Tencent tops Best China Brands 2018 with 32% jump in value

Tencent topped the Best China Brands 2018 with a 32-percent jump in its value to rank as the fastest-growing brand in China while the value of China's top 50 brands rose 12.5 percent from a year ago, global brand consultancy firm Interbrand said on Thursday. 

The expansion in the game industry has propelled Tencent's brand value to 284 billion yuan (US$44.3 billion) and making its brand the fastest growing in the country, said Nikki Lin, managing director of Interbrand China.

Tencent was followed by Alibaba, whose brand value surged 27 percent to 216.8 billion yuan while China Construction Bank ranked third with its brand value climbing 5 percent to 142.1 billion yuan.

Meanwhile, the combined value of China’s top 50 brands climbed to 1.77 trillion yuan, with financial industry brands representing nearly half. But brands closely related to technology grew the most rapidly, according to Lin.