Chinese brands surge in value, but global consumer recognition lags

While a handful of Chinese brands have become popular in overseas markets, foreigners livings in China interviewed by the Global Times Thursday said that being low-priced is the main advantage for Chinese products in their home countries.

According to a report published on Monday by Brand Finance, an independent consultancy based in London, the total value of domestic brands stands at about $10.2 trillion, compared with US brands, which had a total value of $21 trillion.

But in terms of development speed, Chinese brands have left their US peers far behind.

According to the report, so far in 2017 Chinese brand values surged by 44 percent on a yearly basis, compared with just 2 percent for US-based brands. China’s brand value growth was the second-fastest in the world this year, just behind the 46 percent growth of Spanish brands.

The Global Times interviewed several foreigners on Thursday, and all of them mentioned that certain home brands are very popular in their countries. But some of them still worry about the quality of Chinese brands.

A Norwegian named Fredrik who lives in Beijing said that Huawei is the best-known Chinese brand in Norway. “They have a big office with their logo in the capital city, so everyone who passes by will see it,” he said.

Huawei is also popular in Hungary. A native of the country named Emese Zuleta told the Global Times that quite a lot of people in her country, herself and her friends included, bought Huawei devices. “I heard good things about Huawei, and the price is good also [compared with Apple.]”

Charanjeet Singh Arora, an Indian entrepreneur, told the Global Times that Oppo and Vivo are the largest Chinese brands doing business in India. “Lots of Indian people use Oppo and Vivo. In my home, my sister uses Oppo. In my office, many Indian workers use Vivo,” he said.

A native from Lithuania named Egle also said that Ali-Express, Alibaba Group’s overseas e-commerce platform, is very popular in her country.

China has long been a world factory making cheap original equipment for overseas brands like Apple, and domestic companies are still in the process of casting off that impression.

Zuleta said that her impression of Chinese brands is still one of “cheap, not good quality,” and stressed that she does not know many other brands other than Huawei.

Charanjeet Singh Arora also noted that price is the biggest advantage for Chinese brands in overseas markets, but he stressed that many Chinese brands in India have also improved their quality a lot in recent years.