Who are the most searched consumer brands in China? According to Visual Capitalist, Baidu is topping the list. I don’t buy this though, which is the reason I wanted to create this post. Instead of looking at Google’s keyword planner (which is actually not available in China) or 3rd party publications, we can simply look at Baidu’s data studio to understand the true picture.
Overall, the most searched consumer brands in China, based on Jan 2021’s figures, are actually QQ mail (Tencent owned), Taobao (Alibaba owned) and JD.com.
We can go deeper and look at the winners in each category (Data source: Baidu - Jan 2021)
Louis Vuitton takes the crown in the luxury category with more than 4.2 million searches in a month, 3 times more than Gucci in second place.
Estee Lauder & Lancôme are the top beauty & skincare brands, followed by La Mer.
Apple and Huawei are fighting it out at the top for consumer electronics, while Samsung is nowhere near the top 5.
Taobao and JD.com remain the most popular marketplaces on the search engine in China. Intriguingly, even for the brands who top the list for each retail category such as Louis Vuitton or Estee Lauder, their monthly search volume is nowhere near those of the top marketplaces like Taobao and JD.com, showing how much Chinese consumers rely on online marketplaces.
League of Legends and King of Glory are the most searched games in China, while Nintendo notably ranks only 15th on the list. Steam ranking in 4th, despite mobile gaming being believed to be the mainstream market in China, shows PC games still have a strong player base.
The popularity of brands on search engines is in large part due to the huge effort and investment spent in building a strong brand in the market and cultivating its image.
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