【Business】2017年最具价值中国品牌100强排行榜

刘颖

The growth in value of China’s biggest brands slowed way down last year amid the old economy’s industrial decline, but brands catering to the rising middle class kept up their rapid expansion.

That’s according to advertising agency WPP’s latest BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Chinese Brands report, which was released today and tracks the value of old and emerging Chinese brands. While banks, insurers, and oil and gas companies declined in value by 6% on the ranking, consumer services, travel and education each rose 46% last year. The two fastest rising brands in the top 100 ranking were TAL Education’s Xueersi and New
Oriental, which offer after-school tutoring for English and other subjects. Overall, the value of the top 100 brands grew 6%.

WPP’s BrandZ says it singles out a brand’s value according to corporate earnings statements, then layers in what it calls proprietary consumer sentiment from 3.2 million consumers across 50 global markets. Other brand rankings describe a similar process; BrandZ says the wide range of consumer feedback gives its list special oomph.

Regardless of whether it is definitive, the list offers a measuring scale for the richest Chinese brands. Government support is a consistent theme. While five of the top 10 are state-owned companies, including China Mobile, ICBC bank, and China Construction bank.

Technology is one of the key areas that receive direct or indirect government support. BrandZ’s first place ranking this year goes to Tencent, which runs China’s most popular social network WeChat. E-commerce player Alibaba ranks second, and search engine Baidu third.

China's new push to replace foreign high-tech equipment is expected to raise local players’ value. On Sunday, one of China’s senior technology officials defended China’s indigenous innovation program, called Made in China 2025, which is offering $300 billion of government support for the local development of computer chips, electric cars, airplanes, and other products to move Chinese manufacturing up the value scale. Foreign companies fear the plan will force them to turn over technology to stay in China's market.

In the past decade, the government has supported the telecom industry’s overseas expansion. Now Huawei ranks sixth on the BrandZ list, with a value of $20.4 billion. Similar support to expand China’s influence overseas, such as One Belt, One Road, were one reason the BrandZ list in 2017 reported that the top 100 brands’ proportion of overseas revenue rose to 40% of their total, from just 24% in 2011.

Chinese consumers still prize foreign goods, from cars and child products, for safety and reliability, but BrandZ noted that last year Chinese brands passed multinationals in a ranking of brand equity for the first time.

Chinese brands should only grow in influence thanks to a rising middle class and government directives.

刘颖

TRANSLATIONS

由于去年实体经济下滑，中国最大的几个品牌的价值增长均出现放缓，但面向新兴中产阶级的品牌仍然保持了快速扩张。

这是广告公司WPP刚刚发布的《Brandz最具价值中国品牌100强》报告里得出的结论。该报告研究中国品牌的价值变化。在去年，这份排行榜上的银行、保险公司、石油天然气公司的品牌价值下降了6%，但消费者服务、旅行和教育企业的品牌价值各自上涨了46%。在前100名中，价值增长最快的两大品牌是从事校外英语等科目教学的新东方和好未来旗下的学而思。前100强品牌的总价值增长了6%。

WPP的BrandZ团队表示，它根据企业的盈利报表评估品牌的价值，然后还要考虑进它所谓的来自全球50个市场的3,200万消费者的专属消费者情绪。BrandZ表示，范围广泛的消费者反馈使它的榜单别具特色。

不论其是否具有权威性，这份榜单提供了一个衡量中国最有价值品牌的尺度。来自政府的支持是一贯的主题。在前10名中，有5家是国有企业，包括中国移动、中国工商银行、中国建设银行等。

科技是受到政府直接或间接扶持的重要领域之一，今年的BrandZ排行榜冠军是腾讯，该公司的微信是中国最受欢迎的社交网络，电子商务巨头阿里巴巴仅随其后。

外界认为，中国近来替换外国高科技设备的努力将提升本地公司的价值。根据中国制定的创新计划“中国制造2025”，政府将拿出3,000亿美元，支持本土企业发展计算机芯片、电动汽车、飞机和其他能提升中国制造价值的产品。外国企业担心，这项计划将迫使它们用技术换取中国市场。

在过去10年里，政府一直在支持电信行业的海外扩张。华为在今年的排行榜上排名第6位，品牌价值达204亿美元。类似的支持，比如“一带一路”计划，也扩大了中国在海外的影响。BrandZ的2017年榜单前100名公司的海外营业收入占到了总营收的40%，而在2011年，还仅有24%。

出于安全和可靠性的考虑，中国消费者依然青睐外国产品，无论是汽车还是婴幼儿用品。但是，BrandZ指出。中国品牌在去年的一份品牌资产排行榜上首次超过了跨国企业。

得益于中国中产阶级的兴起和政府的扶持，中国品牌的影响力将不断扩大。