Recently, Google and Kantar jointly unveiled the 2024 edition of their BrandZ Top 50 Chinese Global Brand Builders for the 8th year. By analysing brands with three key criteria in terms of being ‘Meaningful, Different and Salient’, Kantar and Google ranked them in accordance of their “Brand Power”. The list is international, encompassing 11 markets across 15 sectors.
This year, the list was topped by ByteDance, parent company of the platforms TikTok and its Chinese sister app Douyin with a Brand Power index of 2,791. Xiaomi follows with 1,058, a little more than a third of ByteDance’s index. Shein, Lenovo, Huawei, AliExpress, Haier, Temu OPPO and Hisense follow in this order, forming the top 10 of the 50 brands on the list.
ByteDance, Xiaomi and Shein are hardly surprising winners on the list. TikTok has 1.56 billion monthly active users globally as of April 2024 and ranks number 5 on the preferred social platform list. Shein is reported to have filed for an IPO in London in early June and Xiaomi’s overseas sub-brand POCO also made it to the list, ranking number 37.
The top 50 on the list grew 17% in terms of Brand Power this year, over twice the annual average. The 50 brands mostly come from 7 sectors, with consumer electronics remaining the largest proportion with 25%. Smart equipment grew 61% in terms of Brand Power while brands in the automotive sector grew 51%. Facing economic uncertainty and stiff competition at home, many Chinese brands are trying to “go overseas” (出海). It is worth watching how Chinese brands adapt to foreign soil.
