Google Overtakes Apple As World's Most Valuable Brand

SILICON VALLEY, CA — Mountain View-based Google is now the world's most valuable brand, having dethroned Cupertino-based Apple after five years in the top spot, according to a new report by business valuation consultancy Brand Finance.

In a report released this week, Brand Finance said Google's band value rose from $88.1 billion in 2016 to $109.4 billion this year, while Apple's dropped from about $146 billion to $107.1 billion.

Brand Finance measures a company's brand value using a methodology that in part involves determining a brand's strength on a scale of 0 to 100 based on a number of attributes, such as emotional connection, financial performance and stability. Also included in the formula is likely future sales that are attributed to a brand and brand-specific revenues.

"Apple was once a paragon of branding excellence," Brand Finance wrote in the executive summary of its 30-page report. "Loyalty and advocacy reached cultish proportions."

"However, Apple's evangelists are beginning to lose their faith," the report continues. "Apple has failed to maintain its technological advantage and has repeatedly disillusioned its advocates with tweaks when material changes are expected."

The report goes on to state that Apple "has over-exploited the goodwill of its customers, it has failed to generate significant revenues from newer products such as the Apple Watch and cannot demonstrate that genuinely innovative technologies desired by consumers are in the pipeline. Its brand has lost its luster and must now compete on an increasingly level playing field."

Google lost the top brand rank in 2011 but gained it back this year due in part to a 20 percent increase in ad revenue, improved underlying brand equity and intensive, well-targeted marketing communications.

Rounding out the top five on the value list were Amazon.com, which was valued at $106.3 billion, AT&T at $87 billion and Microsoft at $76.2 billion.

Amazon's No. 3 ranking was unchanged from last year, but AT&T was up two spots from 2016, and Microsoft was down one.

Menlo Park-based Facebook was No. 9 on the list, with a valuation of about $62 million, up a whopping 82 percent from 2016. Last year, the social medial company was ranked 17th on the Brand Finance list.

The other companies in the top 1o were Samsung (sixth, $66.2 billion), Verizon (seventh, $65.8 billion), Walmart (eighth, $62.49 billion) and the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China at $47.8 billion.

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