Technology brands are taking the lead in terms of brand value and more Chinese brands are showing great potential, said a report released by brand consultancy Millward Brown on Thursday.
There are 18 technology brands on the BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands list, which ranks companies based on their financial performance as well as consumers' comments, with the first four spots all occupied by the technology category.
With a brand value of $247 billion, Apple has overtaken Google to reclaim the world's most valuable brand this year, while Google is second with an estimated worth of $174 billion, followed by Microsoft and IBM.
The tech brands in the list are worth more than $1 trillion, about one-third of all the 100 brands' value and with a 24 percent year-on-year brand value growth, technology is the fastest-growing one in the 14 categories.
The top 100 brands list also saw a growing number of Chinese brands with 14 Chinese brands on the list this year compared to 11 in 2014.
Tencent, which ranked highest among -Chinese brands on the list, ranked 11th with a brand value of $76.57 billion, followed by Facebook.
Meanwhile, Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba is ranked No.13 with $66.4 billion, followed by US counterpart Amazon, while chain store retailer Wal-Mart was No.26.
"China is moving fast from being a -manufacturing powerhouse to the next stage of economic evolution, with value creation -happening through strong branding," -Deepender Rana, CEO of Millward Brown Greater China, was quoted as saying in a press release sent to the Global Times on Thursday.
"We anticipate more Chinese brands will truly go global with a greater share of their brand value coming from their presence outside China, and their contribution to a strong 'Brand China' overall," Rana said.
Chinese companies have faced great challenges in brand building, Wang Xing, Global Head of BrandZ, said at a press conference on Thursday.
Even the Chinese brands on the top 100 list are poorly recognized in markets outside of China, Wang said, noting that although Alibaba has a higher ranking than Amazon, the latter's major markets include 12 countries and regions, much more than Alibaba.
Huawei, which was 70th on the list, has been a good role model in brand building after its successful transmission from a low-profile B2B brand to a reliable consumer brand, according to Wang.
