China is currently on the 2nd place in the world by annual GDP, losing only to the USA. But this situation isn't static. China has started a thriving development about 30 years ago and still is still developing extremely rapidly.
According to the experts' predictions China will have caught up with the US by 2020 and will overcome it at least three times in the following 30 years. This means that we will witness the economical superiority of the Asian state that 50 years ago was considered a backward "third world" country.
Now Chinese companies are growing fast on the world market in different spheres: from oil and banks to household appliances, devices, pieces of luxury and even sportswear. Chinese companies' expenses are less than those of their Western rivals thus some production industries go extinct in developed Western countries.
Below you can see 7 most famous Chinese companies that have successfully entered the world market and are ready to successfully compete with Western manufacturers and fight for leading positions in the future.
1. Lenovo (Household appliances)
Lenovo ranks the 1st in among PC manufacturers leaving behind HP, Dell, Acer and Asus (2012).
The Chinese company produces PCs, laptops, tablet PCs, cell phones, video display boards and different accessories
Lenovo got popular thanks to excellent characteristics of their products and low prices (in comparison to the similar devices of other companies). For example, currently Lenovo makes products that can compete with Apple and Samsung. If you compare two tablet PCs: Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 and Lenovo Ideatab S6000 16GB you can say that the latter is better than the former. Lenovo's one supports 3G and guarantees photos of higher quality. Ideatab also supports HDMI and is about 100$ cheaper. Of course, Korean tablet is better in many features, however basic characteristics are better in Lenovo as well as the price.
2. Huawei Technologies (Telecommunication)
Huawei is one of the biggest Chinese companies in the field of telecommunication. Currently it has about 100 branch offices all over the world including the USA, Germany, Turkey, India, Sweden and Russia.
The company produces network and optical devices, cell phones, smartphones etc.
In Russia Huawei is cooperating with national telecommunication companies, and also produces brand phones such as mobile phones for Russia's biggest telecommunication companies (Megafon and MTS).
If you compare Huawei phones with Samsung ones you can find a lot of advantages of Chinese products. E.g. looking into Huawei Honor 3 and Samsung Galaxy S5 we can say that the former is cheaper (330$ against 585$). Huawei's phone is lighter and more compact, has clear picturing as it uses the subpixel technology (3 subpixels divide 1 pixel, it helps to prevent blurry images), has IPS panel used for LCD-monitors. Of course, Samsung is more "advanced" company that created a lot of useful and not so useful additions for a phone like "backlight sensor", lights for video, fingerprints sensor, but if you want maximum convenience and minimum additional options, then it's better to buy a cheap and compact Huawei phone than a big fancy Samsung one.
3. XiaomiTech (Cell phones, tablet PC)
Xiaomi is a Chinese company that produces cell phones, smartphones, tablet PCs and TV sets. It was established in 2010. Currently Xiaomi's products are more popular than Apple's ones in China, however the company still is not really famous worldwide.
This year Xiaomi plans to enter 10 new markets, including Russia, Brazil and India.
Not long time ago Xiaomi released its 1st tablet PC – Mi Pad which looks exactly like iPad mini, excluding plastic cover. It's heavier and thicker than Apple's tablet. However it doesn't lose to iPad in many features, e.g. Mi Pad has an HQ-screen that is similar to Retina Display, and capacity of NVIDIA Tegra K1 processor is 1.5-2 times better than that of an Apple A7. Tablet PC is not available yet, however the claimed price is really low – Chinese iPad clone will cost from 240$ to 270$ (depending on memory capacity). Thanks to the low price and good quality, Xiaomi has all the chances to achieve a success outside China and become a decent rival of Western companies.
4. Dalian Wanda (Entertainment and hotel business)
Dalian Wanda Group is the Chinese investment holding presented in 5 spheres: immovable properties, tourism, retail trade, hotel business and entertainment.
Less known in Russia than in the world Wanda hotel chain plans to have become the biggest 5-star hotel chain in the world by 2015. Most of the hotels are currently in the USA, Great Britain and China, there are in total more than 80 high-class hotels.
The company continues to develop: in May, 2012 Wanda acquired the American entertainment company AMC Entertainment for 2.6 billion dollars. In 2013 the company demonstrated its interest in business in Britain and currently is also negotiating with Hollywood studios.
Chinese holding has also expressed its interest in Russia's tourism industry: in 2012 Dalian Wanda Group claimed that it intends to invest in the resorts of North Caucasus (Dagestan, Sochi, Arkhyz) and is interested in the development of Moscow and St Petersburg regions.
5. Haier (Household appliances)
Haier is a Chinese company, the biggest producer of hi-tech household appliances.
The company is an absolute leader on the market of washing machines, fridges, air conditioners and electric waterheaters. Haier products are currently sold successfully in more than 160 countries.
The Chinese company continues not only entering new markets but also increasing the scales of manufacturing which allows it to grow "in width" thus creating new appliances and model rows.
On the Russian market Haier is represented only by refrigerating appliances and washing machines that are yet to receive acknowledgement from Russian consumers. Such brands as LG, Samsung, Bosch are more famous in Russia. It is possible that lack of attention of Russian consumers to the company is caused by rather high prices on the Haier's products which are fixed because of the fact that the products are considered "top-class" in the West.
6. Alibaba Group (Internet Trade)
Alibaba Group is a private Chinese company, their main activity is online trades. Alibaba Group consists of trading platform for such organizations as Alibaba.com, Internet store AliExpress, retail online market, Internet store and auction Taobao.com, and also Internet transactions service Alipay etc.
In 2012 the company appeared on the Russian market establishing an agreement on the partnership with Qiwi paying system.
The most famous project of Alibaba Group is currently Taobao.com. This is one of the biggest online stores where you can purchase everything at low prices. Taobao gained fame not only in China where it is already the most convenient shopping device (because the goods sold on Taobao are cheaper than in any Chinese shop) but also on other world markets, Russia included. If you want to buy fancy clothes and spend less than 30$, then this site is for you. Nevertheless, there is a major disadvantage – you can make purchases there only if you are in China, so if you want something, you'll have to use a middleman's service.
7. Geely (Car industry)
Geely is one of the biggest Chinese car building companies that creates motorbikes, scooters, cars and battery cars.
Cheap Geely cars oriented towards usual consumers are in great demand on Russian market. However Chinese cars are not the leaders in their class: in Russia they compete against South Korean Daewoo and Russian Lada. Of course, contemporary Geely cars have decent exterior, but the company has a long way ahead of them to create a car with competitive equipment. By the way, we can note that Chinese cars are not known for their low prices, e.g. Geely MK costs around 10000$, while similar Korean Daewoo Nexia costs about 8000$.
Tatiana Trukhina
