Tencent tops UK firm’s ranking of China's best companies

British multinational advertising and public relations company WPP unveiled its top 100 Chinese brands ranking on Wednesday evening in London, in an effort to acknowledge Chinese companies' growing reputation on the international business stage.

Chinese internet giant Tencent topped the league table, followed by e-commerce leader Alibaba and the leading telecoms company China Mobile. Other well-known names in the top 10 include the telecommunications company Huawei, the Chinese liquor producer Moutai, and the world's biggest bank in terms of assets, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China.

Businesses operating in the technology, retail, internet, telecommunications, banking, and e-commerce sectors were all strongly represented in the rankings. The list also includes many innovative private-sector companies that are playing an important role in China's structural transformation away from manufacturing economy toward a knowledge-based one.

"Companies that back their brands with the power of creativity and ideas will be the winners in today's world of innovation and change, and China excels in this respect," said David Roth, chairman of BrandZ and BAV Group, which are subsidiaries of WPP.

The report's launch came as British companies gear up in the hope of conducting further trading with China, in an effort to hedge against uncertainties arising from the United Kingdom’s pending exit from the European Union.

"The opportunities to deepen our trade ties (with China) as the UK leaves the EU are vast," the UK's secretary of state for international trade, Liam Fox, said at the report's launch event.

Fox is leading a British delegation to attend China's first-ever international import expo in Shanghai, which runs from Nov 5 to Nov 10.

Bilateral trade between the two countries in 2017 totaled 67.5 billion pounds ($89.16 billion), a 13.8 percent increase from 2016, according to British government statistics.

"As a champion for free trade, the UK is an ideal partner for trailblazing innovative Chinese brands looking to expand and invest abroad," said Fox.

WPP compiles its BrandZ China Top 100 ranking by both calculating how much financial value a company's brand name is worth, and also considering how consumers perceive the brands. It concluded that China's top 100 brands in 2018 have a combined brand value of $88.6 billion, which is a 53 percent increase from 2017.

In addition to the BrandZ China Top 100 ranking, WPP also unveiled a listing of the top 50 Chinese companies ranked by brand recognition internationally. The table was topped by Chinese computer maker Lenovo, followed by Huawei, and Alibaba.

And, this year, 14 Chinese companies made it onto WPP's global top 100 brands ranking, which was a huge improvement on the sole Chinese entry on the list in 2006.