Apple tops the list of the world's 500 most valuable brands

The "Global 500 – The World's 500 Most Valuable Brands 2024" study, prepared by the international brand valuation organization Brand Finance, has been concluded.

According to the research data, Apple became the "world's most valuable brand" by increasing its value by 74 percent compared to last year, reaching 516.6 billion dollars. Apple surpassed its closest competitor by 176.2 billion dollars. Apple, which also held the top spot in the list in 2021 and 2022, had lost its throne to Amazon last year.

Apple was followed by Microsoft with a brand value of approximately 340.4 billion dollars and Google with 333.4 billion dollars, respectively.

In the list, Amazon ranked 4th with 308.9 billion dollars, South Korean Samsung 5th with 99.4 billion dollars, retail company Walmart 6th with 96.8 billion dollars, Chinese TikTok 7th with 84.2 billion dollars, US-based Facebook 8th with 75.7 billion dollars, Deutsche Telekom 9th with 73.3 billion dollars, and the Chinese bank ICBC 10th with 71.8 billion dollars.

While the value of the brand at the very bottom of the table reached 4.8 billion dollars, Turkish brands did not make it into the ranking this year as they could not reach this figure.

According to the research results, the US was far ahead in the country rankings. While US firms accounted for 203 of the companies on the Global 500 list, it was observed that 65 were Chinese, 33 were Japanese, 32 were French, 28 were German, and 20 were British.

When the distribution of the brands on the list by sector was examined, it was determined that there were 71 brands from the banking sector, 53 from the retail sector, and 49 from the technology sector.

Brand Finance Turkey Director Muhterem İlgüner, in his assessment, stated that Apple achieved a 74 percent increase in brand value, and said that the company achieved success by creating new markets, expanding its ecosystem with wearable devices, and developing value-added phones.

Emphasizing that artificial intelligence has come to the fore in recent years, that the use of artificial intelligence has increased in many areas, and that this is reflected in the list, İlgüner said, "NVIDIA, known for its major investments in artificial intelligence, became the company that increased its brand value the most with 163 percent. NVIDIA's brand value rose to 44.5 billion dollars."

Stating that discretionary spending has been restricted due to high inflation and rising living costs, and as a result, cosmetic and personal care brand value fell by 9 percent, food brand value by 15 percent, restaurant brand value by 3 percent, and alcoholic beverage brand value by 6 percent, İlgüner said, "With this study, the 100 CEOs who take the best care of their brands were also ranked. It was observed that Chinese technology brand TENCENT CEO Ma Huateng took the top spot."

The top 20 of the world's 500 most valuable brands are as follows (billion dollars):