(Yicai) June 20 -- Starbucks China today announced it has partnered with the American owner of hotel brands Waldorf Astoria, Hampton, and DoubleTree to link up the pair's membership programs.

Starbucks' members can join Hilton's membership program and vice versa through the pair's mobile applications to earn more benefits, the Chinese arm of the Seattle-headquartered coffee chain said.

Starbucks is facing intense competition in China. In the first fiscal quarter, the company boosted same-store sales by 10 percent year-over-year but each transaction tallied 9 percent less.

The American chain is not participating in China's coffee price wars, Yicai learned. Instead, it explores other avenues of growth. In the second fiscal quarter of this year, the company launched 27 new products in China, doubling from a year ago. It also invested in supply chain and digitalization, establishing the Starbucks China Coffee Innovation Park in Kunshan and the Starbucks China Innovation and Technology Center in Shenzhen.

China's coffee market has grown to comprise different segments, Zhu Danpeng, vice president of the Guangdong Food Safety Promotion Association, said to Yicai. Starbucks does not need to cater to everyone's tastes. As long as it captures the mid-to-high-end consumer group, it can basically maintain stable business volume, revenue, and profit growth, Zhu added.

Belinda Wong, chairwoman and chief executive of Starbucks China, said earlier that Starbucks aims for high-quality, profitable, and sustainable growth, solidifying its leadership in the premium segment.

Editor: Emmi Laine