TikTok owner ByteDance stars in BrandZ top 50 Chinese global brand builders report for 2020 as Huawei and Xiaomi also shine

Xiaomi executive Lu Weibing has been praising the company he works for because of its decent fifth place in the 2020 top 50 Chinese global brand builders report compiled by BrandZ. There’s no denying that both Xiaomi and the Mi brand are strong on a global scale, and the company is joined by fellow tech companies Huawei and Lenovo in the top five places. While the Alibaba Group snatches up third behind Huawei and Lenovo, it is arguably the fourth-placed ByteDance that is the star of the leading group.

ByteDance was found in 2012 and by 2020 it was valued at an incredible US$100 billion. Unsurprisingly, a lot of the company’s success has been attributed to the incredibly popular app TikTok, which has seen its usage rise to new levels during the lockdown period caused by the coronavirus. The TikTok owner has been rewarded with a huge +56% brand power change over last year's result. However, ByteDance’s 2021 evaluation might be completely different as India and the USA make moves against apps and tech that originate in China.

The top 20 is filled with familiar tech or tech-related brands, including OnePlus, Anker, OPPO, Tencent, and Vivo. Huawei, which sits at the top with a “brand power” score of 1,938 points, clearly isn’t suffering too much at the moment from general global mistrust of the OEM. The company has been spearheading 5G smartphone shipments in China and has apparently managed to gain 40% of the global 5G smartphone market share for Q1 2020.