Internet services company Tencent Holdings Ltd (騰訊) has grown so rapidly it is now China’s most valuable listed technology brand, with a value even closing in on that of Wal-Mart Stores Inc, a report published yesterday shows.
The Tencent brand is worth about US$33.9 billion, even though it is almost unknown outside its home turf, according to an annual ranking of China’s listed companies compiled by advertising company WPP PLC and its research affiliate, Millward Brown.
Global retailer Wal-Mart was valued at US$36 billion in this year’s WPP-Millward Brown global ranking, published in May.
Photo: Reuters
The annual rankings, based on analysis of a brand’s revenue and consumer responses to it, make Tencent the first technology company to break into the top three of China’s most valuable brands.
The Chinese ranking only covers the country’s publicly traded companies, which means high-profile technology brands, like mobile phone maker Huawei Technologies Co (華為) and e-commerce company Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (阿里巴巴), were not counted. Alibaba is widely expect to go public as early as next year.
Tencent, whose two-year-old voice and text messaging service WeChat now boasts almost 275 million active monthly users, is popular with Chinese consumers for its online games and social media applications, Millward Brown China head of branding Doreen Wang (王幸) said.
Tencent ranked third overall in the China list, trailing mobile telecommunications provider China Mobile Ltd (中國移動) with a brand value of US$61.4 billion, and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd (中國工商銀行), worth US$39.6 billion.
Last year, Tencent ranked fifth, but leapfrogged China Construction Bank Corp (中國建設銀行) and Internet search engine Baidu Inc (百度) as its brand value rose 68 percent.
“It’s not an international brand yet,” Wang said. “Tencent is still getting most of its brand equity from its home market in China.”
“Alibaba is the e-commerce [brand] we really want to evaluate,” said Wang, adding that Huawei would “probably already rank the No. 1 in the brand list” if it were included.
China’s technology brands are increasingly competing on the world stage. Tencent was ranked No. 21 on the WPP-Millward Brown global list in May, with Baidu at 25. China Mobile dropped to 10th place worldwide this year, down from fourth in 2006, when it was ranked just under Coca-Cola Co.
Though growing, China’s brands frequently remain obscure outside their home territory. Consultancy firm Interbrand, which also ranks the value of global brands, has no Chinese companies on its top 100 list, in part because the ranking requires brands to get at least 30 percent of their revenue from outside their home region.
Computer maker Lenovo Group Ltd (聯想), which ranked 24th on the China list, is the only Chinese brand with more than half of its revenue coming from overseas, the WPP report said.
Gudeng Precision Industrial Co (家登精密), the sole extreme ultraviolet pod supplier to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), yesterday said it has trimmed its revenue growth target for this year as US tariffs are likely to depress customer demand and weigh on the whole supply chain. Gudeng’s remarks came after the US on Monday notified 14 countries, including Japan and South Korea, of new tariff rates that are set to take effect on Aug. 1. Taiwan is still negotiating for a rate lower than the 32 percent “reciprocal” tariffs announced by the US in April, which it later postponed to today. The
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said its materials management head, Vanessa Lee (李文如), had tendered her resignation for personal reasons. The personnel adjustment takes effect tomorrow, TSMC said in a statement. The latest development came one month after Lee reportedly took leave from the middle of last month. Cliff Hou (侯永清), senior vice president and deputy cochief operating officer, is to concurrently take on the role of head of the materials management division, which has been under his supervision, TSMC said. Lee, who joined TSMC in 2022, was appointed senior director of materials management and
MAJOR CONTRIBUTOR: Revenue from AI servers made up more than 50 percent of Wistron’s total server revenue in the second quarter, the company said Wistron Corp (緯創) on Tuesday reported a 135.6 percent year-on-year surge in revenue for last month, driven by strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers, with the momentum expected to extend into the third quarter. Revenue last month reached NT$209.18 billion (US$7.2 billion), a record high for June, bringing second-quarter revenue to NT$551.29 billion, a 129.47 percent annual increase, the company said. Revenue in the first half of the year totaled NT$897.77 billion, up 87.36 percent from a year earlier and also a record high for the period, it said. The company remains cautiously optimistic about AI server shipments in the third quarter,
STABLE RESULTS: Despite June’s lower consolidated revenue, second-quarter sales still reached a record high, driven by demand for chips for AI applications Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday reported consolidated sales of NT$263.71 billion (US$9.02 billion) for last month, its second-lowest monthly result this year. The world’s largest contract chipmaker said in a statement that its revenue last month only fared better than the NT$260.01 billion posted in February. Last month’s figure rose 26.9 percent from a year earlier, but slumped 17.7 percent from May, the company said. However, second-quarter revenue reached NT$933.8 billion, a record high for a single quarter, company data showed. The figure represented growth of 11.26 percent from the first quarter and 38.6 percent from a year earlier. Previously, TSMC said that
RSS