The 2019 Top 100 Most Valuable Chinese Brands Released (Full List)

Top 100 Most Valuable Chinese Brands in 2019 (Complete List)

* Background and research methods

The brand valuation work for the “BrandZ™ Top 100 Most Valuable Chinese Brands” is conducted by Kantar, using the same calculation methodology used for the annual ranking of the “BrandZ™ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands”. 2019 is the 14th year of the “BrandZ™ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands” series.

The “BrandZ™ Top 100 Most Valuable Chinese Brands 2019” ranking combines Bloomberg market data statistics and more than 3.7 million consumer interviews around the world, covering more than 166,000 different brands in more than 50 markets – including opinions from nearly 290,000 Chinese consumers on more than 1,100 brands in 75 categories.

WPP and Kantar jointly released the "BrandZ™ 2019 Top 100 Most Valuable Chinese Brands" ranking in Beijing today. Alibaba topped the list for the first time, with its brand value increasing by 59% year-on-year to US$141 billion.

Despite China’s economic slowdown and tense international trade situation, the total brand value of the BrandZ™ Top 100 Most Valuable Chinese Brands still reached a new high of US$889.7 billion, an increase of 30%, the largest single-year increase since the list was launched in 2011. The growth was driven by the brand's rapid expansion in China's smaller cities. Thanks to the rapid development of these cities, consumer purchasing power has continued to increase. At the same time, Chinese brands with overseas business have also won more recognition from consumers.

This year's selected brands are divided into 24 categories in total, and the brand value of 13 categories has increased , among which culture and entertainment ranked first with an increase of 186%, followed by education and retail categories, which continued the strong performance of the past few years, with growth rates of 57% and 55% respectively. Brands in the technology field occupy 11 seats in the top 100 list, contributing 26% of the total brand value of the top 100 brands, and occupy six seats with the strongest overseas business share, which is twice as much as last year. The six tech companies are telecom and smartphone giant Huawei (No. 6, $33.2 billion), smartphone maker Xiaomi (No. 11, $20.6 billion), PC maker Lenovo (No. 47, $2.9 billion), the world's largest drone maker DJI (No. 50, $2.8 billion), telecom and smartphone brand ZTE (No. 72, $1.2 billion), and leading robot developer UBTECH (No. 85, $910 million).

This year's list added four new categories, namely consumer finance, culture and entertainment, life service platform and travel services. Such a diverse ranking more comprehensively reflects how increasingly sophisticated Chinese consumers are driving changes in the brand landscape. China has created a unique market where brands can innovate products and services at an unprecedented speed and convenience. Innovators in artificial intelligence, e-commerce, new retail and social media performed particularly well. Two video streaming services are far ahead in terms of brand value growth: iQiyi (No. 28, US$5.6 billion) has a brand value increase of 158%, followed by Youku (No. 31, US$5 billion), with an increase of 136%. In addition, this year for the first time, unicorn brands based on the latest public valuations were included in the selection range, reflecting the vitality of the Chinese market and the influence of these brands.

This year’s selected brands must meet the following criteria:

* The brand was originally founded by a mainland Chinese company;

* The brand is a listed company, or its financial data is audited by a large global accounting firm and released to the public;

* At least 20% of the bank’s revenue must come from retail banking;

* Chinese unicorn brands whose financial information can be collected from public resources (previously, only listed companies or audited companies were eligible for the list).

In the BrandZ brand valuation process, we multiply the "financial value" created by the brand (a measure of each brand's current and future estimated revenue; a specific dollar amount) by the "brand contribution" obtained from consumer surveys (a measure of the purchase volume and price premium that the brand can bring, a percentage) to derive the final "brand value".

BrandZ brand valuation method

Xiaomi, food delivery apps Meituan (No. 13, $19.9 billion) and Ele.me (No. 24, $7.3 billion), and online P2P lender Lufax (No. 26, $6.9 billion) are the standouts among the 17 new entrants this year. According to BrandZTM's research, the success of these brands is driven by China's emerging mobile-centric and convenience-oriented lifestyle, as well as the Chinese government's continuous pursuit of a digital path with its own characteristics, the promotion of a more inclusive, equitable and balanced economic globalization, and the active promotion of industrial restructuring initiatives.

BrandZ 2019 Top 10 Most Valuable Chinese Brands

Chinese brands are facing great opportunities to go overseas. Chinese brands going overseas are no longer limited to the key industries of the "Belt and Road" initiative. Chinese brands are also working hard to establish leadership in areas such as artificial intelligence, robotics and green energy. For example, Haier Group (No. 15, US$16.3 billion), a global brand of large household appliances and the Internet of Things, is one example. The report also shows that the investments brands make in building value can help them generate strong shareholder returns. Since July 2010, the BrandZ™ China Top 100 portfolio has gained 111%, nearly four times the performance of the MSCI China Equity Weighted Index, which has increased by only 28%.

High-value brands outperform the market

David Roth, CEO of The Store WPP EMEA and Asia, and Chairman of BrandZ™ and BAV Group, said: "The volatility of the Chinese stock market over the past year has put Chinese brands through a real 'stress test'. However, high-value brands have withstood the test and continued to outperform the market, with their share prices hitting new highs, offsetting the impact of the market correction. If $100 was invested in the MSCI China Index in 2010, the investment would only be worth about $128 today; if $100 was invested in the BrandZ™ Top 100 Chinese Brands, it would be worth $211 today. In short, high-value brands can bring rich returns to shareholders. This year, the threshold for inclusion in the BrandZ™ Top 100 Most Valuable Chinese Brands 2019 has more than doubled from $311 million in 2018 to $681 million. This shows that people are increasingly recognizing that the continued growth in brand value is due to its leading edge in innovation. In the context of intensified competition and a rapidly changing market, building stronger brands is a prerequisite for continued competitiveness. "

Alibaba, which topped the list this year, has seen its brand value increase by 136% compared to five years ago, while the average growth rate of the top 100 companies during the same period was 92%. Alibaba first appeared in the ranking in 2015 after its IPO on the New York Stock Exchange and climbed to the top of the list this year. This also strongly reflects the positive role that a brand's growth plays in the change and transformation of the Chinese market. In the BrandZ™ ranking’s Brand Power measure, Alibaba performed particularly well in the “meaningful” element , suggesting that Alibaba, which coined the term “new retail,” has successfully established closer connections with consumers.

Alibaba Group CMO Dong Benhong said, "We are very honored to be ranked first in the BrandZ™ China 100 Most Valuable Companies list." Since its inception on the first day, Alibaba has set its mission as “making it easy to do business anywhere”. We will continue to empower our partners and help them successfully achieve digital transformation through the Alibaba platform, while providing consumers with better products and services and giving participants on the platform the ability and opportunity to become "creators." In our view, a brand is not an advertisement, but an integration of social responsibility into the business model, using commercial means to help solve social problems. Creating real value for society is the lifeblood of a brand, and it is what Alibaba has always believed in and practiced.

The "Brand Power" index also examines the brand's performance in terms of "differentiation" (unique and trend-setting) and "prominence" (being quickly remembered when consumers have purchasing needs). Although Chinese brands generally perform well in terms of "meaningfulness" and "prominence", there is still much room for improvement in terms of "differentiation". "Differentiation" measures whether a brand is unique in the competition and whether it has the ability to lead market trends.

Differentiation creates an extraordinary brand

Author: Kantar

Source: Kantar