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Rising stars make debut on branding list

2014-11-25 13:36 China Daily Web Editor: Qin Dexing
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The booth of Huawei Technologies Co at a software industry expo held recently in Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu province. Huawei broke into the world's most valuable brands for 2014 for the first time, ranked 94th. [Zhen Huai / For China Daily]

The booth of Huawei Technologies Co at a software industry expo held recently in Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu province. Huawei broke into the world's most valuable brands for 2014 for the first time, ranked 94th. [Zhen Huai / For China Daily]

The Interbrand Best China Brands 2014 report has just been released detailing the progress of Chinese brands.

According to Interbrand's valuation methodology, the total brand value of this year's top 50 Best China Brands increased 22 percent year-on-year, the largest increase since the inception of Best China Brands some 15 years ago.

Internet companies and financial services brands dominate this year's rankings with Tencent Holdings Ltd and China Mobile Communications Corp claiming the first and second positions.

Major banks and insurance brands are close behind. China Construction Bank Corp, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd (the largest bank in the world by market capitalization), Bank of China Ltd, Ping An Insurance (Group) Co of China Ltd and China Life Insurance Co Ltd took fourth through eighth places.

Tencent, founded in 1998, has grown into one of China's largest Internet service portals with platforms that include WeChat (mobile text and voice messaging), QQ (instant messenger) and Tenpay (online payments).

As of August, WeChat had 438 million active users, with 70 million outside China.

Tencent's brand value for 2014 is estimated at $54 billion, double last year's level. Tencent is the most valuable and fastest-growing Chinese and Asian brand as well as the fastest-growing brand in the world.

Tencent's success may offer a lead to and inspire confidence among China's young, privately owned entrepreneurial companies in many sectors.

Tencent's ranking is proof that Chinese industry continues to change, with modern, market-driven and privately owned companies building increasingly competitive brands, domestically and internationally. These companies don't benefit from any public monopolies such as those held by the State-owned enterprises.

Excitement, respect and attention are due to this year's eight new entrants as well.

These are also dominated by technology and financial services brands with Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (diversified e-commerce) and Huawei Technologies Co (telecommunications and network equipment) in third and 13th places, respectively.

Other notable new entrants include People's Insurance Co of China, Hong Kong-based Chow Tai Fook and e-retailer Beijing Jingdong Century Trading Co Ltd, which operates JD.com. They ranked 20th, 22nd and 25th, respectively.

Among the new entrants, Huawei typifies the modern Chinese corporate brand. Huawei also broke into the world's most valuable brands for 2014 for the first time, ranked 94th.

Huawei's meteoric rise is all the more impressive given strong competition in smartphones from Apple Inc and the South Korea-based Samsung Electronics Co Ltd. Huawei is the third-largest smartphone manufacturer in the world after those two.

Huawei is also a leader among Chinese companies in terms of international expansion. Sales outside China constitute 65 percent of the worldwide total.

And there is also Alibaba's record US stock listing.

Finally, it is worth noting a co-branding initiative of ICBC and PICC that illustrates the movement toward branding and brand-building that is taking place in Chinese companies. The ICBC PICC Car Credit Card is a co-branded and car insurance-themed chip credit card.

This year's Best China Brands report provides the clearest proof yet that Chinese companies are following the modern brand management approach with investment-led and long-term growth strategies at the core of their corporate expansion plans.

China's days as a cheap production center are fast being relegated to the history books, to be replaced by an era of creative brand-building.

Expect more domestic and international Chinese brand-building success during 2015 and beyond.

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