China's e-commerce giant Alibaba and tech leader Tencent are among the world's 10 most valuable brands, a report showed Tuesday.
Alibaba, growing in brand value by 16 percent year-on-year to 131.2 billion U.S. dollars and moving up two places to No. 7, has overtaken Tencent for the first time to become the most valuable Chinese brand, according to the 2019 BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands report released by global communication services provider WPP and brand consultancy Kantar Millward Brown.
Tencent, the Shenzhen-based firm known for its hugely popular multi-functional app WeChat, ranked No. 8 on the list, dropping three places as compared with the previous year after its brand value declined 27 percent to 130.9 billion U.S. dollars.
Tencent exhibition hall in Global Health Expo of Boao Forum for Asia, June 12, 2019. /VCG Photo
Amazon, with its brand value rising by an impressive 52 percent year-on-year to 315.5 billion U.S. dollars, has become the world's most valuable brand.
Technology companies have led BrandZ's Top 100 ever since its first global brand value ranking in 2006, when Microsoft took the top spot.
Five of the top 10 on this year's list are technology brands, including Apple in second place with growth of 3 percent resulting in a value of 309.5 billion U.S. dollars, and Google in third place with a brand value of 309 billion U.S. dollars.
Chinese firms are making fast progress in brand value, with 16 Chinese brands appearing in the top 100 compared to merely one in 2006, said David Roth, CEO of The Store WPP EMEA and Asia and Chairman of BrandZ.