Leading brands worldwide 2024, by brand value

In 2024, tech companies ranked as the most valuable brands in the world, covering the five top spots in the source’s ranking. Apple led the list with a brand value of nearly 489 billion U.S. dollars, followed by Microsoft, Amazon, and Google – each with brand values of over 290 billion dollars. Samsung closed the top five, at over 100 billion dollars in brand value. 

Big techs are also huge in terms of market value

The source determined brand value by combining financial information, the role the brand plays in determining consumer choice (independent of other factors such as price and convenience), and a qualitative assessment of the brand’s overall strength. Considering only financial data, Apple, Amazon, Alphabet (Google’s parent company) and Microsoft would be still on the top, as they have some of the highest global market capitalizations. However, when considering only qualitative factors regarding brand strength, the list would look very different, with Chinese app WeChat being the strongest brand worldwide in 2024. 

Brand value vs. profitability

Brand value does not always translate into profitability. While Apple also happens to be the second most profitable company in the world, other companies with strong brands such as Google and Amazon rank lower in terms of net income. This phenomenon does not only apply to tech companies – Coca-Cola did not feature on the list of the most profitable companies worldwide. This is likely due to their franchised distribution structure, whereby manufacturing operations are handled by separate companies, each of which operates independently with an exclusive license to manufacture Coca-Cola beverages in their territory.