Google has leap-frogged over Apple to take the top spot in a global ranking measuring the value of the world’s biggest brands.
Google saw a 40 percent year-on-year increase and is now worth to $159 billion making it top of Brown Optimor’s BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands study, commissioned by WPP. The study calculates brand value by looking at its potential and current buyers alongside financial data.
“Google has been hugely innovative in the last year with Google Glass, investments in artificial intelligence and a multitude of partnerships that see its Android operating system becoming embedded in other goods such as cars”, Nick Cooper, managing director of Millward Brown Optimor said in a statement.
Apple was knocked off the top spot after three years as the world’s number one, after its brand’s value fell 20 percent to $148 billion. A perception the Silicon Valley giant no longer redefines technology for its customers, as evidenced by a lack of new product launches, was behind the dip, according to the report.
Nonetheless, the fact Google and Apple took first and second place reflects technology brands’ growing dominance.
The top four most valuable brands – Google, Apple, IBM and Microsoft – all belonged to technology companies. The average technology brand is worth $45.9 billion, sitting way above the average brand value of £24.9 billion.
And all together, technology brands were worth the most in 2014 at $841.5 billion compared with telecoms, at $330 billion and retail with $280 billion.
They also trumped regional banks $251 billion, global banks $124 billion and personal banks $111.5 billion whose brands recovered after the fallout from the global financial crisis.
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