Moutai tops most valuable brand in China

The top three most valuable Chinese brands in 2023 were Kweichow Moutai, Wuliangye and WeChat, in which Kweichow Moutai made it to the top of the list for the sixth time in a row and is the only trillion-yuan brand, possessing a brand value of 1.05 trillion yuan.

Liquor brand Wuliangye came in second, with its brand valued at 260 billion yuan, up 4 percent year-on-year. WeChat ranked in the third place with brand value rising 41 percent year-on-year to 225 billion yuan.

According to the "Focus Media · Hurun Most Valuable China Brands 2023" jointly released by Hurun Research Institute and Focus Media on Thursday, a total of top 300 most valuable Chinese brands were listed.

The listed brand value totaled 6.8 trillion yuan ($945.9 billion).

The top 10 companies with the fastest growing brand value span across seven industries, including e-commerce and retail, service for daily life sector, media and entertainment, alcohol, telecommunications, catering, and automobile manufacturing.

The total value of the catering industry grew the fastest, up 48 percent year-on-year; followed by the media and entertaining sector, which grew by 26 percent year-on-year; the e-commerce industry grew 24 percent year-on-year; and the automobile manufacturing industry possessed a total value increase of 12 percent year-on-year.

192 privately-owned brands accounting for 64 percent of the total brands made the list, 29 of which were newly listed. 60 private brands entered the top 100, five more than last year. Seven privately-owned brands entered the top 10, two more than last year.

The financial sector has the largest number of brands on the list at 45, followed by food and beverages at 34 brands, alcohol came in the third place at 29 brands, and service for daily life sector coming in at the fourth place with 20 brands listed.

Over 60 percent of the listed brands are headquartered in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Hangzhou.

It is worth noting that the threshold for the top 300 has risen up to 3 billion yuan from 2.5 billion yuan last year.