This document summarizes a comparative analysis of two steamboat restaurants located in different geographical areas - Goh Huat Seng Restaurant in Penang and Tupai-Tupai Restaurant in Klang Valley, Malaysia. It analyzes their competitive traits such as number of competitors, market share, pricing strategies, menu items, and obstacles faced. Overall, it determines that Tupai-Tupai Restaurant is more commercially successful due to offering a wider variety of differentiated dishes and being located in a more strategic area with parking.

1. SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, BUILDING AND DESIGN
THE DESIGN SCHOOL
FOUNDATION IN NATURAL BUILD ENVIRONMENT
Assignment: Comparative Analysis of 2 Businesses of Similar Industry in
Different Geographical Locations
Group Members:
Name Student ID
Abdul Qayyum Shahmie 0320220
Audrey Ting Ming Fang 0320247
Chow Kah Yien 0320300
Fong Wen Ying Cynthia 0320499
Lam Wee Wee 0320129
Lim Zi Shan 0320372
Nurafiqah Zariful 0321196
Sim Chia Ting 0320932
Principles of Economics [ECN30205]
Lecturer: Chang Jau Ho
Submission Date: 22nd May 2015

2. 1
TABLE OF CONTENTS
No. Content Page
1. Key Summary 2
2. History of Steamboat Restaurants 3 - 4
3. Brief Bio of the Businesses
3.1 Goh Huat Seng Restaurant
3.2 Tupai-Tupai Restaurant
5 – 10
4. Comparative Analysis of the Competitive Traits 11 -18
5. Recommendation 19– 20
6. Appendices 22 – 26
7. References 27 -28

3. 2
1. KEY SUMMARY
In this assignment, a group of 8 would have to collect data and then
analyse regarding two businesses of similar industry in different
geographical locations.
We chose steamboat restaurants as they are very popular among
Asians and can be easily find anywhere. Among the restaurants we
chose are: Goh Huat Seng Restaurant from George Town and from
Klang Valley we chose Tupai-tupai Restaurant.
We would study how they obtain the desired level of market share
and profits. This also includes the effectiveness of different
strategies, number of competitors, nature of product or services sold
and the size of the market. Lastly, we will compare and state which
business is more effective and successful both commercially and
competitively.
(117 words)
>> YouTube link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWqQ58e2X5k
(Goh Huat Seng Restaurant vs Tupai Tupai Restaurant)

4. 3
2. HISTORY OF STEAMBOAT RESTAURANTS
Hot pot is also known as
steamboat in most
countries near us such
as Singapore, Malaysia,
Thailand and even in the
Philippines, as it is
famous among the East
Asians. Typical hot pot
dishes include thinly
sliced raw meat,
vegetables, mushrooms,
dumplings and seafood. These raw food are to be place into the
pot while it is still boiling with a soup of your choice, normally
placed in the middle of the table. The cooked food is then usually
dipped with a dipping sauce depending on the restaurant but
peanut sauce is the most famous.
In many years, hot pot meals are often eaten in the winter during
supper time by the Chinese and Japanese, and since we have
interviewed a Chinese steamboat restaurant, we would talk
about the Chinese history. The Chinese hot pot has a history of
more than 1000 years and seem to have originated in Mongolia
and Jurchen and slowly spread to southern China during the
Tang Dynasty. In time, it developed with different types of other
ingredients such as seafood. By the Qing Dynasty (AD 1644 to
1912), the hot pot became instantly famous throughout China.
Today, in many modern homes, even in the big cities and the
rural areas, this traditional coal-heated steamboat or hot pot still
continues and has been replaced by electric, propane gas or
induction cooker versions.

5. 4
In Malaysia and Brunei, even the Muslims have start evolving
their own style for hot pot. They even made halal versions of hot
pot but still in a Chinese way. Combination of hot pot and
barbecue is also very well known in most places. We all decided
that we should interview a traditional restaurant to maintain the
custom and history of hot pot.
Since steamboat meals have interesting history and Malaysia
has quite a number of restaurants around, we decided to
interview steamboat restaurants. According to the
food.malaysiamostwanted.com, there are already almost 98
steamboat restaurants in whole Kuala Lumpur. Hence, the two
restaurants we mentioned before.

6. 5
3. BRIEF BIOGRAPHY
We have chosen to interview steamboat restaurants and among
the restaurants we found and managed to interview was:
i) Goh Huat Seng Restaurant, Penang
ii) Tupai Tupai Restaurant, KL.

7. 6
3.1 Goh Huat Seng Restaurant
It is currently located at 59-
A, Lebuh Kimberley,
George Town, Penang. We
managed to interview Mr
Ru Fa and since this is a
family business from his
grandfather, Ru Ying Bao,
this restaurant has no
branches at all and planned
to not have branches
because he wants to maintain and keep this business a small
and limited only-family business. Hence, there are only a
maximum of 10 employees during the peak hours. Most of the
employees are family members and only two are maids from
Vietnam that they trust and had been with them for a long time.
Mr Ru and his family live just
above their restaurant and this
makes things so much easier
and convenient for them. The
late Mr Ru Yin Bao and Hwang
Jia Ti decided to start this
business just below their house
to have a better focus and
concentrate on this restaurant. Since Penang is quite of a
traditional old Town, Ru family has been living in the shop house
above the restaurant since the early 1970s and only decided to
open a steamboat restaurant in 1977.
As Malaysians, we all know that the extra 6% of government
service tax (GST) has a big effect on most businesses and for Mr

8. 7
Ru Fa, the supplier charge him 6% of the ingredients such as
fish, pork and so on. Although the supplier charges him with
GST, Mr. Ru Fa did not charge his customer for the GST
therefore the price on the menu still remain the same. Also, the
materials such as charcoal and other utility charges are the only
little changes.
Penang has about 10 potential steamboat restaurants, like the
famous Town Steamboat (火锅之家) and the Yi Bing Qing Fish
Head Restaurant but Mr Ru is thankful for what he has and the
little things he has helped his family to achieve. He said, ‘I don’t
really mind about the competitors, I can’t compare myself with
the other restaurants, my restaurant is a traditional and family
business while the others are big
corporations and such.’ Goh Huat
Seng Restaurant’s most famous
dish is what makes the customers
loyal - Teochew Fish Head soup
that is braised in a small golden
spot as seen in the picture on the
right. This restaurant is not a halal
restaurant, as it serves pork balls
and marinated pork sliced meat. Mr Ru added that there are
surprisingly not many customers in the afternoon but instead, the
restaurant will be packed with locals and even foreigners.
There would always be Japanese tourists and Korean tourists to
come and dine here every night, that is why there are Japanese
writings in the latest menu. Besides that, the peak hours are also
during weekends and this is where the 10 employees come in
handy. There would even be reservations during weekends from
about 5pm to 8pm; roughly about 300 plus customers a night and

9. 8
Mr Ru have seen Caucasians, Thai and even Indians from India!
He believes it is because of the tripadvisor.com.my that helps
promotes his family business as seen below.
Goh Huat Seng Restaurant has a Facebook page but it is not
active and Mr Ru Fa is confident that even if the page is not
updated, people would still come over and enjoy the delicious
food they serve. Mr Ru Fa have always live by the saying his
great grandpa’s motive of setting this restaurant - ‘Keep the
Teochew tradition and this restaurant alive.’

10. 9
3.2 Tupai-tupai Restaurant
It is in a spacious clearing of an old bungalow behind Dewan
Bahasa and the Pustaka building, this restaurant is one of the
most unique restaurant because of the beautiful design and
coziness that can change your mood once you enter the
restaurant. It is at 551A & B Jalan Bukit Petaling, Off jalan Istana,
Bukit Petaling, Kuala Lumpur; a rather secluded area. Mr. Nizam,
the owner and also the son of the founders of the Tupai Tupai
Restaurant, agreed to allow us to interview him and to clear our
curiosity as well.
We interviewed him, since this is a family business that was
founded by his father, it is up to him now to manage this
extraordinary steamboat restaurant. This restaurant has two
branches, the 16 years old and still running KL branch and the
new one that is located in Shah Alam and has been running for 6
years now. The restaurant we went to is the first branch that
opened 16 years ago.

11. 10
Mr Nizam claimed that his parents’ purpose to start this
restaurant is because most steamboat restaurants are Chinese
cuisine and are not halal and their passion towards food and
beverage industry. They decided to take the risk and try
something new, they innovated steamboat but in a halal way, no
pork. In this way, obviously everyone even the non-Muslims can
enjoy halal steamboat too.
This Tupai Tupai restaurant does not only serve steamboat but
also ala-carte food like their most famous Black Pepper fried rice,
well this is a mixture of Chinese and Malay fried rice; and not to
mention their Tom Yam with air kelapa (coconut water) that taste
really unique! Moreover, it is a better chance in business
investment and it is easier for them to succeed in the food and
beverage industry.

12. 11
4. Comparative Analysis of the Competitive Traits
I) Number of Competitors:
For the Goh Huat Seng steamboat restaurant located in Penang,
it has a total number of two competitors around the restaurant
which are Restaurant Town Steamboat and Yi Bing Qing Fish
Head Restaurant. For the Tupai-tupai steamboat restaurant
located in Klang Valley, there is only one competitor around the
restaurant which is XMQ KL Steamboat Restaurant.
Figure 4.1
Figure 4.2
Figure 4.1 and 4.2 are the location of competitors near Goh Huat
Seng.

13. 12
Figure 4.3
Location of competitor near Tupai-tupai steamboat restaurant.
II) The Market Share of The Business:
Since both of the steamboat businesses, Goh Huat Seng
Steamboat restaurant and Tupai-tupai Steamboat restaurant are
family business therefore the family members of both business
hold the shares of the business.
III) Brief Bios of Business Top Competitors:
Town Steamboat Restaurant is located at 63, Lorong Macalister,
10400 Penang, Malaysia. Their business hour for steamboat
business opens at 6pm daily. Their Dim Sum business hour
opens at 9.00a.m to 3.00pm during weekdays. For weekends
and public holidays, their Dim Sum business open from 8.00am
to 3.00pm. They serves a variety of foods such as seafood, fish
balls, meats, all types of sauces and a variety of veggies. They
mainly serve chinese cuisines. Yi Bing Qing Fish Head
Steamboat Restaurant is located at 16, Jalan Nyabor,
Georgetown, Malaysia. Their steamboat business hour opens
daily from 6.00pm to 1.00am. Their signature dishes are curry

14. 13
fish head, fish head soup and Tom Yam soup. The average price
for one person is from RM11-Rm20. Yi Bing Qing Fish Head
Steamboat Restaurant is a restaurant that serves chinese food
cuisine. XMQ KL Steamboat Restaurant is located at Jalan
Maharajalela, 50150, Kuala Lumpur. Their business hour is from
12.00pm to 12.00am. XMQ KL Steamboat Restaurant is special
for their Hunan Spicy Steamboat. They are offering pork free
cuisine.
IV) Strategies to Compete With Competitors:
❏ Pricing,
1. Goh Huat Seng Steamboat Restaurant.
The pricing strategies that Goh Huat Seng Steamboat
Restaurant used is that they have more variations of
ingredients in the set menu but still charge customers at a
cheap price. Their fish head soup are only RM60 with
unlimited refill of soup. Even after GST has been executed,
they still maintain the same price.
2. Restoran Tupai-Tupai
Restoran Tupai-Tupai is an “all-you-can-eat” buffet
steamboat restaurant. The price for adults are RM29 per
pax and RM15 for kids with age from 4 to 11. The price also
includes some other additional dishes such as fried rice,
fried noodles and desserts. Their price rate for weekdays
and weekends are the same.

15. 14
❏ Food,
1. Goh Huat Seng Steamboat Restaurant
The best thing about this restaurant is that the steamboat is
powered by charcoal and it can maintain its intense
temperature which keep the broth in high degree. According
to the reviews from www.tripadvisor.com.my, most of the
customer loved their fish head broth and their normal broth.
Other dishes that are strongly recommended are their
oyster omelette.
2. Restoran Tupai-Tupai
Restoran Tupai-Tupai serve 48 varieties of fish balls,
seafood, meat, and stuffed beancurd, four types of
mushroom, six different vegetables and five kinds of
noodles. The “ayam kampung goreng” of the restaurant was
quite well-known as well. Not just only steamboat buffet,
they also serve a la-carte mixed rice with variety of local
Malaysian foods.
❏ Location,
1. Goh Huat Seng Restaurant
Most of their competitors also located at Georgetown in
Penang. The location of Goh Huat Seng Restaurant is very
easy for customer to find because it was located in the
centre of George Town.

16. 15
2. Tupai-Tupai Restaurant
Located in the middle of KL city. It is easy for the customer
to find the restaurant. The restaurant is located behind the
landmark Dewan Bahasa and Pustaka building and that is
why most of their customers that came to their restaurant
are those who work in the building.
V) Obstacles Faced by New Businesses:
1. Capital:
The obstacles that faced by new businesses is capital.
Restaurant owners need enough capital to run their
business. Owners should plan to have at least enough
money to run for one year. They need enough financial
resources to cope with unexpected costs and increases.
2. Competition:
Besides capital, new businesses will face a lot of
competition in the firm. New businesses need to strive in
order to survive in the firm. They need to compete for
customers with the other businesses. In the meantime, they
need to think of the ways to maximize the profit.

17. 16
VI) Nature of The Market:
Both Tupai-tupai Steamboat Restaurant and Goh Huat Seng
Steamboat Restaurant are monopolistic competitive firm. This is
because there are many sellers in the market. Besides, the
barriers to entry are relatively weak. This means that news firms
can enter and exit the market easily. Moreover, the businesses
have weak pricing power. Since there are many firms in the
monopolistic competitive market, the firms cannot charge a high
price. Furthermore, the firms sell differentiated products to
increase pricing power and protect their profits from competitors.

18. 17
VII) Comparative Analysis Summary Table:
Competitive Traits Business A
(Penang Based)
Business B
(Klang Valley Based)
1. Number of
Competitors
10-50 10-50
2. Barrier to Entry Weak, business requires
less capital, has weak
advertising.
Strong, business requires
high capital, has their own
regular customers, location
is close to crowded area.
3. Differentiated or
Standardized
Products
Standardized Product Differentiated Products,
Black Pepper Fried Rice
and Udang Air Kelapa
4. Pricing Power Price Taker, broth can
be made at home and
ingredients could easily
found in hypermarkets.
Price Maker, some of the
dishes are not commonly
found in other restaurants.
5. Obstacles - Fresh ingredients
are hard to be found
- Takes a lot of time
to make preparation
- Limited parking lots
6. Verdict Monopolistic
Competition
Monopolistic Competition

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VIII) Conclusion Of The Report:
Restoran Tupai-Tupai is more commercially successful. Even
though Restaurant Goh Huat Seng has been established for a
longer duration than Restoran Tupai-Tupai but people nowadays
prefer restaurants that provide different kinds of dishes for them
to choose. Restoran Tupai-Tupai is also located at a more
strategic location which also provide parking lots for their
customers as most of their customers are there for lunch break
and could save their time looking for parking spaces. Moreover,
Restoran Tupai-Tupai have more staffs that could prevent the
situation of unable to take care of the customers’ orders and
requests. Restoran Tupai-Tupai also have a more arranged
system where all their staffs have their own specialised job.

20. 19
5. Recommendations
5.1. Goh Huat Seng Restaurant
Limited Access of Parking
The lack of parking spaces might also be one of the main
reasons why customers are driven away from the restaurant.
There isn’t much space for parking due to the location of the
restaurant that is located by the roadside. It is recommended for
the manager to provide parking spaces mainly for Goh Huat
Seng Restaurant’ customers.
Better Appearance on The Menu & Place
On every restaurant, people would always get excited in looking
through menus, especially when the menu are unique and fancy,
making customers to have an enthusiast mood to eat. But in Goh
Huat Seng Restaurant, the menu was made from a normal
coloured A4 paper, un-laminated and only being stapled
together. They should improve the menu on laminating them and
maybe provide pictures for easier reference for the customers to
choose their meals.
The place was well spaced, but it was obviously seen that the
place have not been renovated for awhile. The walls were dirty
and some of the tiles and ceilings were rusty. Displaying the
menus on the wall with a piece of paper was also not a good
idea. What they should do is improve some of the main
furnishings such as changing the tiles to new ones, repaint the
wall and add few designs to attract more customers.

21. 20
Provide Halal Ingredients
Steamboat restaurant can rarely be found around the area,
making Goh Huat Seng Restaurant consist of least competitors.
Although Muslims are not many to be found around the area too,
but there are maybe some that loves steamboat but wouldn’t be
able to eat because this restaurant is a non-halal restaurant.
They could separate the menu providing halal ingredients and
soup mainly for Muslims.
5.2. Tupai-tupai Restaurant
Promoting More From Social Networks
Mr.Nizam, the owner of the business and also a Facebook
account of Tupai-tupai Restaurant, happened to have promoted
their business through online earlier when he first started the
business, but he is now rarely or never have been active in
updating the account. This will lead in decreasing their
customers and other Steamboat lovers wouldn’t have known the
existence of their restaurant, or even tourists. What they should
do is to keep updating their new menus or provide promotions on
special events to attract more customers. The last update on the
website was 19th
July 2014 when one website called
“Hungrygowhere.my” represents Tupai-tupai restaurant as Top 5
Malay dishes in Kuala Lumpur.
Closed on Public Holidays
As mention by Mr. Nizam during our interview, he stated that the
restaurant will be closed every public holidays, which I think is
necessary for the workers, but not for customers. Logic says,
during public holidays can have more customers than working
days, this can be unfair to those who have worked the same time
as Tupai-tupai restaurant’ opening hours and wouldn’t be able to

22. 21
have the chance to eat there. They should have not closed every
public holidays but instead, provide one off day for the workers at
least once a week, preferably during any weekdays, where less
people would go there.
Price Should Be Reduced
Mr. Nizam have said that they have never been changing the
price since 3 years ago, even after GST. But when we saw the
menu, we can say that they are all a little bit pricy. As for
example, the coconut drink cost about RM 6, whereas in most
restaurants, the usual price would be RM 2 or RM 1. This might
lead to a conclusion of why his customers that regularly eats at
his restaurants were high-income workers. By reducing the price
at least to RM 3 to RM 2 they might have increased the numbers
of their regular customers where people wouldn’t have to worry
about the price, most recommended is to make the price almost
as equal as their competitors.
Improve Parking Lot
The parking lot was well spaced, except that they are not well
maintained as the screed has already cracked and feels bumpy.
They could improve the parking lot by paving it, so that
customers won’t have to worry about getting their tyres flat.

23. 22
6. Appendices
● Appendix 1: Survey Questionnaire & Results
Date: 2nd May 2015, Saturday
Time: 4pm - 6pm
Location: Goh Huat Seng Restaurant, Penang
Mr. Ru Fa, grandson of the founder of this restaurant.
Position: Cook & manager
Office contact number: 012 4831225
1. How and when did the business begin?
It is a family business started by my grandparents which is
Ru Yin Bao my grandfather and Hwang Jia Ti my
grandmother in 1977.
2. What is your business hour?
We used to open at 11am to 3pm and 5pm to 9:30pm but
since not much people drop by to eat at the afternoon, we
changed it to 5pm to 9:30pm.

24. 23
3. What is your peak hours?
Saturdays & Sundays, even foreigners would come and eat.
4. Who are your customers?
Middle aged group are the most. About 60% are local and
the remaining are foreigners, from Japan and also Thailand.
5. What is the business’ annual revenue figure?
I prefer not to say, sorry.
6. Do you feel it is easy or difficult to enter this market?
All business would face difficulties but for this restaurant,
since my grandfather started this back in the 1977, the
struggling phase is over now.
7. How many branches do you have?
We do not have any branch at the moment but we do plan
to open one in the future.
8. What are the problems this restaurant face?
Workers especially, most of them are lazy and we need to
always keep our eyes on them. That’s why we do not hire
many foreigners.
9. Did GST affect this restaurant?
Yes, GST did somehow affect us, our customers reduced a
little.
10. What are your strategies to overcome this?
We absorbed the GST, which means we actually earned
less that before.

25. 24
Date: 6th May 2015, Wednesday
Time: 3pm - 4pm
Location: Tupai-Tupai Restaurant
Mr. Nizam, founder and owner of this restaurant
Position: Manager
Office contact number: +603 5126 2525
1) When did Tupai Tupai started?
16 years ago, it is a family business.
2) What is your business hour?
Seven days a week, we open at 12pm to 2pm for lunch and
8pm to 10:30pm for dinner. We are close on every public
holidays.
3) What are your peak hours?
Lunch and during dinner most definitely, we even have people
calling for reservations.

26. 25
4) Who are your customers?
Mostly of our customers are office clerks and basically
people who works around here, lunch or maybe after work
everyday. We often see most of them having promotion
parties here!
5) Was it easy for you to enter this market?
Well, I am sure it was difficult in the beginning when my
parents started this. I took over Tupai Tupai about 3 years
ago and nope, there’s nothing much about having
difficulties to enter the steamboat market.
6) How many branches do you have?
1, this is the HQ (Bukit Petaling) and (Shah Alam) is the
branch that we opened up after we managed to
successfully cope with both places. You should go tp the
Shah Alam branch, it has western crusine there!
7) What are the problems you face?
Like most restaurants, I am sure employees are the main
headache. Most of them are lazy and they slack as much as
they can!
8) Who are your competitors?
Haha, the ikan bakar nearby and the restaurants nearby. I
don’t want to reveal their names here! But again, this is
business.
9) Did GST affected this restaurant?
It does, but we do not charge the customers. We have not
change our prices since 3 years ago and even after GST.

27. 26
● Appendix 2: Brochures

28. 27
7. References
➢ History of Steamboat/Hotpot:
What is hotpot? (n.d.). Retrieved May 17, 2015, from
https://sites.google.com/site/luckyhotpot/about-us-1/about-
hotpot
➢ Hungrygowhere.my,. (2014). Tupai Tupai - Malaysia's Best
Kept Secret. Retrieved 18 May 2015, from
http://www.hungrygowhere.my/dining-guide/tried-and-
tested/tupai-tupai-malaysia-s-best-kept-secret-*aid-
a1513101/
➢ Goh Huat Seng, George Town. (n.d.). Retrieved May 18,
2015, from
http://www.tripadvisor.com.my/Restaurant_Review-
g298303-d1197827-Reviews-Goh_Huat_Seng-
George_Town_Penang_Island_Penang.html
➢ Town Steamboat Restaurant, George Town. (n.d.).
Retrieved May 21, 2015, from
http://www.tripadvisor.com.my/Restaurant_Review-
g298303-d4298286-Reviews-
Town_Steamboat_Restaurant-
George_Town_Penang_Island_Penang.html
➢ Top 7 Challenges Businesses Face Today. (n.d.).
Retrieved May 21, 2015, from
http://www.is4profit.com/business-advice/business-
strategy/top-7-challenges-businesses-face-today.html

29. 28
➢ Yi Bing Qing Fish Head Steamboat (George Town). (n.d.).
Retrieved May 21, 2015, from
http://my.openrice.com/penang/restaurant/yi-bing-qing-fish-
head-steamboat-george-town/336580
➢ Steamboat Restaurants in Kuala Lumpur. (n.d.). Retrieved
May 17, 2015, from
http://food.malaysiamostwanted.com/cuisines/steamboat