More and more private Chinese companies are making efforts in brand building. The Shanghai-based Hurun Report recently listed the top 50 private brands, with the dairy company Mengniu Group, IT giant Huawei Corporation, and beverage company Wahaha ranking top 3 on the list. Our Shanghai correspondent Xiaoyu takes a closer look.

Among the 50 top private brands,10 are from the fast-moving consumer goods industry, 8 from IT, and 8 are clothing brands, including the nationwide-famous Wahaha Beverage, Gome Home Appliances Chain, and Alibaba IT Company. The No. 1 on the list, Mengniu Dairy, has made their brand's value account for 46% of their total capital.

Hurun Report initiated an investigation into how much China's fledging private companies are investing in the promotion and building of their brands. Chief Executive Officer Hu Run described the purpose of doing so.

"Today in China is a brand year. It's a single culture, single market. So for any company especially in the fast moving consumer goods industry that can build a strong brand, has got a very strong potential for profits later on."

From traditional promotion methods like TV ads, to today's diversified means like sponsoring entertainment programs and charity events, some private companies are expanding investment in brands-building to make their brands outstanding, easily remembered by their customers, and more importantly, gaining value day by day. Hu Run explains what a brand's value means for a whole company.

"In a simple way, it's in every dollar I earn, how much is coming directly from the brand. Like Wahaha Company, nearly 50% of its total profit is coming from the brand, so they should be really focusing on the brand as an independent product."

Though progress is obvious, Zhang Jun, a professor at Shanghai's Fudan University, said private Chinese companies have to work harder to compete with international players.

"As the environment for the development of Chinese private companies is very tough, under competition with state-owned and transnational companies, they have usually grown by manufacturing rather than brand building or trading. So there's still a long way to go, at least 20 years, to make these newly built brands mature and internationally competitive."

The professor points out that a lack of legal protection and a lack of capital are the 2 major obstacles for Chinese enterprises to develop their brands.

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