Google becomes ‘world’s most powerful brand’

Google overtook Apple to become the world’s most valuable brand in 2017, ending a five-year reign at the top for the iPhone maker.

The latest Brand Finance Global 500 report pegged Google’s brand value at US$109 billion (€102 billion) and Apple’s at US$107 billion.

Third place Amazon, fourth place AT&T and fifth place Microsoft had estimated brand values of US$106 billion, US$87 billion and US$76 billion respectively.

Meanwhile, Samsung, Verizon, Walmart, Facebook and ICBC, in that order, rounded out the rest of the top 10.

Outside of this, Deutsche Telekom dropped one place in the rankings to 19 with a brand valuation of US$36 billion, while Disney stayed put at 24^th place with a brand value of US$34 billion.

Vodafone toppled 20 places to number 50 in the rankings while Orange climbed two places to come in at 51^st place and NBC climbed seven places to 93.

Outside the top 100, Google-owned YouTube climbed 10 places to number 113, beating both BT – which toppled from 59^th place last year to 120^th this year – and Sky, which dropped from 103^rd to 132^nd place.