Tencent, operator of popular instant messaging service WeChat, was, for the second time, named the most valuable Chinese brand in 2015, according to the Hurun Research Institute.
The Shenzhen-based Internet giant saw its brand value jump 33 percent to 277 billion yuan (43.5 billion U.S. dollars) from a year ago, Hurun said in a press release on Thursday.
Taobao, an online marketplace run by Alibaba, ranked second with 266 billion yuan, overtaking China Mobile, Baidu and the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) with a 44 percent growth in brand value.
China Mobile ranked third with 265 billion yuan.
There were 91 new private companies that entered the top 200 brands in China, with their average brand value rising more than 50 percent to 19.1 billion yuan.
Hurun has been releasing the brand list for 10 years. In its early years, the top spots were dominated by state-owned enterprises like China Mobile and ICBC. Internet firms, like Baidu, Tencent and Taobao, have since challenged, and overtaken them.
