The World's Biggest Brands: 2018

Written by: Louise Hughes A brand is what sets your business apart from someone else's; it's what makes your business unique.

What is a brand?

Often products and services are actually defined by a brand name, without people even knowing it. How many times do you remember saying “just Google it”? When you actually think about it, it makes no sense – what we really mean is “use a search engine”. But, Google being one of the biggest brands in the world, has now defined the phrase ‘search engine’.

Top brands by industry (value of $1.043,4 billion)

Technology

Apple | Google | Microsoft | Facebook | Amazon | Samsung | Intel | Cisco | IBM | Oracle | SAP | HP

Automotive

Toyota | BMW | Mercedes-Benz | Honda

Telecom

at&t | Verizon

Beverages

Coco-cola

Diversified

GE

Retail

Wallmart

Leisure

Disney

Apparel

Nike

Financial Services

American Express

Restaurants

McDonald’s

Luxury

Louis Vuitton

Alcohol

Budweiser

#1 – Apple

  • Apple was founded over 40 years ago in 1976
  • Apple is home to 123,000 employees
  • As of June 2018, Apple has generated $247.53 billion in sales
  • Apple ranks 54th in America’s best employers
  • #2 – Google

  • Google performs around 65,000 searches every second
  • Google is ranked 1st as Canada’s best employer
  • Google houses 72,053 employees
  • Google’s brand value is estimated at $132.1 billion
  • #3 – Microsoft

  • In 2018, Microsoft spent $14.7 billion on research and development
  • According to Forbes, Microsoft was ranked 2nd in world’s best employers
  • Microsoft generated $103.31 billion in sales by June 2018
  • At the end of 2017 Microsoft had 10 million launcher downloads
  • #4 – Facebook

  • Facebook is ranked 10th in Forbes’ innovative companies
  • Facebook has spent over $25 billion buying other brands like Instagram
  • 350 million photos are uploaded daily to Facebook
  • Facebook’s brand value is worth $94.8 billion
  • #5 – Amazon

  • As of July 2018, 8.74% of desktop traffic to amazon.com was from referrals
  • In the U.S., Amazon account for 5% of total retail share
  • As of June 2018, Amazon had generated $193.19 billion in sales
  • Amazon’s brand value of $70.9 billion has changed by 31% in 1 year
  • #6 – Coca-Cola

  • Coca-Cola was founded over 125 years ago in 1892
  • Coca-Cola’s market cap, according to Forbes, is $179.3 billion
  • The Coca-Cola Zero Facebook fan page has 107 million fans
  • There are over 3,600 Coca-Cola products worldwide
  • #7 – Samsung

  • As of June 2018, Samsung spent $4.5 billion on advertising
  • Samsung were ranked #4 in profit on the Global 2000 list
  • In Q2 of 2018, Samsung’s mobile communication segment generated $20.4 billion
  • Samsung’s share of the flat panel TV market is 28.3%
  • #8 – Disney

  • Disney’s brand value currently sits at $47.5 billion
  • Disney is ranked #5 in the top regarded companies according to Forbes
  • Disney World tickets cost $3.50 when it first opened , now they are $116
  • $23.51 billion was generated through Disney’s media networks segment in 2017
  • #9 – Toyota

  • As of June 2018, Toyota’s sales hit $265.17 billion
  • Toyota produced almost 9 million vehicles in 2018
  • Toyota’s overseas sales sees Trucks & Buses ahead of Passenger Cars
  • Toyota has a brand value of $44.7 billion
  • #10 – AT&T

  • AT&T are America’s 5th largest public companies
  • AT&T house 252,000 employees
  • AT&T have over 400 million mobile subscribers
  • AT&T own over 883,000 miles of network fiber