5 Crazy Rich Asian Brands You Have to Know

Some of you might have read and/or watched the movie, but do you know these Asian-owned brands that are crazy rich? We’re talking about billions upon trillions of ringgit in annual revenue or brand value. That’s just crazy rich. Here are 5 crazy rich Asian brands on our list (with some crazy rich honourable mentions at the end):

1. Jaguar
   

   Picture credit: jaguar.in

   Wait, isn’t Jaguar British?

   Not since 2008, when it was acquired by Tata Motors. That’s right, the Indian conglomerate became brand owners and had been taking over the brand from Ford Motors. Tata also acquired another British car maker Land Rover and together with Jaguar, they established a new subsidiary named Jaguar Land Rover Automotive PLC, with a last recorded annual revenue of £24.3billion in 2016 (MYR1.301 trillion). Impressive.

   More than just a brand, Jaguar is an icon on the list of luxury car brands together with the likes of Audi and Bentley. It was founded in 1935 in the UK and was acquired by Ford in 1999 before sold to Tata. The brand’s ubiquitous leaping jaguar logo is still recognised in every continent on earth.

2. Uniqlo
   

   Picture credit: iprice.my

   Uniqlo has been a fashion essential all around the world. Everyone fell in love with Japanese minimalism and the clean-cut form the brand offers at affordable prices. It’s a crazy rich Asian brand thanks to its massive annual revenue of ¥1.861 trillion (MYR 69 billion) in 2017.

   Found in 1949 in Hiroshima, Japan, it was first named as Unique Clothing, which was then shortened to Uniqlo. One of the brand’s strategy is collaborating with a lot of designers like Thomas Maier and Hana Tajima to produce exclusive collections none other retail can offer. The brand has since been an icon of a generation.

3. Samsung
   

   Picture credit: techiegadgets.com

   Of course we have to include Samsung. This tech giant is well-known all over the world and the only contender at par with Apple to become two of the most valuable tech brands in the world, although that will soon change with competition. Aside from smartphones and laptops, Samsung also manufactures a wide variety of products from home appliances to heavy machinery including ships and wind turbines.

   Samsung was found in 1938 in what was then Japanese-occupied South Korea. In the 1990’s, it started to globalised its operations and specialised in making mobile phones and semiconductors. Today, the big conglomerate boast an annual revenue of 25.47 trillion won in 2017 (MYR 94 billion).

4. Alibaba
   

   Picture credit: technode.com

   Alibaba made history by achieving the highest initial public offering (IPO) at the New York Stock Exchange in 2014. This force to be reckoned with generated an annual revenue of CN¥250.266 billion in the previous quarter of 2018 (MYR 150 billion) and is currently the 9th highest brand value in the world, contending against Amazon, Apple and Samsung.

   Founded just 19 years ago in 1999 Hangzhou, China, Alibaba Group today comprises of not only e-commerce, but also electronic payment services, web services, cloud computing to even Artificial Intelligence. One of the operating brands under its massive portfolio is Lazada, Malaysia and Singapore’s largest online retailer.

5. Haier
   

   Picture credit: wikipedia.org

   Once quite infamously known to sell defective refrigerators, Haier has come a long way since its founding years in 1920’s Qingdao, China. Today, it moved from a humble beginning to owning one of the most well-known brands in the world; General Electric (GE).

   In January 2016, Haier acquired the ailing home appliance unit of GE for $5.4billion (MYR 22 billion) and had clocked an annual revenue of CN¥159.25 billion(MYR 96 trillion) in 2017. The brand manufactures and sells a wide variety of appliances and consumer electronics like refrigerators, air-conditioning units, microwave ovens and television. Over the years, Haier had picked and dusted itself up to become a worthy global contender it is today.

Other crazy rich honorable mentions:

1. Huawei & BBK Electronics (maker of Vivo, Oppo & One Plus)
2. Sony
3. PETRONAS
4. Air Asia
5. Charles & Keith
6. Razer Inc.
7. Panasonic

There are a lot of other crazy rich asian brands, new and old. Asian brands are dominating the global market including the West. And some Asian countries like China and India are rumoured to be the next global superpower with the next decade. One of the factors of their success is a defined and well-executed brand strategy.

A lot of our homegrown brands make impressive and high-quality products, but find it hard to penetrate the market due to poor marketing and brand strategies. It is the brand’s decision to invest in agencies to form a strategy that understands the market and knows what it has to do.

So, be on the lookout for the next Asian brand to make headlines and getting so crazy rich, we lose track of how many zeros they’re making.