How Chinese brands are transforming global markets and driving disruption

China's leading brands have shifted from "made in China" to "brands from China", now integrating "community" into their marketing mix alongside the traditional four Cs: customer, cost, convenience, and communication, a white paper finds.

Released by TBWA\China and TBWA\Worldwide, the white paper “LABUBU LETTERS: A disruption brief on ascending global Chinese brands” aims to unpack how a new wave of Chinese brands is defying expectations, breaking category conventions, and rewriting what Chinese brands can be on a global scale.

Drawing on deep data analysis across business performance, engagement, sentiment, and perception, the report dissects rising brands such as Pop Mart, MINISO, Vivo, Honor, BYD, and GWM to uncover the drivers powering disruptive global expansion. The findings highlight two key forces: a commitment to bold product innovation and a profound understanding of cultural nuances.

The white paper has outlined how Chinese brands are reshaping the landscape across major categories: new retail, smartphones, automotive, and global expansion.

1. New retail

A wave of Chinese new retail brands, which began with adorable design-led retail and impulse collectibles, has evolved into a cultural export movement. This movement is led by two of China's new retail players, Pop Mart and MINISO.

Through mechanisms such as blind boxes, they have turned intellectual property (IP)-driven purchases into an emotional rollercoaster, transforming not only products but the entire shopping experience. While traditional retail emphasised functionality and value, Pop Mart and MINISO have rewritten the narrative by prioritising emotion, social currency, and culture.

According to the report, Pop Mart and MINISO continue to post double-digit growth quarter-on-quarter in their key markets, compared to the more conservative 4.1% growth in global retail sales. Both companies achieved year-over-year (YoY) market share growth in the first to third quarters of 2025, with Pop Mart recording the fastest growth of over 50% in Southeast Asia, North America, and Europe, while MINISO delivered mid-to-high growth, increasing by 10% to 50% in Latin America and the Middle East.

Notably, the blind-box content is driving conversions for Pop Mart, even with only 128 stores outside China, yet generating US$789 million in the first half of 2025. MINISO, meanwhile, relies more on its physical availability to drive revenue. With a store network 25 times larger than its main rival, it achieved slightly lower revenue of US$498 million in the same period.

Outside China, Pop Mart leads MINISO in mental availability, with seven times the social reach and six times the social engagement.

Interestingly, negative sentiment for both brands is slightly higher but is not hindering business growth. Pop Mart’s sentiment breakdown is 41% positive, 48% neutral, and 11% negative, while MINISO's is 43% positive, 48% neutral, and 9% negative.

At the heart of this aggressive growth is the "cute economy". In retail, capturing emotions and desires wins consumers. These brands have moved beyond soft, innocent kawaii to define cute 2.0, a trend further amplified by fan culture, pushing brands into a new frontier: the vast universes of anime, comics, and games (ACG). Whether through original IPs or globally collaborative designs, they have turned "cute" from a surface aesthetic into a powerful cultural connector—an emotional shorthand that resonates across markets and generations, answering a global desire for optimism, play, and authentic connection.

Meanwhile, China's new retail icons operate less as category incumbents and more as fashion houses. Pop Mart has redefined what "newness" means in everyday retail by adopting fashion's codes of desirability, such as limited editions, seasonal drops, seeding celebrities and design collaborations that create
cultural heat. By building anticipation into its business model, Pop Mart has turned every new collection or store launch into a moment of discovery. This couture-like approach keeps the brand exclusive and desirable, helping it avoid the "mass commodity" trap.

Moreover, brands have turned points of sale into playgrounds of discovery—from blind boxes fuelling the cute economy to limited-time pop-ups and immersive stores that double as cultural theatre. Every purchase becomes a moment of surprise, anticipation, and community, moving beyond mere transaction. This new form of "retailtainment" rewrites the traditional brand funnel: engagement happens during the sale, not before it.

Last but not least, community is not merely an output of marketing, it is the starting point for brand building. Pop Mart and MINISO have embedded community from the ground up as co-creation systems, where fans shape demand, design, and discovery.

2. Smartphones

Among the top 10 smartphone brands by global shipments in 2024, the top five Chinese performers achieved an average YoY growth of 12.1%, significantly outpacing the industry's 7.1% growth rate.

Vivo and Honor have shown the fastest growth in their respective key markets based on global shipments from January to September 2025. Vivo's YoY market share growth is between 10% and 50% across key markets, including Southeast Asia, India, and the Middle East. In contrast, Honor's YoY market share growth exceeds 50% in Latin America and the Middle East.

While mental availability is hard-won in the phone category, Vivo punches above its weight with social engagement nine times higher than Honor’s, and four times the reach among Chinese brands. However, both brands outperform the global average in consumer sentiment, with positive digital rates of 59% for Honor and 52% for Vivo, versus a 42% average.

The whitepaper reveals a stark divide in consumer expectations. In China, brands employ a "saturation strategy", competing on every front to meet demands for all-around capability. Overseas, these same brands succeed through focus. They are perceived and remembered for specific, differentiated attributes that carve out a unique space in the minds of global consumers.

Therefore, in the overseas market, Honor and Vivo are anchoring themselves in one winning usage scenario. They have moved away from the legacy playbook of claiming everything, including best battery, superior camera, fastest chip, best design, to staking a claim on singular usage scenarios to create top-of-mind awareness for their brands.

For example, in India, Vivo has owned night photography and youth culture, brought to life by an after-dark visual language. In Latin America, Vivo's "Halo of light" focuses prominently on temperature adjustment, catering to the region's demand. In the same region, Honour emphasises its chip power-saving system and high-capacity battery.

Moreover, Chinese smartphones are turning technical durability and product engineering into bold, demonstrable communication moments—proving their superiority through pressure-testing and creator-led trials that boost credibility. Vivo's twist test, featured on its global social media pages, showcases how its smartphones will not bend easily nor be damaged under pressure. Honor's heat and battery longevity tests and gaming stress-tests demonstrate performance for heavy power users in the Middle East.

Third, Chinese smartphone brands outperform legacy players on speed, scale, and localisation in content marketing. While the latter have focused on episodic hero campaigns, Chinese brands have adopted a continuous presence model with their always-on, locally relevant content, building product desire at the speed of culture.

3. Automotive 

Chinese automakers are captivating the world with breakthrough performance and rapid innovation. New energy behicles (NEVs) from China are rapidly gaining ground abroad, eating away at the export share traditionally held by internal combustion engine (ICE) cars. NEV exports surged by 149.2% YoY, representing nearly half of all Chinese car exports in 2025 (40.7%).

Among the top five Chinese car brands by export volume, BYD and GWM have both delivered an approximate 50% surge YoY. BYD commands clear dominance in global share of voice and engagement, achieving 22 times the social reach and 32 times the social engagement of GWM.

Where GWM struggles with brand awareness, it compensates with more positive sentiment, suggesting a stronger, if more niche, reputation than BYD outside of China. Both brands are earning increasing praise. Digital and social sentiment for BYD is 37% positive, 44% neutral, and 20% negative, while GWM’s is 44% positive, 48% neutral, and 9% negative.

Firstly, Chinese auto makers entering global markets are redefining the playbook by focusing on "owning" segments rather than chasing full-range parity with legacy players. While traditional carmakers have diversified endlessly—from hatchbacks to SUVs and NEVs, they may have diluted their image in the process. China's new age disruptors have specialised their way into global expansion.

Secondly, by pioneering advanced NEV technologies that merge cutting-edge innovation with consumer-level reliability, China's auto brands are exporting confidence in Chinese engineering.

Thirdly, they are turning sustainability into a tangible consumer advantage. Chinese auto brands have transformed sustainability from a matter of corporate compliance into a key differentiator, positioning themselves as leaders in eco-performance: a form of sustainability that enhances driving experience, efficiency, and pride of ownership.

By translating the overarching sustainability agenda into tangible advantages that improve customer experience, China's automakers are framing sustainability as a practical value, not merely a virtue.

Don't miss: Global Chinese brands: Writing their own success stories across cultures

"Chinese brands are redefining how the world experiences and engages with brands. Their disruptive mindset is expanding the possibilities of global leadership – and offering a new source of inspiration for ambitious marketers everywhere." said Joanne Lao, CEO, TBWA\China. 

"When we look at products such as Labubus, we see far more than a toy that went global. We see POP MART's mastery of modern brand building - breaking conventions through creativity, cultural intelligence and a purpose grounded in Eastern thinking. Brands such as Pop Mart aren't scaling by playing catch-up - they're scaling by rewriting the playbook." said Jen Costello, global chief strategy officer, TBWA\Worldwide.

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