Taobao becomes China’s most valuable brand
Alibaba-owned online shopping giant has brand value of 230 billion yuan, says study. Separate report names affiliate Ant Financial among country’s top-50 fintech companies.
Taobao, the online shopping platform owned by Alibaba Group, has become the country’s most valuable brand for the first time, according to the “Hurun Most Valuable Chinese Brands 2016” report.
Now valued at 230 billion yuan (HK$266.91 billion), Taobao was followed by telecommunications operator China Mobile, worth 227 billion yuan, and mainland internet search leader Baidu in third place, with a value of 218 billion yuan, the annual ranking by the Shanghai-based Hurun Research Institute showed.
Now in its eleventh year, the rankings are based on companies’ market value and what it calls a “brand premium”, as well as feedback from 1,000 Chinese consumers, 65 per cent of whom have more than 8,000 yuan monthly income.
In a separate report on Tuesday by KPMG, Alibaba affiliate Ant Financial Services was named among the 50 leading financial technology companies now operating in China.
Other companies in this group included Hong Kong-based WeLab, Tenpay.com and Baidu Finance.
KPMG head of China banking Arthur Wang said those listed “were distinguished by their innovative business practises as well as ... solutions for some of the biggest issues facing the financial services sector”.
In the Hurun report, Tencent Holdings dropped from top to fifth, with a 210 billion yuan brand value, as its social-messaging service WeChat was counted separately for the first time, itself coming in at seventh with a 132 billion yuan value.