Online entities enjoy strong showing on China's Top 50 valuable brands

Telecommunications player China Mobile has emerged again as the top brand in China, with a brand value estimated to be worth US$53.6 billion.

According to a media statement released Tuesday, market researcher Millward Brown revealed that China Mobile remained at the top spot of its "BrandZ Top 50 Most Valuable Chinese Brands" ranking, while the remaining brands that rounded up the top 5 were financial institutions CBC, Construction Bank of China, Bank of China and Agricultural Bank of China.

Commissioned by WPP and in its second year, the annual ranking was determined based on financial data collated from Bloomberg and Kantar Worldpanel as well as consumer opinion gathered from interviews with over 35,000 Chinese consumers, said Millward Brown.

It added that China's online brands saw a "phenomenal rise" in the list, with growth driven by the country's massive Internet population of about 485 million online users and its highly dispersed population.

Chinese search giant, Baidu, was at sixth spot with a brand value of US$16.26 billion, a growth of 67 percent over last year. Web portal Sina saw its brand value grow a "remarkable" 244 percent to reach US$2.25 million this year and its ranking climbed 15 places to reach No. 25 on the list, said the report.

Three online brands made their debut in this year's list, namely, social networking site Renren at No. 35, online travel site Ctrip at No. 40, and Internet portal Sohu at No. 49.

According to the study, the value of China's Top 50 brands grew 16 percent this year to total US$325 billion, contributing more than 5 percent of the country's economy.

According to a November report by ZDNet Asia, China was expected to emerge the world's biggest e-commerce market by 2015, driven by increasing Internet connectivity and the country's vast size.