Google takes a bite out of Apple as world’s most valuable brand
GOOGLE has dethroned Apple as the world’s most valuable brand, as its total value soared to nearly $160bn (£95bn) this year, according to new global research.
The online search giant’s rise is due to its booming financial performance – Google’s revenues last quarter grew nearly 20 per cent to $15.42bn – and Apple’s lack of dramatic new product launches, according to Millward Brown Optimor and WPP.
“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,” said Millward Brown Optimor’s managing director Nick Cooper.
Vodafone held on to its title as the UK’s most valuable brand, worth $36.3bn, despite a 61 per cent jump in BT’s brand value to $15.36bn, following a push into sport and pay-TV that saw its brand climb more places than any other firm to number 64 globally and fourth in the UK rankings.
But there was more bad news for M&S, which lost its crown as the UK’s most valuable clothing brand to Next just a day after its profits dropped behind its rival for the first time.