How much do you know about Chinese brands?

According to research conducted by Millward Brown, only 6% of US consumers and 14% of British ones can name a Chinese brand.

Millward Brown’s research took place in 2013. Some of China’s leading brands have made huge strides since then.

However, I’ve asked the “Can you name a Chinese Brand?” question many times and found that most people still struggle to name one or two. Clearly, lack of brand awareness remains an issue for Chinese brands, particularly in Western markets.

My intention with this post is to make a small contribution to increasing Chinese brand awareness. Below I’ve put together a list of 26 interesting facts you probably didn’t know about Chinese brands. Some of them might surprise you!

 

1. The total brand value of the top 100 Chinese Brands is $464.2 billion.

 

2. Four out of the top 10 of China’s most valuable brands are banks – China Construction Bank, Agricultural Bank of China, ICBC and Bank of China.

 

3. China’s most valuable brand in 2015 is the tech brand Tencent. Achieving 95% year-on-year growth on 2014.

 

4. Tsingtao is the best-selling Chinese beer in the U.S.

 

 

 

5. The London Taxi Company (makers of the famous Black Cab) is owned by the Chinese brand Geely.    

 

6. Geely is also the parent company of Volvo.      

 

7. Chinese tech brand Tencent developed the messaging app WeChat. It’s also the most popular app in China.      

 

8. Jack Ma is the founder of China’s e-commerce firm Alibaba Group and has a net worth of £24 billion.   

 

 

9. China’s telecoms giant Huawei has contributed £956m to UK GDP since 2012 and supports 7,400 jobs.

 

10. The founder of Chinese sports brand Li-Ning is a renowned world-class gymnast with 106 medals and two World Cup championships.

 

11. Huawei and Lenovo are the only Chinese brands to make Interbrand’s 2015 list of the top 100 Global Brands.

 

12. In a survey conducted by the Center for International Communication Studies of China Foreign Languages Publishing Administration, the Charhar Institute, and Millward Brown they found that consumers in the developing countries know more about Chinese brands than those in developed countries.

 

13. In the same study above, Lenovo was named as the most well-known Chinese brand.

 

14. Lenovo is the number one in worldwide PC sales.

 

15. Xiaomi is the world’s 4th largest smartphone maker.

 

 

16. China Mobile has the world’s largest mobile network and the world’s largest mobile customer base.

 

17. On Singles Day in China this year (11/11/15), the e-commerce brand Alibaba Group’s Singles’ Day sales reached $14.3 billion.

 

18. Chinese brand Anta is the world’s 4th largest sportswear brand.

 

19. In 2012 Anta sold more than 32 million pairs of shoes.

 

20. Chinese sports brand Li-Ning sponsors leading Croatian tennis player Marin Cilic.

 

21. Sina Weibo is a Chinese microblogging site similar to Twitter. It is often referred to as the “Chinese Twitter” and has 212 million monthly users.

 

22. Haier is the world’s number one Global Major appliances brand.

 

23. China’s ZTE Corporation is one of the top 10 smartphone manufacturers in the world.

 

24. Chinese tech brand Xiaomi, means “little rice” or “millet” in English.

 

25. Founded in 1983, the Great Wall brand is China’s largest wine enterprise.

 

26. In 2012, Ren Zhengfei, Huawei CEO and founder announced a £1.3 billion investment and procurement plan for the UK.