The World’s 100 Most Valuable Brands in 2019

Brand equity can be a challenging thing to build.

Even with access to deep pockets and an innovative product, it can take decades of grit to scrape your way into the mainstream consciousness of consumers.

On the path to becoming established as a globally significant brand, companies must fight through fierce competition, publicity scandals, changing regulations, and rapidly-evolving consumer tastes – all to take a bite from the same piece of pie.

Cream of the Crop

Today’s visualization comes to us from HowMuch.net, and it showcases the 100 most valuable brands in the world, according to Forbes.

Here are the powerful brands that sit at the very top of the list:

Rank Brand Brand Value ($B) 1-Yr Value Change Industry #1 Apple $205.5 +12% Technology #2 Google $167.7 +27% Technology #3 Microsoft $125.3 +20% Technology #4 Amazon $97.0 +37% Technology #5 Facebook $88.9 -6% Technology #6 Coca-Cola $59.2 +3% Beverages #7 Samsung $53.1 +11% Technology #8 Disney $52.2 +10% Leisure #9 Toyota $44.6 +0% Automotive #10 McDonald's $43.8 +6% Restaurants

It should be noted that the list is ordered by brand value, a measure that tries to calculate each brand’s ultimate contribution in financial terms to the parent company. You can see that full methodology here.

Finally, it’s also worth mentioning that brands with only a token representation in the United States have been excluded from the rankings. This means companies like Alibaba or Vodafone are not represented in this particular visualization.

Tech Rules Again in 2019

For another straight year, technology dominates the list of the 100 most valuable brands in 2019 – this time, with six of the top seven entries.

Most of these brands saw double-digit growth in value from the previous year, including Apple (12%), Google (27%), Amazon (37%), Microsoft (20%), and Samsung (11%). The one notable exception here is Facebook, which experienced a 6% drop in value attributed to various struggles around the company’s reputation.

Here’s a look at how industries break down more generally on the list:

Industry # of Brands Brand Value ($B) Technology 20 $957.6 Financial Services 13 $198.1 Automotive 11 $208.9 Consumer Goods 10 $123.8 Retail 8 $133.0 Luxury 6 $124.1 Beverages 4 $49.3 Diversified 4 $56.8 Alcohol 3 $69.8 Apparel 3 $34.7 Business Services 3 $33.5 Restaurants 3 $73.0 Telecom 3 $24.3 Heavy Equipment 2 $36.7 Leisure 2 $19.8 Media 2 $34.8 Transportation 2 $41.1 Tobacco 1 $12.6 Total 100 $2,231.9

As you can see, technology brands make up 20% of the list in terms of the number of entries – and a whopping 43% of the list’s cumulative valuation.

In total, technologies brands combined for $957.6 billion in value. Even when including Facebook’s recent drop, this is an impressive 9.7% increase on last year’s numbers.

Will the double-digit increases for the world’s largest tech giants continue into 2020, or are brands such as Amazon and Google going to start seeing the same type of pushback that Facebook has grappled with among consumers and regulators?