As cafes multiply, so do 'coffee cats'

On May 12, American ice cream brand Haagen Dazs refurbished one of its key outlets in Shanghai's Nanjing Road and began switching up its products.

It added ice cream to glasses of coffee and marketed the new store as its first global coffee shop. In April, English fashion designer Vivienne Westwood set a small corner of the brand's global flagship store in Shanghai as, again, its first coffee shop worldwide.

Earlier this year, KFC initiated an ad campaign on the city's mobile screens in metro trains, taxis and buses about "a serious cup of fresh grind" offered by the fast food chain, almost five years after McDonald's began selling coffee at its restaurants.