重大经营危机 一季度净利锐减38%finance.sina.com.cn
- 13旺旺集团获“2019年度新国货”年度国潮榜样奖news.hsw.cn
- 14旺旺裁员，让员工自己递刀163.com
Cite this profile: Cite the canonical profile. /brand-wiki/旺旺 · Editorial policy · How profiles are compiled