QingdaoMay 18, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — On May 14, the 2026 Kantar BrandZ Most Valuable Global Brands Top 100 was officially unveiled, with leading tech brands such as Google, Apple, Microsoft, and Amazon continuing to dominate. This year, 13 Chinese brands made it into the top 100, among which Haier has been listed as the world’s only IoT ecosystem brand for eight consecutive years, climbing steadily to 53rd place, maintaining a robust upward development trend.
Haier Named World’s Only IoT Ecosystem Brand for Eighth Consecutive Year, Brand Value Continues to Rise
Eight Consecutive Years as the World’s Only, Brand Value Steadily Climbs
Kantar is a globally leading brand data and strategy consulting firm. The ranking not only considers financial data but also focuses on the brand’s asset accumulation in consumers’ minds and its future growth potential.
Despite the complex and volatile global economy, global brands continue to demonstrate strong anti-cyclical capabilities. The ranking shows that the total value of the global top 100 brands in 2026 increased by 22% year-on-year, reaching $13.1 trillion, with leading global brands showing strong growth momentum.
The brand value of Chinese brands grew by an average of 32% year-on-year. Among the 13 Chinese brands on the list, Haier has been honored as the world’s only IoT ecosystem brand for eight consecutive years, forging a highly distinctive brand growth path. Since first appearing on the list in 2019, Haier’s global ranking has gradually risen from 89th to 53rd, with a brand value of $52.949 billion, showcasing the strong resilience and long-term value of an ecosystem brand.
Doreen Wang, CEO of Kantar Greater China and Global Chair of Kantar BrandZ, analyzed, “Haier has completed a transformation from a single home appliance manufacturer to a diversified industrial ecosystem, with significant results in ecosystem brand building. At the same time, Haier possesses both strong supply chain capabilities and flexible cultural soft power. While solidifying the practical value of its products, it deeply integrates local cultural elements, using emotional warmth to bridge the gap with global users, providing an excellent model for Chinese real economy enterprises to build world-class global brands.”
Behind the rising brand value lies solid operational performance. In 2025, Haier Group achieved global revenue of 426.8 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 6.3%; global total profit reached 32.2 billion yuan, up 6.7% year-on-year, charting a high-quality growth trajectory amid a complex environment.
Anchoring Core Business Growth, Activating Ecosystem Brand Growth Momentum
The continuous rise in Haier’s brand value is essentially driven by its ecosystem brand strategy, focusing on core businesses, adhering to the real economy, continuously expanding industrial scale, and solidifying its leading position. Facing the era’s trends of accelerating global consumption iteration and blurring industrial boundaries, Zhou Yunjie, Chairman of the Board and CEO of Haier Group, pointed out that future competitiveness will not depend on individual strength but on the tension of the ecosystem.
Based on this industry foresight, Haier promotes ecosystem collaboration to evolve from a “parallel fleet” to an “organic life entity,” subdividing its three major tracks into six industrial ecosystems.
The Smart Home Industrial Ecosystem, serving as the “heart” and “main battlefield” of the life entity, focuses on smart homes, smart heating, and the elderly care industry, with the Smart Home Brain at its core, achieving “housework-free living.”
The Big Health Industrial Ecosystem and the Automotive Industrial Ecosystem act as the “wings of the future” for the life entity, continuously expanding the boundaries of smart scenarios for users. In the Big Health sector, the Yingkang Yisheng brand value has exceeded 47 billion yuan, firmly ranking among the top in China’s pharmaceutical and health field. In the Automotive sector, Haier has built Autohome, a leading online automotive technology internet platform in China, and offline Katache provides customized high-end automotive personalization full-scenario solutions to meet individual user needs.
The Digital Economy Industrial Ecosystem, the Robotics Industrial Ecosystem, and the New Energy Industrial Ecosystem serve as the “infrastructure” and “enabling engines” of the life entity, laying a solid technological foundation for the entire organic entity. In the Digital Economy sector, leveraging COSMOPlat’s AI+ industrial internet platform and Hainayun’s “technology + scenarios,” it accelerates the digital and intelligent transformation of thousands of industries. In the Robotics sector, STEP has become a global leader in elevator control IoT ecosystem brands. In the New Energy sector, it deploys differentiated products such as green energy, energy storage, and AI energy robots, aiding the zero-carbon transformation of hundreds of industries.
The deep layout and coordinated efforts of the six industrial ecosystems not only activate the growth momentum of Haier’s ecosystem brand development but also broaden the brand value boundaries through scenario extension, allowing Haier to form a core barrier that is difficult to replicate in global brand competition.
Deepening Global Brand Building, Conveying the Power of Chinese Brands
As the current global economic landscape undergoes deep adjustments, Chinese brands are accelerating their shift from “product export” to “brand export,” demonstrating remarkable growth momentum. However, they also face multiple challenges, such as difficulties in cultural adaptation overseas and insufficient premium capacity for high-end brands. Adhering to independent brand building and technological innovation has become key for Chinese brands to break through.
The significance of Chinese brands going global is not to outcompete others but to win the world’s respect for “Made in China.” Haier is one of the earliest Chinese companies to go global. As early as the 1990s, it abandoned the shortcut of OEM manufacturing and firmly pursued the long-term path of independent brand building. Over the years, Haier has not only built its own global competitive foundation but also paved the way and accumulated experience for many Chinese brands going global, expanding the overseas development space for Chinese independent brands.
Today, Haier has penetrated more than 200 countries and regions worldwide, ranking first in “Euromonitor International’s Global Large Home Appliance Brand Retail Sales” for 17 consecutive years, achieving counter-trend growth in global independent brand markets: it ranks No. 1 in 8 countries, including China, the United States, Australia, and Thailand; holds the top 3 positions in 12 countries, including Italy, Japan, and Nigeria; and enters the top 5 in 8 countries, including Germany, Morocco, and Saudi Arabia, demonstrating significant global brand influence.
Beyond the home appliance industry, Haier’s global experience continues to empower industrial ecosystem expansion overseas. Hainayun participated in projects such as the Panama Bridge, extending its smart city construction capabilities to global infrastructure fields; Haier Biomedical has been continuously implemented in key overseas projects like the UK Biobank, becoming the top share in 7 key countries, including the UK.
Meanwhile, looking at the ranking, four brands have broken the trillion-dollar mark for the first time—Google, Apple, Microsoft, and Amazon—all of which have secured key positions in AI infrastructure or applications. Artificial intelligence has become a decisive force driving global brand growth.
For enterprises, AI is becoming the new gene of the organization, the new paradigm of operations, and the new source of innovation. 2025 is “Haier’s Year of AI Application,” with all employees fully embracing AI across all processes. In 2026, Haier aims to build an AI-native organization. As Zhou Yunjie emphasized, Haier wants AI to “flow like blood through every link of operations,” using artificial intelligence to solidify ecosystem brand barriers and continuously build differentiated competitive advantages in the global restructuring of industrial value.
The global brand landscape is accelerating its restructuring, and “Made in China” is continuously transitioning to “Created in China.” Chinese brands represented by Haier will inject a steady stream of Eastern momentum into global brand transformation through a development model that combines Chinese characteristics with global adaptability.