Red Bull is the king of the energy drink industry.
It sells upwards of 4 billion cans each year and dominates its main competitors Monster and Rockstar with a 40 percent market share. Red Bull now has a presence in more than 160 countries around the world and it employs around 8,000 people.
The man behind Red Bull's meteoric rise is Austrian entrepreneur Dietrich Mateschitz. He came up with the idea in 1982 while sitting at a bar in Hong Kong's Mandarin Hotel when he learned about the popular "tonic drinks" in Asia.
Here's how he and his Thai partner, Chaleo Yoovidhya, came up with Red Bull and made it such a huge success.
This is Krating Daeng, the Thai product invented by Yoovidhya that would eventually become Red Bull
Krating Daeng is a non-carbonated energy drink popular in Thailand, based on the Japanese energy drink Lipovitan, and South Korea's Bacchus-F, which were imported into the country. Its ingredients include water, cane sugar, caffeine, taurine, inositol and B-vitamins.
And yes, Krating Daeng means "red bull" in Thai (well, "red gaur" to be exact).
When Mateschitz hired a market research firm to gauge interest in the product, it said Red Bull would fail
From Kerry A. Dolan at Forbes:
Before launching, Mateschitz hired a market research firm to test Red Bull's acceptance. The result was a catastrophe. "People didn't believe the taste, the logo, the brand name," he recalls now with a smile. "I'd never before experienced such a disaster."
He ignored the recommendations, and went on with his project.
He first introduced Red Bull in Austria, where it was the only product of its kind
Mateschitz cofounded Red Bull with Yoovidhya in 1984 (they each own 49 percent of the company, with Yoovidhya's son owning the final 2 percent), and they got TCBG Pharmaceutical to help adapt and manufacture it for the Western market.
It debuted in 1987 in Austria, entered its first international markets (nearby Hungary and Slovenia) in 1989, but didn't enter the U.S. until 1997.
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