How to make it in America: the pressures and pitfalls for Chinese brands going global

As domestic spending falters, Chinese consumer brands are eyeing global markets, but tariffs and cultural barriers could get in their way

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Published: 10:00am, 25 Jan 2025Updated: 10:07pm, 26 Jan 2025

When Leo Li Minguang walked into a Zara store for the first time in Japan in 2005, the 32-year-old treasurer at a construction firm was entranced. Bright lights, thumping dance music and racks of boldly patterned women’s clothes adorned the space. It felt like a fashion show – nothing like the drab department stores he was used to.

“I saw a business opportunity right there and asked how much it would cost me to franchise,” he said. “They told me that wasn’t an option.”

Convinced that there was nothing too complicated about running a clothing business, Li decided to start something on his own. In 2006, he rented eight cramped stalls in the bustling Grandview Mall in Guangzhou, not far from his hometown, and turned them into one massive shop. He filled the racks with floral dresses and bell-bottomed jeans while playing foreign music on old CDs. He also gave his shop a snazzy name: Urban Revivo.

Fast-forward 18 years and the brand now has over 400 stores in China, more than twice the number operated in the country by Zara parent Inditex. In 2024, Urban Revivo’s holding company, Fashion Momentum Group (FMG), reported revenue of 7 billion yuan (US$963.8 million), while its domestic sales on major e-commerce platforms have outpaced Uniqlo’s for two years in a row.

An Urban Revivo store in Bangkok. Photo: Yuke Xie

FMG’s ambition now stretches far beyond China’s borders. At the December opening of Urban Revivo’s largest overseas store in Bangkok, Li said he wanted to build the world’s most influential apparel powerhouse within two decades. His target is 200 billion yuan in annual sales, with the majority of that coming from international markets. To accelerate this plan, the company, backed by heavyweights like HongShan – formerly Sequoia Capital China – is reportedly seeking to raise US$100 million with a Hong Kong initial public offering (IPO), according to Bloomberg News.

Urban Revivo isn’t alone in wanting to go global. Faced with depressed domestic spending and a property crisis that will not go away, many Chinese firms are looking overseas. Official data showed China’s non-financial overseas direct investment (ODI) jumped 10.5 per cent from a year earlier in 2024, reaching more than US$143.9 billion. For more than a decade, China has been the world’s third-largest international investor, trailing only the US and Japan.