Search giant Google has recently lost its status as the most valuable brand, the latest edition of the Brand Value report confirms.
The annual report was released by Brand Finance, a market research firm. Google took the top spot in the 2017 report, however, due to its narrowed focus on “specific sectors”, its brand value only rose by 10% to $120bn (£84.9 billion).
Brand Finance has said that Google’s investment in self-driving vehicles lacked scale and audacity in comparison to some of its rivals. This has resulted in Google dropping to third place on the list.
E-retailer Amazon has benefitted from Google’s drop to become the most valuable brand. The company saw a 42% increase in its year-on-year value to claim top spot in the report and beating many rivals in doing so. Amazon’s brand value now stands at $150bn (£105bn), with the takeover of Whole Foods for a deal worth $13.7bn (£9.7bn) back in August 2017 contributing towards this increase.
Amazon has been the biggest online business on the planet since 2015 and is now establishing a presence in terms of bricks and mortar at a quick rate, with the company opening its first Amazon Go supermarket in January.
The chief executive of Brand Finance, David Haigh, has suggested that Amazon will continue to grow exponentially as it extends into new sectors.
Tech giant Apple was listed in second place, retaining its position from the 2017 report, with a total brand value of $146bn (£103bn). However, despite overhauling Google and maintaining its spot, the report has warned that the future is looking “bleak” for Apple, because the company is becoming increasingly dependent on the sales of its iconic iPhones. Apple managed to sell 29 million handsets of its iPhone X device in the fourth quarter of 2017, which is just shy of expectation.
The top 10 of the list is made up of the same firms from last year’s edition, but in a different order, meaning that technology companies continue to dominate the list. Facebook, Microsoft and Samsung all feature in the top 10, which is listed below:
1. Amazon
2. Apple
3. Google
4. Samsung
5. Facebook
6. AT&T
7. Microsoft
8. Verizon
9. Walmart
10. ICBC
The largest social media site on the planet, Facebook, has risen to number five on the list, moving up from number nine last year, with a brand value of $89bn (£63bn).
A number of Chinese brands have moved up into the top 20 of the list, with experts predicting that they could begin to overtake their US counterparts in the near future. Momentum is certainly with these firms as the average increase in brand value for the likes of WeChat, Alibaba and Tencent was 67%.
The full list, which covers the top 500 global brands, can be found here.
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