$5.29 per pound is the average price of ground beef per pound in the US.
$4.70 per pound is the average price of chicken breast per pound.

The highest sold beef product sells on average for 12% more over the highest selling chicken product.

Comparing that with other countries.

$2.84 is the cost per pound of beef in China. This is also beef as a whole, not a specific product from it. Right after it’s no longer a cow.
$1.65 per pound is the price of chicken though.

A 72% price gap between beef and chicken in China.

Another interesting number, who actually eats beef and chicken?

89% of American’s eat both beef and chicken weekly.

Comparing that now to India.

40% of India is vegetarian.

43% of women eat chicken weekly.
48% of men do.

Beef though, only about 7.5% of people in India eat beef on a monthly basis.

The point of mentioning both those points?

KFC has 8,100 locations in China.
674 in India

Comparing that to McDonald’s, they have 300 stores in India and 3,500 stores in China.

KFC has 25,000 locations globally, but only 3,800 are based in the US.
McDonald’s has 38,000 stores, but 13,400 are US based.

McDonalds is over one third American, but KFC is around 15%.

This edge KFC has growing long term is Asia, where beef is much more expensive than chicken and different regions have dietary preferences which avoid beef.

There’s a lot of people trying to come up with reasons for the success of KFC in Asia.

“It tastes better there.”
“They came early.”
“They lied to the Japanese, saying American’s eat KFC on Christmas.”

All are somewhat true, but the biggest reason is just that chicken as a signature product gives them an edge over beef.