Brand management can make companies stand out online: Experts

Brand management will be one of the keys to promote Chinese companies' growth, as the country heads toward an era of online economy, experts said on Saturday.

"Traditionally, a company's brand is just a symbol because it has brick-and-mortar stores to showcase what it is. But as an increasing number of businesses are moving online, the brand becomes the company itself," said Ai Feng, chairman of China Brand Festival.

When the Internet leaves people in a sea of information, it is the brand that helps a company stand out from competitors, said Ai at the Ninth China Brand Festival in Beijing.

In 2015, the total value of China's top 100 brands grew at a record 59 percent from 2014, to $464.2 billion, outpacing the 41 percent growth of the world's top 100 brands, according to a report by advertising company WPP Plc and its research affiliate Millward Brown.

But in the eye of experts, such progress is not enough because most private companies that rely on the Internet to operate businesses are little recognized, both domestically and internationally.

Wang Yong, secretary general of China Brand Festival, said the future of Chinese brands will hinge upon private companies. "Only when more small market players blossom into well-recognized enterprises, it marks the rising of Chinese brands."

The brand value of Chinese private companies has increased 97 percent since 2013, said the report by Millward Brown, which ranked companies on the basis of a brand's revenue and consumer responses to it.

In 2015, the most valuable Chinese brand goes to Tencent Holdings Ltd, with a valuation of $66 billion. The Chinese social media giant's brand value has surpassed Facebook Inc and it is now the world's fifth most valuable tech brand.