Amazon has overtaken Apple in terms of market cap, and now it’s overtaken it in terms of brand value as well.
At least, that’s according to Kantar’s latest BrandZ list of the world’s most valuable brands — which shows an amazing leap ahead by Jeff Bezos’s retail titan.
The BrandZ list’s valuations are based on the financial value created by a brand in U.S. dollars, multiplied by the proportion of that value generated by the brand contribution alone. This year’s list involved 122,000 brands, data points from 3.6 million consumers, 418 categories, and 51 markets.
It valued Apple’s brand name at $309.5 billion, while Google trailed it just slightly at $309 billion. Amazon, meanwhile, storms ahead with $315.5 billion. This is a 52% change from last year, while Apple and Google fluctuated just 3% and 2% respectively.
“Amazon’s phenomenal brand value growth of almost $108 billion in the last year demonstrates how brands are now less anchored to individual categories and regions,” Doreen Wang, Kantar’s global head of BrandZ, told CNBC. “The boundaries are blurring as technology fluency allow brands, such as Amazon, Google and Alibaba, to offer a range of services across multiple consumer touchpoints.”
The rise of Amazon
Apple and Google have dominated the list for the last 12 years. Google beat Apple to the no. 1 position in 2018, although it’s largely been a two-horse race. This year’s list featured 15 Chinese brands, with Alibaba’s $131.2 billion value putting it ahead of Tencent’s $130.9 billion to be named regional winner.
Unlike purely financial valuations, there’s a bit of guesswork involved with working out what a company’s “brand” is worth. That’s also because, despite what some Apple haters will claim, people don’t just buy Apple products because they’ve got an Apple logo on them.
But it does make an interesting point about Amazon’s rapid ascent. That’s something which has been backed up by stock prices, along with CEO Jeff Bezos’s ballooning personal wealth (despite his recent divorce).
In terms of market cap, Apple is currently valued at $886.07 billion. Amazon is valued at $916.048 billion. Finally, Microsoft is worth $750.754 billion. Kantar’s BrandZ list ranked the following companies in its top 10:
Amazon $315.5 billion
Apple $309.5 billion
Google $309 billion
Microsoft $251.2 billion
Visa $177.9 billion
Facebook $159 billion
Alibaba $131.2 billion
Tencent $130.9 billion
McDonald’s $130.4 billion
AT&T $108.4 billion
Source: CNBC
