"芝士"is a little bit like the transliteration of "cheeze", if you read it you will find its sound is similar to "cheeze", right? So maybe you can see sometimes it is also called "起司" in some bakery or restaurant, its the same reason. I think its more popular used in the south China, where people like to use the transliteration when dealing with foreign languages, for exemple, if you go to Hongkong or Canton, you will find some grocery shops use "士多" (shì duō) instead of "商店", like "XXX士多"="XXX商店", because "士多"'s pronunciation is similar to "store", I found it very interesting when I first visited HK. Hope can help you!