NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Friday, December 13, 2019

By Nikolaus Lang, Arindam Bhattacharya and Abdeljabbar Chraïti

More than two decades after entering China, L’Oréal has established itself as that nation’s market leader in beauty products, and it is still gaining momentum; in 2018, it reported its highest sales growth rate in China in 14 years. In the early 1970s, Toyota became a dominant force in Indonesia when it opened its first auto assembly joint venture. Despite dramatic growth in the Indonesian market and mounting competition, Toyota remains the undisputed leader, with around half of passenger car sales, including its Daihatsu brand. Back in the late 19th century, Siemens supplied China’s first pointer telegraph and helped build the country’s first power plant and tram line. Today, China is Siemens’ second-largest overseas market, with 35,000 employees and 21 R&D hubs, which are helping to build everything from leading-edge unattended train systems and smart-city solutions to digital manufacturing systems.

Photo courtesy of UN Women / Karin Schermbrucker.