Amazon hits top spot as most valuable brand

With an increase in brand value of 52% year-on-year, Amazon’s brand is now worth $315.5bn, ahead of Apple’s $309.5bn (up 3%) and Google’s $309bn (up 2%).

Apple and Google had held the top spots for the past 12 years but Amazon’s growth has been achieved with new revenue streams, acquisitions and outstanding customer service.

Three UK brands make it into the 2019 BrandZ Top 100 – Vodafone at no.49 with a brand value of $26.5bn; HSBC at 56 with $23.2bn and Shell at 65 with $20.7bn.

The fastest rising brand in the table was Instagram – climbing 47 places – with 95% growth and a brand value of $28.2bn. Other big climbers included Netflix ( 65% growth, $34.3bn brand value) and Uber ( 51% and $24.2bn).

Graham Staplehurst, global strategy director – BrandZ, Kantar, said: "While the BrandZ Top 100 haven’t grown as fast as they did in 2018 – an exceptional year – their value is still increasing at twice the rate of the global economy. These brands are responding best to a volatile world in which they must continually anticipate, and re-set, evolving consumer needs and expectations.

"Brands are now less anchored to specific categories; technology allows them to innovate and disrupt by moving across old boundaries. Amazon, for example, operates in 15 different areas, and meshes its activities together in a way that consumers find highly relevant."

The BrandZ Top 10 Most Valuable Global Brands 2019