Study: Tencent beats out Alibaba to become China's most valuable brand

The value of top Chinese brands has soared significantly over the past year, while many tech companies are China's most valuable brands, according to Kantar's BrandZ Chinese Brands Report.

The value of China’s Top 100 most valuable brands soared by 57% over the past year and reached the new heights. The total value of the Chinese brand ranking now exceeds $1.56 trillion. It has grown by 197 percent since 2016, at a significantly faster rate than the Global Top 100 most valuable brands, which increased by 110% over the same five-year period.

According to the report, Tencent replaces Alibaba to top the list and become China’s most valuable brand, with an 85% increase in brand value to US$280 billion. Although Alibaba's has a brand value of US$202 billion, a 32% year-on-year increase, the brand still cannot retail the top spot thanks to Tencent's significant increase in brand value. Moutai is ranked third with a brand value of US$111 billion, a 106% year-on-year increase, and is the highest brand without among all non-tech companies.

In addition to Tencent and Alibaba, Meituan, Huawei, JD, Douyin and Kuaishou are also the top 10 most valuable brands. There are seven tech brand out of the top 10 most valuable brands in total. 
The study also unveiled the newcomers to the top 100 most valuable brands in China. This year, a total of 17 new brands joined the China Top 100 across ten categories.

For example, bottled water brand Nongfu Spring (16th) and condiment brand Haitian (25th) were the highest-ranking debuts. This year’s newcomers also included three media and entertainment brands, including Mango TV, Sina Weibo, and 360. Other notable entrants included the new brands such NIO and ByteDance’s business services offshoot Ocean Engine.
The study has also uncovered China's top risers. With a year-on-year value increase of 448%, real estate agents brand Lianjia was the fastest-growing brand in the top 100. This year, a fifth of returning brands in the China top 100 ranking increased their value by 100% or more. Moreover, six brands, including Lianjia, Bilibili, Kuaishou, Ke, Xing Hua Cun, and National Cellar 1573, grew by even more than 200%.


Kantar said Chinese brands began to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic, as its top brands have recovered at an even faster rate than the Global Top 100, which grew 42% over the past year thanks to a number of reasons. For example, in the first half of 2021, China’s gross domestic product (GDP) grew 12.7%. The country’s 14th Five-Year Plan also exemplifies this shift towards the new concept of "innovative, coordinated, green, open and shared development" too. 

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