That's not a moat, those are advantages.

Anybody can open a franchise restaurant business, of course not initially having the margins of a well established international behemoth.

A moat is what ASML has, having achieved something others spent many years failing.

A moat is what NVIDIA has with CUDA, against which so much software is written.

An economy of scale, which McDonalds surely has as GP suggested in various areas, supports durable profits. Seems like a moat to me.

Land is the classic cornered resource. Again a source of durable profits. You can’t open up a franchise restaurant on land owned by McDonalds; the profits from traffic earned in that location are not accessible to you.

CUDA is not a moat because it happens to be unique. CUDA provides a moat for NVIDIA due to the high switching costs and network effects it provides.

McDonalds to my knowledge does not have any network effects dynamics going on however they have entrenched switching cost mechanisms in the form of loyalty rewards programs.

If you think McDonalds has no moat you’re dreaming.

Maybe we just have a slightly different definition of moat, mine focusing more on intangible assets and switching costs.

I don't think the land of McDonalds is a moat. A factor increasing profit, sure. But anybody can by land across the street immediately, only needs money.

Even with infinite money, it is questionable when and if you can cross the moats of ASML and NVIDIA.

Under your definition of a moat, OpenAI and Anthropic also have ones.

MCD has a huge real estate moat.

Can you describe how that is a moat? A structural advantage that prevents other businesses from taking their customers, or their customers from switching. For example, how does McDonalds real estate holdings make it harder for diners to choose Burger King instead?

It gives McDonalds a lot of intrinsic value. It’s definitely a core part of their business. But it doesn’t prevent people from going to Burger King.

They own restaurants in key touristic areas that have massive amounts of potential customers going around. This is a structural advantage because people often just pick the easiest option (especially when it comes to fast food).

For example, in Paris they have two restaurants on Avenue des Champs-Élysées. While there's a Burger King right around the corner (Rue de la Boétie), a lot of hungry tourists will simply not walk in front of it.

Open a restaurant. Is it a McDonalds? Yes -> you instantly have lots of customers No -> you don't have lots of customers

People know McDonald's. They don't know your random new chain.

This is called a moat.

It is very clear that an established brand will have more initial traction than a new one, but this does not make it a moat.

It would be a moat if something prevented others from establishing their brand in the same fashion, which we can see is not the case from the multitude of other successful international fast food brands.