Technology
The World’s 100 Most Valuable Brands in 2018
The World’s 100 Most Valuable Brands in 2018
According to Forbes, the world’s 100 most valuable brands are worth a staggering $2.15 trillion.
While that singular number is impressive, the publication’s 2018 rankings of global brands can be further broken down in other ways that are also quite intriguing. Let’s take a look at brands by individual brand value, as well as sorted by relevant industry.
Ranking the Most Valuable Brands in 2018
Today’s infographic comes to us from HowMuch.net and it showcases the 100 most valuable brands in the world, according to recent Forbes rankings.
Here are the brands with the most assessed value, along with their one-year change and industry.
| Rank | Brand | Brand Value ($B) | 1-Year Change | Industry |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | Apple | $182.8 | +8% | Technology |
| #2 | $132.1 | +30% | Technology | |
| #3 | Microsoft | $104.9 | +21% | Technology |
| #4 | $94.8 | +29% | Technology | |
| #5 | Amazon | $70.9 | +31% | Technology |
| #6 | Coca-Cola | $57.3 | +2% | Beverages |
| #7 | Samsung | $47.6 | +25% | Technology |
| #8 | Disney | $47.5 | +8% | Leisure |
| #9 | Toyota | $44.7 | +9% | Automotive |
| #10 | AT&T | $41.9 | +14% | Telecom |
Apple remains the world’s most valuable brand at $182.8 billion, but there are four other tech companies hot on the iPhone maker’s heels – and each of them is growing brand value at a rapid pace.
Google (+30%), Microsoft (+21%), Facebook (+29%), and Amazon (31%) are all gaining at double-digit clips. At this point, each has lapped Coca-Cola, the highest ranked non-tech brand in the Top 10 at $57.3 billion.
Brands by Industry
The aforementioned top five brands are all focused on technology, but it’s important to recognize that this is also a part of a much wider trend.
Over the last decade, tech brands have gained consumer prominence to make the industry dominant both in terms of quantity of brands (20%) and total brand value (41%) on the Forbes 100 Most Valuable Brand list.
| Industry | # of Brands | Total Brand Value ($B) |
|---|---|---|
| Technology | 20 | $872.6 |
| Financial Services | 13 | $160.2 |
| Automotive | 12 | $222.9 |
| Consumer Goods | 11 | $124.7 |
| Retail | 9 | $119.0 |
| Luxury | 6 | $91.7 |
| Beverages | 4 | $103.2 |
| Diversified | 4 | $66.3 |
| Telecom | 3 | $82.3 |
| Restaurants | 3 | $65.0 |
| Apparel | 3 | $49.0 |
| Alcohol | 3 | $42.5 |
| Leisure | 2 | $56.1 |
| Media | 2 | $26.3 |
| Transportation | 2 | $21.6 |
| Tobacco | 1 | $26.6 |
| Business Services | 1 | $14.8 |
| Aerospace | 1 | $8.1 |
| Total | 100 | $2,152.9 |
Only a handful of brands in consumer-facing industries like media, apparel, alcohol, and restaurants make the rankings.
Meanwhile, sectors that traditionally rely on heavy amounts of advertising – like consumer packaged goods and retail – have just 20 brands on the list between them. The highest ranked brand in either of those categories is Walmart at #26th with a brand value of $24.9 billion, which is about 1/3 of the brand value of online competitor Amazon.
Brands
How Tech Logos Have Evolved Over Time
From complete overhauls to more subtle tweaks, these tech logos have had quite a journey. Featuring: Google, Apple, and more.
How Tech Logos Have Evolved Over Time
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.
One would be hard-pressed to find a company that has never changed its logo. Granted, some brands—like Rolex, IBM, and Coca-Cola—tend to just have more minimalistic updates. But other companies undergo an entire identity change, thus necessitating a full overhaul.
In this graphic, we visualized the evolution of prominent tech companies’ logos over time. All of these brands ranked highly in a Q1 2024 YouGov study of America’s most famous tech brands. The logo changes are sourced from 1000logos.net.
How Many Times Has Google Changed Its Logo?
Google and Facebook share a 98% fame rating according to YouGov. But while Facebook’s rise was captured in The Social Network (2010), Google’s history tends to be a little less lionized in popular culture.
For example, Google was initially called “Backrub” because it analyzed “back links” to understand how important a website was. Since its founding, Google has undergone eight logo changes, finally settling on its current one in 2015.
| Company | Number of Logo Changes |
|---|---|
| 8 | |
| HP | 8 |
| Amazon | 6 |
| Microsoft | 6 |
| Samsung | 6 |
| Apple | 5* |
Note: *Includes color changes. Source: 1000Logos.net
Another fun origin story is Microsoft, which started off as Traf-O-Data, a traffic counter reading company that generated reports for traffic engineers. By 1975, the company was renamed. But it wasn’t until 2012 that Microsoft put the iconic Windows logo—still the most popular desktop operating system—alongside its name.
And then there’s Samsung, which started as a grocery trading store in 1938. Its pivot to electronics started in the 1970s with black and white television sets. For 55 years, the company kept some form of stars from its first logo, until 1993, when the iconic encircled blue Samsung logo debuted.
Finally, Apple’s first logo in 1976 featured Isaac Newton reading under a tree—moments before an apple fell on his head. Two years later, the iconic bitten apple logo would be designed at Steve Jobs’ behest, and it would take another two decades for it to go monochrome.
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