Chinese Companies On the Rise

The Hurun Research Institute today released for the fifth consecutive year China's Most Valuable Brands 2010, a ranking of the 100 most valuable brands in the Chinese mainland.

The total value of the brands on the list was 70 percent higher than last year's total, with no changes in position among the top four. China Mobile topped the list for the fourth consecutive year with a brand value of $39 billion, followed by the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), China Construction Bank, and the Bank of China, which are valued at $36 billion, $27 billion and $21 billion, respectively.

More than half of the Top 100 are state-owned businesses, but the number of non-government-owned brands is on the rise, led by IT firms Tencent QQ and Baidu.

Tencent QQ and Baidu, valued at $6.8 billion and $6.3 billion respectively, have risen in the rankings every year since 2006, and have overtaken Ping An in this appraisal process.

Best known for providing netizens in China equivalent to the MSN Messenger instant messaging service, Tencent's QQ boasts some 100 million online accounts and this year became an official partner of the Shanghai World Expo. Baidu, meanwhile, has firmly established itself as China's leading search engine service, with the phrase "to Baidu it" entering the popular lexicon in the process. Following Google's withdrawal from the Chinese market earlier this year, Baidu's shares surged 75 percent.

Twenty brands made the Hurun Most Valuable Brands for the first time. Eight were property firms, three each were from the apparel and consumer appliance sectors, and two were car manufacturers, while tobacco, alcohol, beverages and e-commerce contributed one each.

Property, finance, alcoholic beverages and tobacco, etc., account for 65 percent of the Most Valuable Brands. More brands were drawn from property than any other sector 21 brands in total, almost twice last year's number.

The government dominated in the finance, alcoholic beverages and tobacco sectors, while the private sector covers property, apparel and household appliances. Beijing, Guangdong and Shanghai were home to the bulk of the brands, with 27, 20 and 11 headquartered there respectively.

The top three property brands, Vanke, Poly and Wanda, are the same as last year. The three brands each saw their value double, with property brands generally performing strongly over the past year.

Television advertising has grown significantly over the past five years. CCTV, for instance, has doubled its advertising income during that time.

Internet marketing is beginning to challenge the traditional ascendancy of TV advertising. Baidu, for instance, saw its revenues increase 60 percent to $190 million in the first quarter of 2010 alone.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is growing in importance. Of the 32 domestic brands on the Hurun CSR Top Fifty 2010, 18 were included among the Top 100 Most Valuable China Brands this year, including China Merchants Bank, ICBC, the Bank of China, China Mobile, Vanke, Lenovo, Tencent QQ, and Suning.