Chinese Brand Darwinism: Winners & Losers on the Global Stage: Jan Harling
July 6, 2026
China has over 50,000 brands going global: which ones will survive?
China has more overseas enterprises than ever before, but volume alone does not build a brand. Jan Harling has spent 15 years inside that expansion, holding senior roles at Huawei and OPPO before founding VirtusAsia, a boutique marketing and media consultancy based in Hong Kong. He joins Bryce and Ali to break down what separates the Chinese brands that are making a lasting global mark from the ones that are burning budget to stand still.
China has over 50,000 brands going global: which ones will survive?
China has more overseas enterprises than ever before, but volume alone does not build a brand. Jan Harling has spent 15 years inside that expansion, holding senior roles at Huawei and OPPO before founding VirtusAsia, a boutique marketing and media consultancy based in Hong Kong. He joins the podcast to break down what separates the Chinese brands that are making a lasting global mark from the ones that are burning through their budgets to stand still.
Key takeaways:
China has more overseas enterprises than ever before, but volume alone does not build a brand. Jan Harling has spent 15 years inside that expansion, holding senior roles at Huawei and OPPO before founding VirtusAsia, a boutique marketing and media consultancy based in Hong Kong. He joins the podcast to break down what separates the Chinese brands that are making a lasting global mark from the ones that are burning through their budgets to stand still.
Key takeaways:
- The single biggest mistake Chinese outbound brands make is assuming what works at home will work abroad. Localization is not optional; it is the primary differentiator between brands that stick and brands that fade
- Most Chinese brands are still allocating 80 to 90 percent of media spend to performance and lower-funnel activity, leaving brand awareness severely underfunded relative to Western competitors
- Vanity metrics (impressions, likes, follower counts) remain a persistent problem, driven largely by procurement teams whose KPI is cost efficiency, not brand impact. The shift toward brand lift studies and share of search is real, but still early
- Chinese brands rarely enter a new region with a focused test-and-learn approach. Most launch across 10 to 20 markets simultaneously, which spreads resources thin and limits the depth needed to build genuine local relevance
- The brands most likely to break into the global top 100 are those willing to make long-term brand investments, hire Western talent who understand China, and build trust with consumers before competing on price stops being an option
Jan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/janharling/
About Virtus Asia: https://www.virtusasia.com/
For everything ShanghaiZhan: http://zhanstation.com/
Bryce on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brycewhitwam/
Ali on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alikazmi/