• by Steve McClellan  @mp_mcclellan, December 6, 2013

Technology and financial firms lead the list of most valuable brands in China, according to the latest report on the subject by WPP’s Millward Brown.

Telecom provider China Mobile tops the list with a brand value of more than $61 billion, according to the report. The company’s brand value increased 21% over the past year.

Coming in at the number two spot was financial services firm ICBC -- valued at close to $40 billion, down 2% from a year ago.

Third-ranked is Tencent, the Internet service portal, valued at nearly $34 billion -- up 68%.

The report evaluates the top 100 company brands in China. This year, brand value growth of non-state owned firms is three times greater than state-owned enterprises. The brand value of the private companies ranked in the top 50 firms grew an average 27%, versus an average 9% growth for the state-owned companies.

The report, part of Millward’s “BrandZ” series, combined financial data from Bloomberg and Kantar Worldpanel with consumer phone opinions of 19,000 Chinese consumers in 2013 to come up with its valuations.