Technology
Chart: Ranking the World’s Most Valuable Brands
Chart: Ranking the World’s Most Valuable Brands
In just 10 years, tech brands have taken over the list
The Chart of the Week is a weekly Visual Capitalist feature on Fridays.
Tech has already conquered the stock market and the realm of digital advertising.
Now the technology sector also has a strangle hold on another measure: the value of consumer brands.
Global Rank | Brand | Brand Value 2017 |
---|---|---|
#1 | $245.6 billion | |
#2 | Apple | $234.7 billion |
#3 | Microsoft | $143.2 billion |
#4 | Amazon | $139.3 billion |
#5 | $129.8 billion |
The massive scale and reach of tech companies has helped their brand values to skyrocket over the last decade. In fact, even just adding Google and Apple’s most recent numbers together gives a figure that rivals the GDP of Sweden.
What is Brand Value, Anyways?
This data on the most valuable brands comes from the BrandZ Top 100 Global Brands report for 2017, which uses a specific methodology to quantify the financial worth of different brands around the world.
In this case, by “brand”, we are referring to the intangible asset that exists in the minds of consumers, which is usually an image forged over time through exposure to branding, ads, publicity, and other types of personal experiences.
Meanwhile, the “brand value” is the dollar amount a brand contributes to the overall value of a corporation. Measuring this intangible asset reveals an additional source of shareholder value that otherwise would not exist.
Diving Deeper
What types of companies are building the strongest brands?
Here is the Top 100 list broken down by a few different key categories.
Note: in these rankings we are counting both Amazon and Alibaba as tech companies
The amount of Chinese brands making the Top 100 is rising quickly – in 2008, only four made the list.
Today, there are 12 Chinese brands on the list, including widely-known names such as Huawei, Alibaba, and Ping An Insurance.
Other types of brands that do well in the rankings include financial services (23 of 100 brands) and technology (23 of 100 brands).
Brand Value on the Rise
Overall, the cumulative brand value of all 100 companies on the list has been rising. It now sits at $3.6 trillion in total.
For comparison’s sake – that’s bigger than the annual GDP of Germany, the world’s fourth largest economy.
Technology
Mapped: Internet Download Speeds by Region
North America and East Asia have the speediest internet.
Mapped: Internet Download Speeds by Region
This was originally posted on our Voronoi app. Download the app for free on iOS or Android and discover incredible data-driven charts from a variety of trusted sources.
In today’s fast-paced world, internet speed isn’t just a convenience—it’s the driving force behind how we work, play, and connect.
In this map, we illustrate median download speeds in each global region, based on data from the World Bank’s Digital Progress and Trends Report 2023.
North America and East Asia Have the Speediest Internet
According to the World Bank, download speeds in high-income countries increased significantly between 2019 and 2023, while speeds in lower-income countries stagnated.
As of 2022, North America and East Asia have the speediest internet.
Region | Median mobile download speed (Mb/sec) | Median fixed broadband download speed (Mb/sec) |
---|---|---|
East Asia & Pacific | 90 | 171 |
Europe & Central Asia | 44 | 85 |
Latin America & the Caribbean | 26 | 74 |
Middle East & North Africa | 36 | 36 |
North America | 83 | 193 |
South Asia | 27 | 43 |
Sub-Saharan Africa | 16 | 15 |
This difference in broadband speeds can mainly be attributed to investment.
In 2020, nearly 90% of global telecommunication investment came from East Asia and the Pacific, Europe and Central Asia, and North America. These regions not only concentrate the highest-income population but also the top technology hubs.
Meanwhile, low- and middle-income regions such as Latin America and the Caribbean, South Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa accounted for less than 10% of total investment.
Most of the investment is directed towards fiber optic and 5G mobile networks. According to the mobile industry association GSMA, mobile operators alone are projected to invest more than $600 billion between 2022 and 2025, with 85% of the total allocated for 5G.
In 2023, broadband speeds in high-income countries were 10x faster for fixed connections, and 5x faster for mobile connections compared to those in low-income countries.
Fixed broadband connections, which provide high-speed internet to residences or businesses, reached 38% of the population in high-income countries. In comparison, fixed broadband penetration was only 4% of the population in lower-middle-income countries and almost zero in low-income countries.
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