But Zhang Hongchao, now a billionaire several times over, has a quiet answer. In a rare 2023 interview, he said: “I don’t want to be the Apple of ice cream. I want to be the chopsticks of ice cream — everywhere, useful, and nobody thinks about it twice.”

So the next time you see that grinning snowman, don’t ask if it’s good. Ask why you’re already holding a cone.

The sign is unmistakable: a cartoon snowman wearing a red imperial crown, grinning like he knows a secret. The secret? You don’t need to be fancy to be unstoppable. In 1997, a young man named Zhang Hongchao opened a shaved-ice stall in Zhengzhou, central China. He had no investors, no marketing budget, and one broken freezer that thawed every afternoon. He sold bowls of sweet red beans over crushed ice for pennies.