China consumer brand emergence (2010s-2020s): how Anta, Li-Ning, Pop Mart, Heytea, and others took share from global incumbents
Through the 2010s international brands grew their share of Chinese consumer-goods spending by approximately 10% annually as the broader Chinese consumer market expanded. The 2018-2024 period reversed the dynamic: domestic Chinese brands took share back from global incumbents across multiple categories. Anta’s share of Chinese sportswear rose from 14% in 2019 to 19% in 2023; Li-Ning’s grew from 6% to 9%. Pop Mart built a $400 million+ Labubu-character toy franchise that has expanded internationally. Heytea redefined the Chinese bubble-tea category around cheese-tea innovation. The cumulative trend reflects three structural shifts: improved domestic-brand product quality, “guo-chao” (national tide) cultural-pride preferences among younger Chinese consumers, and growing political-and-economic tensions that have made Chinese consumers more willing to choose domestic brands over Western alternatives. The case is the structural example of how domestic brands can take share back from global incumbents when product quality, cultural positioning, and political-economic context align.
- Story: Through 2010s-2020s multiple Chinese consumer brands grew from regional to international scale: Anta Sports (acquired Amer Sports including Wilson/Salomon/Arc'teryx for $5.2B in 2019); Mihoyo/HoYoverse (Genshin Impact $5B+ lifetime revenue); BYD (surpassed Tesla in EVs in some quarters); plus Haier, Lenovo, Xiaomi, Anker, DJI, Hisense, TCL, many others.
- Why it matters: Chinese consumer brand emergence is the defining recent aggregate trend in international brand expansion — demonstrating that emerging-market brands can build international position more quickly than predecessors in some categories while facing geopolitical complexity.
- Takeaway: Emerging-market brand internationalization typically follows a multi-decade arc from regional dominance to international expansion to global leadership in specific categories.
- Takeaway: Chinese brands have built international position more quickly than Japanese/Korean predecessors in some categories (gaming, electric vehicles, drones) while facing more geopolitical complexity.
- Takeaway: Category-by-category dynamics vary significantly — Chinese brands have substantial international position in some categories while remaining limited in others.
Chinese consumer brand emergence — the four-step story
Chinese brands emergence by the numbers
Quick facts
Where Chinese consumer brands were in 2010
Through the 1990s and 2000s the Chinese consumer market opening produced rapid international-brand growth in China. Nike, Adidas, Apple, Starbucks, McDonald’s, KFC, Coca-Cola, Procter & Gamble, and many others built substantial Chinese-market positions. The structural assumption among multinational consumer-goods companies was that the Chinese market would continue to favor international brands at premium price points, with domestic Chinese brands occupying the value tiers. Through the 2010s international brands grew their China share by approximately 10% annually.
Several structural factors limited Chinese domestic brand growth in this period. Product quality lagged international competitors in many categories (sportswear technology, beauty product formulation, electronics build quality). Brand identity and design were often derivative of international competitors. Chinese consumers, particularly upper-middle-class urban consumers, associated international brands with higher quality and aspirational positioning. The lack of strong domestic-brand alternatives meant that even patriotic preferences did not translate into purchase decisions.
The 2018-2024 shift
Through 2018-2024 the dynamic reversed across multiple categories. Several structural factors converged. First, product quality improved substantially across domestic Chinese brands. Anta Sports invested heavily in technology and design (including the 2019 acquisition of Amer Sports’ portfolio: Wilson, Salomon, Arc’teryx, Atomic). Li-Ning, Pop Mart, Heytea, and others built genuinely competitive products that did not require quality compromises from consumers. Second, the “guo-chao” (literally “national tide”) cultural movement among younger Chinese consumers produced rising preferences for Chinese-heritage brand identities. The trend was particularly strong among Gen Z and millennial Chinese consumers who had grown up in an era of Chinese economic ascendance and who saw cultural pride as a positive consumer-choice attribute.
Third, political and economic tensions reinforced the cultural shift. The 2018-2024 period saw escalating US-China tensions, including trade-war tariffs, technology-export restrictions, and broader political friction. Chinese government and media at various points encouraged consumer preferences for domestic brands. International brands occasionally faced Chinese consumer backlashes from political-statement perceived insults (the H&M and Nike 2021 Xinjiang-cotton statements produced sustained consumer backlash). The cumulative effect through 2020-2024 was that Chinese consumers were more willing to choose domestic brands than they had been in earlier periods, and the domestic brands had become genuinely competitive on product quality.
Category-specific examples
Sportswear: Anta and Li-Ning have taken substantial share from Nike and Adidas. Anta’s share rose from 14% to 19% over 2019-2023; Li-Ning’s from 6% to 9%. Combined with smaller domestic competitors (361 Degrees, Erke), domestic Chinese sportswear brands now exceed 40% of the Chinese sportswear market. Anta’s 2019 acquisition of Amer Sports gave the company access to premium international brands (Wilson, Salomon, Arc’teryx) that have themselves performed well in China under domestic-distribution.
Collectible toys: Pop Mart built a multi-billion-dollar business on the back of blind-box collectible designer-toy figurines. The Labubu character alone has generated over $400 million in global sales. Pop Mart has expanded internationally with particular strength in Southeast Asia and growing presence in Western markets through 2024. The combination of designer-toy aesthetic, blind-box scarcity-and-collectibility mechanics, and strong character-IP development has produced a category-defining brand.
Beverage: Heytea pioneered cheese-tea (creamy frothy topping on bubble tea) that became a nationwide Chinese trend in the mid-2010s. The brand expanded internationally and competed with traditional bubble-tea competitors (Coco, Gong Cha) plus premium-positioning competitors (Bawang Chaji). Mixue at the value tier (over 30,000 stores in China and Southeast Asia) and Heytea-and-Bawang Chaji at the premium tier have collectively transformed the Chinese tea-beverage category. Beauty: Yatsen (Perfect Diary cosmetics) built a substantial business in Chinese-customer beauty through digital-first marketing and rapid product development, though faced post-IPO pressure in 2022-2024 as competition intensified.
How RGM thinks about domestic-brand emergence in international markets
When clients ask about how to think about domestic-brand emergence in international markets, the China 2010s-2020s case is the structural example we point to. Three structural lessons. First, product quality improvement is the precondition for domestic-brand share recovery. The 2010s Chinese consumer preferred international brands not because of cultural-affinity but because of quality. The 2020s share shift happened because domestic-brand quality had substantially closed the gap. International brands trying to defend share in similar markets need to recognize that product-quality advantages are temporary; brands relying on quality-advantage-alone face eventual share loss as domestic competitors improve. Second, cultural-and-political context can accelerate or amplify share shifts but rarely creates them in isolation. The Chinese “guo-chao” movement and the political-economic friction with the US have accelerated the underlying product-quality-driven share shift but would not have produced the share movement without the underlying quality improvement. Third, the international brands facing domestic-brand share loss often have strategic responses available (deeper localization, pricing adjustments, partnership structures) but executing these responses requires explicit strategic prioritization. International brands that treat international markets as marginal additions to their core operations often fail to defend share effectively.
The pattern is generalizable to other emerging-market domestic-brand emergence (Indian domestic brands taking share in personal care, Brazilian brands in food-and-beverage, various Southeast Asian markets). The structural conditions that produce successful domestic-brand emergence are similar in each case: product-quality improvement, cultural-and-political context, and strategic-execution capacity. We tell clients in international markets to evaluate their share-defense positions against these conditions explicitly and to plan strategic responses where domestic-brand emergence is likely.
Frequently asked questions
Is the China domestic-brand shift permanent?
Probably yes for the share that has shifted; future share dynamics depend on continued product-quality improvement and cultural-political context. International brands are unlikely to regain the 2010s share-of-Chinese-consumer position because the underlying conditions (Chinese consumer preferences, domestic-brand quality, political-economic friction) have all moved in directions that favor domestic brands. Some categories may stabilize at the new equilibrium; some may continue shifting toward domestic brands. International brands that adapt strategically may defend their post-shift positions but rarely return to pre-shift positions.
How big is Pop Mart actually?
Pop Mart was approximately $1 billion in 2023 revenue with substantial growth into 2024. The Labubu character alone has generated over $400 million in cumulative global sales. The company is publicly traded on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX: 9992). The international expansion has been particularly strong in Southeast Asia (multiple physical stores in Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia) and growing in Western markets through both retail partnerships and direct-store openings.
What about Chinese tech brands like Xiaomi, BYD, Huawei?
These are larger and more strategically consequential than the consumer-goods brands covered here but face different competitive dynamics. Xiaomi has built a substantial international consumer-electronics business across smartphones, smart-home, and adjacent categories. BYD became the world’s largest EV manufacturer by units in 2023-2024. Huawei faced US sanctions through 2019-2024 that have constrained its international growth but it has built substantial domestic Chinese market share in adjacent categories. The Chinese-tech-brand competitive dynamic is more political and strategic than the consumer-goods dynamic.
Are international brands giving up on China?
Some are reducing investment; most are not abandoning the market. The 2024 LVMH and other major-luxury slowdowns in China reflect cyclical Chinese consumer spending pressure rather than structural retreat. Nike, Adidas, Procter & Gamble, Coca-Cola, and most other major international brands continue to invest in China but with reduced growth expectations and adapted strategic emphasis. The Chinese market remains large enough to support continued international-brand operations even at reduced shares.
What is the single takeaway?
Domestic-brand emergence in international markets follows from product-quality improvement, cultural-political context, and strategic execution capacity. The Chinese 2018-2024 dynamic is the most-current example of how these factors compound to produce sustained share shift from international brands to domestic alternatives. International brands operating in markets where the same factors are emerging should plan strategic responses explicitly.
Sources & references
- Chinese consumer goods companies continue growing at internet-company speed (China Tech Blog) — Industry analysis of Chinese domestic consumer-brand growth trajectories.
- The Labubu Phenomenon: How Chinese Consumer Brands Are Rewriting the Rules (Whitney Xiao on Medium) — Analysis of Pop Mart Labubu and broader Chinese-brand-building patterns.
- Why Nike and Adidas Are Losing Market Share in China (Front Office Sports) — Coverage of the Chinese-sportswear competitive shift.
- Why Brand China is already reshaping global markets (WARC) — Industry analysis of Chinese brands’ global expansion.
- Discover Modern Chinese Brands: From Pop Mart to Heytea (MforMandarin) — Profile-style coverage of major modern Chinese consumer brands.
- Why China’s Young Consumers Love Brand Collaborations (Jing Daily) — Jing Daily coverage of Chinese Gen-Z-and-millennial consumer-brand preferences.