Huawei makes to world's top 100 brands list

Attendees inspect and photograph the new MediaPad M1 devices during a Huawei Technologies Co Ltd news conference ahead of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, in February.[Photo/Agencies]

SINGAPORE - China's private company Huawei has made it to a list of the world's top 100 brands, according to the ranking released on Thursday.

The Best Global Brands ranking released by global consultancy Interbrand sees Huawei placed at the 94th with its brand value put at $4.3 billion. The Chinese telecommunications equipment maker and corporate solutions provider is comparable to companies like Heineken, Pizza Hut and Hugo Boss.

Huawei is the first Chinese brand to make it to the top 100 brands list.

Jez Frampton, chief executive officer of Interbrand, said that the success of Huawei is attributable to its rapid growth and long- term investments in its brand.

"Despite its low brand awareness in the US, Huawei has gradually expanded its reach around the world. It continues to demonstrate its technological prowess in both its consumer products as well as in its enterprise solutions - and it remains well positioned to meet the needs of customers in both emerging and developed markets," Frampton said.

Huawei is now one of the world's leading telecommunications top equipment makers and the third largest manufacturer of smart phones after Apple and Samsung. The report said that the company is poised to dominate key areas of the information technology market from mobile phones to networks as companies and entire industries continue to shift from legacy storage and equipment to more agile products.

Huawei has largely been blocked from entry into the United States amid unverified security suspicions.

The top six positions on the list are taken up by the same companies such as Apple, Google, Coca-Cola, IBM and Microsoft. Apple's brand value was put at $118.9 billion, up 21 percent year on year, while that of Google increased by 15 percent to $107.4 billion.

It was the first time that the value of any brand crossed the $100 billion mark.

GE came in the sixth place, Samsung advanced from the eighth last year to the seventh place this year. Toyota, McDonald's and Mercedes-Benz were ranked the eighth to the tenth, respectively.

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