China’s e-commerce giant Alibaba and tech leader Tencent are among the world’s 10 most valuable brands, Xinhua reported this week.
Alibaba, growing in brand value by 16 percent year-on-year to US$131.2 billion and moving up two places to No. 7, has overtaken Tencent for the first time to become the most valuable Chinese brand, according to the 2019 BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands report released by global communication services provider WPP and brand consultancy Kantar Millward Brown.
Tencent, the Shenzhen-based firm known for its hugely popular multi-functional app WeChat, ranked No. 8 on the list, dropping three places as compared with the previous year after its brand value declined 27 percent to US$130.9 billion, the report said.
Amazon, with its brand value rising by an impressive 52 percent year-on-year to US$315.5 billion, has become the world’s most valuable brand.
“Amazon’s phenomenal brand value growth of almost $108 billion in the last year demonstrates how brands are now less anchored to individual categories and regions,” said Doreen Wang, Kantar’s Global Head of BrandZ, in an online statement.
Notably, Amazon has increased investments in a range of sectors, including self-driving car start-up Aurora, electric truck company Rivian and Amazon Air, its airplane business.
Technology companies have led BrandZ’s Top 100 ever since its first global brand value ranking in 2006, when Microsoft took the top spot, the report said.
Five of the top 10 on this year’s list are technology brands, including Apple in second place with growth of 3 percent resulting in a value of US$309.5 billion, and Google in third place with a brand value of US$309 billion.
Chinese firms are making fast progress in brand value, with 15 Chinese brands appearing in the top 100 compared to merely one in 2006, including Xiaomi and Meituan, the report said.