Markets

The World’s 100 Most Valuable Brands in 2021

Published

10 months ago

October 6, 2021

Carmen Ang

Graphics/Design:

Amy Realey

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The World’s Top 100 Most Valuable Brands in 2021

In 2020, the global economy experienced one of the worst declines since the Great Depression.

Yet, while the ripple effects of COVID-19 have thrown many businesses into disarray, some companies have not only managed to stay afloat amidst the chaos—they’ve thrived. Using data from Kantar BrandZ, this graphic looks at the top 100 most valuable brands of 2021.

Methodology

Each year, research group Kantar BrandZ ranks companies based on their “brand value,” which is measured by:

A brand’s total financial value, which is the financial contribution that brand brings to its parent company ($ value).
Multiplied by its proportional value, measured by the brands proportional impact on its parent company’s sales (% value).

The financial results are then combined with quantitative survey data, sourced from over 170,000 global consumers. The end result is a holistic look at a company’s brand equity, reputation, and ability to generate value.

The Leaderboard

The total value of 2021’s Top 100 brands grew by 42%, reaching a combined $7 trillion. At the top of the list, perhaps unsurprisingly, is Amazon, with a total brand value of $683 billion.

Rank	Brand	Brand Value ($B USD)	Category	Brand Value % change from 2020
1	Amazon	$683.85	Consumer Goods & Retail	64%
2	Apple	$612.00	Technology	74%
3	Google	$458.00	Media & Entertainment	42%
4	Microsoft	$410.27	Business Solutions & Tech Providers	26%
5	Tencent	$240.93	Media & Entertainment	60%
6	Facebook	$226.74	Media & Entertainment	54%
7	Alibaba	$196.91	Consumer Goods & Retail	29%
8	Visa	$191.29	Financial Services	2%
9	McDonald's	$154.92	Food & Beverages	20%
10	Mastercard	$112.88	Financial Services	4%
11	Moutai	$109.33	Food & Beverages	103%
12	Nvidia	$104.76	Business Solutions & Tech Providers	n/a
13	Verizon	$101.94	Telecom Providers	8%
14	AT&T	$100.65	Telecom Providers	-5%
15	IBM	$91.34	Business Solutions & Tech Providers	9%
16	Coca-Cola	$87.60	Food & Beverages	4%
17	Nike	$83.71	Consumer Goods & Retail	68%
18	Instagram	$82.90	Media & Entertainment	100%
19	PayPal	$80.62	Payments	66%
20	Adobe	$78.52	Business Solutions & Tech Providers	n/a
21	Louis Vuitton	$75.73	Consumer Goods & Retail	46%
22	UPS	$73.02	Logistics	44%
23	Intel	$71.94	Business Solutions & Tech Providers	n/a
24	Netflix	$71.13	Media & Entertainment	55%
25	The Home Depot	$70.52	Consumer Goods & Retail	22%
26	SAP	$69.24	Business Solutions & Tech Providers	20%
27	Accenture	$64.73	Business Solutions & Tech Providers	n/a
28	Oracle	$60.84	Business Solutions & Tech Providers	n/a
29	Starbucks	$60.27	Food & Beverages	26%
30	Walmart	$59.52	Consumer Goods & Retail	30%
31	Xfinity	$59.00	Telecom Providers	26%
32	Marlboro	$57.01	Consumer Goods & Retail	-2%
33	Disney	$55.22	Media & Entertainment	13%
34	Meituan	$52.40	Technology	119%
35	Texas Instruments	$49.24	Business Solutions & Tech Providers	n/a
36	Salesforce	$48.98	Business Solutions & Tech Providers	61%
37	Qualcomm	$48.36	Business Solutions & Tech Providers	n/a
38	Spectrum	$47.28	Telecom Providers	10%
39	YouTube	$47.10	Media & Entertainment	39%
40	Chanel	$47.05	Consumer Goods & Retail	30%
41	Cisco	$46.82	Business Solutions & Tech Providers	n/a
42	Samsung	$46.77	Technology	44%
43	Hermès	$46.40	Consumer Goods & Retail	40%
44	JD	$44.52	Consumer Goods & Retail	75%
45	TikTok	$43.52	Media & Entertainment	158%
46	Deutsche Telekom	$43.10	Telecom Providers	16%
47	Tesla	$42.61	Cars & Transportation	275%
48	L'Oréal Paris	$38.31	Consumer Goods & Retail	30%
49	Ping An	$38.05	Insurance	13%
50	Huawei	$38.02	Technology	29%
51	ICBC	$37.77	Financial Services	-1%
52	Zoom	$36.93	Business Solutions & Tech Providers	n/a
53	Intuit	$35.87	Business Solutions & Tech Providers	n/a
54	Linkedin	$35.52	Media & Entertainment	19%
55	Costco	$35.14	Consumer Goods & Retail	23%
56	Gucci	$33.84	Consumer Goods & Retail	24%
57	AMD	$32.92	Business Solutions & Tech Providers	n/a
58	Tata Consulting Services	$31.28	Business Solutions & Tech Providers	n/a
59	Xbox	$30.40	Technology	55%
60	Vodafone	$29.74	Telecom Providers	29%
61	American Express	$28.58	Financial Services	-3%
62	Wells Fargo	$28.00	Financial Services	-8%
63	RBC	$27.61	Financial Services	33%
64	Toyota	$26.97	Cars & Transportation	-5%
65	Haier	$26.42	Technology	41%
66	HDFC Bank	$26.37	Financial Services	27%
67	Mercedes-Benz	$25.84	Cars & Transportation	21%
68	China Mobile	$25.82	Telecom Providers	-25%
69	Budweiser	$25.55	Food & Beverages	5%
70	Xiaomi	$24.89	Technology	50%
71	BMW	$24.82	Cars & Transportation	21%
72	Dell Technologies	$24.78	Business Solutions & Tech Providers	36%
73	LIC	$24.14	Insurance	38%
74	J.P. Morgan	$24.11	Financial Services	37%
75	Siemens	$23.64	Conglomerate	69%
76	Fedex	$23.59	Logistics	53%
77	Baidu	$23.36	Media & Entertainment	57%
78	Uber	$22.41	Cars & Transportation	41%
79	Adidas	$22.34	Consumer Goods & Retail	51%
80	Chase	$21.83	Financial Services	7%
81	Pinduoduo	$21.73	Consumer Goods & Retail	131%
82	Snapchat	$21.61	Media & Entertainment	n/a
83	Zara	$21.38	Consumer Goods & Retail	0%
84	Ikea	$21.02	Consumer Goods & Retail	17%
85	UnitedHealthCare	$20.87	Insurance	32%
86	Lowe's	$20.67	Consumer Goods & Retail	51%
87	AIA	$20.60	Insurance	16%
88	NTT	$20.48	Telecom Providers	1%
89	Autodesk	$20.45	Business Solutions & Tech Providers	n/a
90	TD	$20.21	Financial Services	17%
91	Orange	$20.20	Telecom Providers	4%
92	DHL	$20.14	Logistics	39%
93	Didi Chuxing	$20.04	Cars & Transportation	0%
94	China Construction Bank	$19.78	Financial Services	-6%
95	Pampers	$19.62	Consumer Goods & Retail	6%
96	KE	$19.50	Consumer Goods & Retail	n/a
97	Commonwealth Bank	$19.47	Financial Services	48%
98	Bank of America	$19.32	Financial Services	14%
99	Spotify	$19.28	Media & Entertainment	n/a
100	Colgate	$18.89	Consumer Goods & Retail	8%

It’s the third consecutive year that Amazon has placed first on the list. Since last year’s ranking, the ecommerce brand has seen its value grow by 64%. Keep in mind, this accounts for all areas of Amazon’s business, including its web and subscription services.

Second on the list is Apple with a brand value of $612 billion. Apple wasn’t completely immune to the impacts of COVID-19—in the early days of the pandemic, its stock dipped almost 19% from record highs—but the company recovered and reported record-breaking revenue, generating $64.7 billion in Q4 2020.

It’s fitting that the top brands on the list are big tech companies since the pandemic pushed consumers online for both their shopping and entertainment needs. A few social media platforms placed high on the list as well, like Facebook, which rose two ranks this year to score the sixth spot with a brand value of $227 billion.

Instagram and TikTok trailed behind Facebook when it came to total brand value, but both platforms saw exceptional growth compared to last year’s report. In fact, when looking at brand value growth from 2020, both brands scored a spot in the top 10.

Insights into Brand Value Growth

The most valuable brand report has been ranking companies for over a decade, and some overarching factors have stood out as key contributors to brand value growth:

1. The Big Get Bigger

Starting “strong” can give brands an edge. This is because growth rate is closely correlated with high brand equity. In other words, a strong brand will likely see more growth than a weaker brand, which might explain why companies like Amazon and Apple have been able to hold their place at the top for several consecutive years.

Keep in mind, this doesn’t account for industry disruptors. An innovative company could come out of the woodwork next year and give the Big Tech giants a run for their money.

2. Marketing Makes a Difference

The right strategy can make a difference, and even smaller brands can make a splash if the message is impactful. Brands with emotional associations, like pride or popularity, tend to see that translate into brand value growth.

Companies like Nike and Coca-Cola have mastered the art of emotional advertising. For instance, in May last year, Nike released a video urging consumers to stand up for equality, in a video titled, “For Once, Just Don’t Do It.”

3. Smart Investment

It’s not just about developing an effective marketing strategy, it’s about executing that strategy, and continually investing in ways that perpetuate your brand message.

For instance, innovation is the core value of Tesla’s brand, and the electric car company walks the walk—in 2020, the company spent $1.5 billion on R&D.

Related Topics:apple tech amazon birthday retail brand value instagram Nike tiktok global brands

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Technology

Thematic Investing: 3 Key Trends in Cybersecurity

Cyberattacks are becoming more frequent and sophisticated. Here’s what investors need to know about the future of cybersecurity.

Written By

Marcus Lu

Graphics & Design

Sam Parker

Published August 11, 2022 • Updated August 11, 2022 •

Thematic Investing: 3 Key Trends in Cybersecurity

In 2020, the global cost of cybercrime was estimated to be around $945 billion, according to McAfee.

It’s likely even higher today, as multiple sources have recorded an increase in the frequency and sophistication of cyberattacks during the pandemic.

In this infographic from Global X ETFs, we highlight three major trends that are shaping the future of the cybersecurity industry that investors need to know.

Trend 1: Increasing Costs

Research from IBM determined that the average data breach cost businesses $4.2 million in 2021, up from $3.6 million in 2017. The following table breaks this figure into four components:

Cost Component	Value ($)
Cost of lost business	$1.6M
Detection and escalation	$1.2M
Post breach response	$1.1M
Notification	$0.3M
Total	$4.2M

The greatest cost of a data breach is lost business, which results from system downtimes, reputational losses, and lost customers. Second is detection and escalation, including investigative activities, audit services, and communications to stakeholders.

Post breach response includes costs such as legal expenditures, issuing new accounts or credit cards (in the case of financial institutions), and other monitoring services. Lastly, notification refers to the cost of notifying regulators, stakeholders, and other third parties.

To stay ahead of these rising costs, businesses are placing more emphasis on cybersecurity. For example, Microsoft announced in September 2021 that it would quadruple its cybersecurity investments to $20 billion over the next five years.

Trend 2: Remote Work Opens New Vulnerabilities

According to IBM, companies that rely more on remote work experience greater losses from data breaches. For companies where 81 to 100% of employees were remote, the average cost of a data breach was $5.5 million (2021). This dropped to $3.7 million for companies that had under 10% of employees working from home.

A major reason for this gap is that work-from-home setups are typically less secure. Phishing attacks surged in 2021, taking advantage of the fact that many employees access corporate systems through their personal devices.

Type of Attack	Number of attacks in 2020	Number of attacks in 2021	Growth (%)
Spam phishing	1.5M	10.1M	+573%
Credential phishing	5.5M	6.2M	+13%

As detected by Trend Micro’s Cloud App Security.

Spam phishing refers to “fake” emails that trick users by impersonating company management. They can include malicious links that download ransomware onto the users device. Credential phishing is similar in concept, though the goal is to steal a person’s account credentials.

A tactic you may have seen before is the Amazon scam, where senders impersonate Amazon and convince users to update their payment methods. This strategy could also be used to gain access to a company’s internal systems.

Trend 3: AI Can Reduce the Cost of a Data Breach

AI-based cybersecurity can detect and respond to cyberattacks without any human intervention. When fully deployed, IBM measured a 20% reduction in the time it takes to identify and contain a breach. It also resulted in cost savings upwards of 60%.

A prominent user of AI-based cybersecurity is Google, which uses machine learning to detect phishing attacks within Gmail.

Machine learning helps Gmail block spam and phishing messages from showing up in your inbox with over 99.9% accuracy. This is huge, given that 50-70% of messages that Gmail receives are spam.
– Andy Wen, Google

As cybercrime escalates, Acumen Research and Consulting believes the market for AI-based security solutions will reach $134 billion by 2030, up from $15 billion in 2021.

Introducing the Global X Cybersecurity ETF

The Global X Cybersecurity ETF (Ticker: BUG) seeks to provide investment results that correspond generally to the price and yield performance, before fees and expenses, of the Indxx Cybersecurity Index. See below for industry and country-level breakdowns, as of June 2022.

Sector (By security type)	Weight
Cloud	28.0%
Network	25.1%
Identity	17.7%
Internet	15.0%
Endpoint	12.8%

Country	Weight
🇺🇸 U.S.	71.6%
🇮🇱 Israel	13.2%
🇬🇧 UK	8.2%
🇯🇵 Japan	5.5%
🇰🇷 South Korea	0.9%
🇨🇦 Canada	0.6%

Totals may not equal 100% due to rounding.

Investors can use this passively managed solution to gain exposure to the rising adoption of cybersecurity technologies.

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This infographic highlights the accelerating pace of layoffs so far in 2022, as businesses cut costs ahead of a potential recession.

Published

1 week ago

August 9, 2022

Marcus Lu

Visualizing Major Layoffs at U.S. Corporations

Hiring freezes and layoffs are becoming more common in 2022, as U.S. businesses look to slash costs ahead of a possible recession.

Understandably, this has a lot of people worried. In June 2022, Insight Global found that 78% of American workers fear they will lose their job in the next recession. Additionally, 56% said they aren’t financially prepared, and 54% said they would take a pay cut to avoid being laid off.

In this infographic, we’ve visualized major layoffs announced in 2022 by publicly-traded U.S. corporations.

Note: Due to gaps in reporting, as well as the very large number of U.S. corporations, this list may not be comprehensive.

An Emerging Trend

Layoffs have surged considerably since April of this year. See the table below for high-profile instances of mass layoffs.

Company	Industry	Layoffs (#)	Month
Peloton	Consumer Discretionary	2,800	February
Funko	Consumer Discretionary	258	April
Robinhood	Financial Services	~400	April
Nektar Therapeutics	Biotechnology	500	April
Carvana	Automotive	2,500	May
Doma	Financial Services	310	May
JP Morgan Chase & Co.	Financial Services	~500	June
Tesla	Automotive	200	June
Coinbase	Financial Services	1,100	June
Netflix	Technology	300	June
CVS Health	Pharmaceutical	208	June
StartTek	Technology	472	June
Ford	Automotive	8,000	July
Rivian	Automotive	840	July
Peloton	Consumer Discretionary	2,000	July
LoanDepot	Financial Services	2,000	July
Invitae	Biotechnology	1,000	July
Lyft	Technology	60	July
Meta	Technology	350	July
Twitter	Technology	<30	July
Vimeo	Technology	72	July
Robinhood	Financial Services	~795	August

Here’s a brief rundown of these layoffs, sorted by industry.

Automotive

Ford has announced the biggest round of layoffs this year, totalling roughly 8,000 salaried employees. Many of these jobs are in Ford’s legacy combustion engine business. According to CEO Jim Farley, these cuts are necessary to fund the company’s transition to EVs.

We absolutely have too many people in some places, no doubt about it.
– Jim Farley, CEO, Ford

Speaking of EVs, Rivian laid off 840 employees in July, amounting to 6% of its total workforce. The EV startup pointed to inflation, rising interest rates, and increasing commodity prices as factors. The firm’s more established competitor, Tesla, cut 200 jobs from its autopilot division in the month prior.

Last but not least is online used car retailer, Carvana, which cut 2,500 jobs in May. The company experienced rapid growth during the pandemic, but has since fallen out of grace. Year-to-date, the company’s shares are down more than 80%.

Financial Services

Fearing an impending recession, Coinbase has shed 1,100 employees, or 18% of its total workforce. Interestingly, Coinbase does not have a physical headquarters, meaning the entire company operates remotely.

A recession could lead to another crypto winter, and could last for an extended period. In past crypto winters, trading revenue declined significantly.
Brian Armstrong, CEO, Coinbase

Around the same time, JPMorgan Chase & Co. announced it would fire hundreds of home-lending employees. While an exact number isn’t available, we’ve estimated this to be around 500 jobs, based on the original Bloomberg article. Wells Fargo, another major U.S. bank, has also cut 197 jobs from its home mortgage division.

The primary reason for these cuts is rising mortgage rates, which are negatively impacting the demand for homes.

Technology

Within tech, Meta and Twitter are two of the most high profile companies to begin making layoffs. In Meta’s case, 350 custodial staff have been let go due to reduced usage of the company’s offices.

Many more cuts are expected, however, as Facebook recently reported its first revenue decline in 10 years. CEO Mark Zuckerberg has made it clear he expects the company to do more with fewer resources, and managers have been encouraged to report “low performers” for “failing the company”.

Realistically, there are probably a bunch of people at the company who shouldn’t be here.
– Mark Zuckerberg, CEO, Meta

Also in July, Twitter laid off 30% of its talent acquisition team. An exact number was not available, but the team was estimated to have less than 100 employees. The company has also enacted a hiring freeze as it stumbles through a botched acquisition by Elon Musk.

More Layoffs to Come…

Layoffs are expected to continue throughout the rest of this year, as metrics like consumer sentiment enter a decline. Rising interest rates, which make it more expensive for businesses to borrow money, are also having a negative impact on growth.

In fact just a few days ago, trading platform Robinhood announced it was letting go 23% of its staff. After accounting for its previous layoffs in April (9% of the workforce), it’s fair to estimate that this latest round will impact nearly 800 people.