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Hurun says Kweichow Moutai China’s most valuable brand for fifth straight year in 2022 amid rising trust in private brands

  • Kweichow Moutai’s brand value last year was equivalent to the total values of the next six brands on the list
  • Chinese consumers’ trust in private brands has obviously strengthened in recent years, Hurun chairman Rupert Hoogewerf says

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A bottle of Kweichow Moutai in a Beijing shop window. The liquor maker’s brand value rose 2 per cent last year to 1.035 trillion yuan. Photo: Simon Song

Chairman Mao’s favourite tipple led China’s top brands in 2022, as consumer firms outperformed technology giants and social-media platforms during a volatile year, according to the latest Hurun brand rankings released on Monday.

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Shanghai-listed Kweichow Moutai was the most valuable Chinese brand for a fifth straight year, according to the 2022 Hurun Brands List. The liquor maker, which is also one of the most valuable stocks in the country, was the only brand on the list with value of more than 1 trillion yuan (US$145.2 billion).

The liquor giant’s brand value – measured through openly available economic data and surveys among consumers – was equivalent to the total values of the next six brands that followed it on the list: Shenzhen-listed liquor maker Wuliangye Yibin, Shanghai Tobacco’s China Tobacco, ByteDance’s Douyin, WeChat and parent firm Tencent Holdings, and JD.com, Hurun said. The rankings have been calculated according to the market value of listed companies based on their stocks’ closing prices on July 29 last year, and their peers’ price-to-earnings ratios for private firms.

“Chinese consumers’ trust in private brands has obviously strengthened in the recent few years. [About] 62 per cent of the companies in the ranking were brands by the private sector, compared with 61 per cent a year ago and 39 per cent a decade ago,” Rupert Hoogewerf, Hurun’s chairman, said in a statement.

The brand values of both Tencent and its WeChat app plunged last year, by 47 per cent and more than 30 per cent, respectively. Photo: AFP
The brand values of both Tencent and its WeChat app plunged last year, by 47 per cent and more than 30 per cent, respectively. Photo: AFP

The rankings showcase the continued strength of consumer brands, especially liquor producers in China, despite various headwinds that ranged from an economic slowdown to strict Covid-19 restrictions and financial market volatility last year.

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