Facebook tumbles out of top 10 best global brands

Tech brands take half the top 10 slots in Interbrand’s annual ranking of the world's most valuable brands, released today.

Tech took the top four slots with Apple, Google, Amazon and Microsoft, unchanged from last year, followed by Coca-Cola, Samsung, Toyota, Mercedes-Benz, McDonalds and Disney. Only Coca-Cola and Microsoft have retained their top 10 status since Interbrand began publishing the report 20 years ago.

Other tech brands fared well with Dell returning to the rankings after a six-year absence at number 63, while Uber and LinkedIn made their debuts at numbers 87 and 98 respectively.

Facebook slid from ninth last year to 14th registering a 12% drop in value in the wake of data breaches, fake news and the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

While tech continued to grow, Interbrand highlighted the improving fortunes of luxury and retail, which was the fast growing sector for the second year running, registering 11% year-on-year growth. Gucci chalked up 23% growth in brand value against last year, while Luis Vuitton and Chanel recorded 14% and 11% increases respectively.

Mastercard recorded the fastest growth overall with a 25% increase, which pushed it eight places up the rankings to number 62.

The 25 Best Global Brands

After Mastercard, the biggest gains were made by Salesforce and Amazon (24%), and Gucci and Starbucks (23%). Meanwhile Sprite, Subaru and Johnnie Walker dropped out of the rankings altogether. 

Only 31 brands from the first report still feature in this year's table, including Disney, Nike and Gucci, while some 137 brands, such as Nokia and MTV, have lost their places on the list.

The study ranks brands according to financial performance, the role played in purchase decisions, and competitive strength and ability to create loyalty, and therefore sustainable demand and profit in the future.

More details are available in the full report.