--- description: Find out why Yum China was selected for the inaugural list title: TIME100 Most Influential Companies 2021: Yum China image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1e5ff1114c2a1986/698a18e4096a9428d06a94d4/yum-china-time100-companies.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Apr 22, 2021 # Yum China Inventing the future of fast food by [Eben Shapiro](/author/eben-shapiro/) ## Eben Shapiro Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Eben Shapiro is the former deputy editor of TIME  Joey Wat, CEO of Yum China in Hong Kong on March 21, 2019. Joey Wat, CEO of Yum China in Hong Kong on March 21, 2019.Anthony Kwan—Bloomberg/Getty Images It’s a little bit ironic that the most American of all industries, fast food, is being revolutionized by a Chinese company. Under the leadership of CEO Joey Wat, Yum China operates more than 10,000 restaurants in 1,400 cities in China and has revenues of over $8 billion. As restaurants around the world scrambled to set up contactless payments and home-delivery networks to serve germophobic customers, Yum’s previous investments in digital infrastructure paid off: digital orders accounted for 83% of Yum’s KFC and Pizza Hut sales in the most recent quarter, a 22% increase. Yum China is also known for setting the pace in new-product innovation: it experiments with hundreds of new food offerings a year, such as salted-egg-yolk rice rolls and sweet pumpkin congee, with best sellers added to menus. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/time100-companies/5950008/yum-china/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/time100-companies/5950008/yum-china/"},"headline":"Yum China","datePublished":"2021-04-22T19:25:08.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-02T23:48:41.710Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/time100-companies/5950008/yum-china/","keywords":["Lists","franchise","TIME100 Companies"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1e5ff1114c2a1986/698a18e4096a9428d06a94d4/yum-china-time100-companies.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Eben Shapiro","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/eben-shapiro/"}],"creator":"Eben Shapiro","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1e5ff1114c2a1986/698a18e4096a9428d06a94d4/yum-china-time100-companies.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/time100-companies/5950008/yum-china/","name":"Yum China"}}]}] ```