Amazon Gains Lead over Apple as Most Valuable Brand in the U.S.

For the second year in a row, Apple was able to hold onto its position as the second-most valuable brand in the United States, according to Brand Finance’s annual U.S. 500 analysis for 2018, which sets out to rank the most valuable American brands based on their growth and other key metrics.

Apple clung tightly to its cushy second-place slot based on its “brand value” having risen an estimated 37 percent, clocking in at $146.3 billion in 2018 so far.

However Apple’s growth, albeit substantial, was only enough to keep it stable in the same position it was in last year, while e-commerce giant, Amazon, snatched the No. 1 slot based on growth of 42 percent (up to $150.8 billion.)

Google, who captured the No. 1 slot in 2017, interestingly saw its brand value increase by just 10 percent in 2018, up to $120.9 billion, pushing the search-giant behind both Amazon and Apple into the No. 3 slot on this year’s list.

How Brand Value Is Calculated

Brand Finance insists that it utilizes rigorous standards set forth by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO 10668 and 20671), the firm says it also utilizes its own “custom metrics” to determine brand value, including sales, revenue, and even cultural appropriation.

Key Takeaways from the Data

While Apple stood still in its position on Brand Finance’s 2018 list, it’s worth noting that the company’s performance in 2018 represents a sizable rebound from last year, which saw Google knock the Cupertino tech-giant from the No. 1 position it held during the years 2012-2016.

All variables considered, Amazon, Apple and Google remained essentially neck-and-neck on 2018’s list.

The fourth-place contender, Facebook, rose healthily from its previous position at No. 8 on last year’s list based on Brand Value gains of 45 percent.

Rounding out the top 10 behind Amazon, Apple, Google, Facebook and No. 5 contender, AT&T,  include Microsoft at No. 6, followed by Verizon, Walmart, Wells Fargo and lastly [J.P. Morgan] Chase bank.

Notably, while Apple appears by all measures to be doing extremely well financially — having reported $61.1 billion in revenue based on sales of 52.5 mm iPhones during the fiscal quarter ending March 2018 — the company recently saw themselves slip in a number of other well-known and highly-respected industry rankings.

Earlier in 2018 we learned that Apple slipped to the No. 4 position on Fortune 500’s annual list. And most recently, Apple CEO Tim Cook dropped like a lead balloon from No. 53 to No. 96 in Glassdoor’s annual list of Chief Executives deemed most popular by their employees.