China’s next wave of global brands is being built around Gen Z, not exported to them. That is the central message of a recent report and ranking released by Snapchat and Kantar, which tracks the Top 50 Gen Z-Favourite Chinese Global Brands across consumer electronics, gaming, e-commerce and new energy vehicles. On the surface, it reads like a familiar brand list. Look a touch closer, and it signals a structural shift in how Chinese companies are thinking about globalisation.
The report treats Gen Z not as a future audience but as the organising logic of overseas expansion. With roughly a quarter of the global population and close to US$10 trillion in annual spending power, Gen Z is framed as the cohort shaping what global brands will look like over the next decade. Chinese companies, the report argues, are increasingly designing products, platforms and narratives with that audience in mind from the outset.
The strongest performers cluster in sectors where China already has scale advantages. Consumer electronics brands like Xiaomi (小米) and Huawei (华为), gaming giants such as Tencent Games (腾讯游戏) and miHoYo (米哈游), and fast-moving e-commerce players like SHEIN (希音) dominate the rankings. These are industries where fast iteration, ecosystem thinking and digital distribution already align neatly with Gen Z habits.
What Chinese brands must do to remain sticky with Gen Z
What differentiates the top brands is not price or functionality alone. The report points instead to cultural fluency: IP-driven storytelling, community co-creation, and content that feels native rather than translated. In gaming and e-commerce especially, emotional engagement and participatory culture outperform traditional brand messaging.
There is also a platform layer to this. The report makes clear that winning Gen Z globally is not so much about pushing messages. It’s about showing up in the spaces where culture, communication and consumption already blur together.
For Chinese brands, that means moving beyond one-off campaigns towards environments that reward repeat interaction, visual language and low-friction engagement. The implication is straightforward: the next phase of globalisation is not about reaching Gen Z at scale, but about staying relevant to them over time.
