Tencent, Alibaba among highest valued global brands; Amazon outstrips Microsoft

Chinese firms Tencent and Alibaba (BABA) have secured spots among the top 10 most valuable brands in the world. In this year’s BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands list, which is published annually by WPP and Kantar Millward Brown, Tencent takes up the fifth place while Alibaba is at number nine. Google (GOOGL) tops the list with a brand value of $302 billion, reflecting a growth of 23% from last year. Google has managed to retain the number one position for the past eight years.

Apple (AAPL) takes up the second place with a growth of 28% to reach a brand value of $300 billion. This is followed by Amazon (AMZN) and Microsoft (MSFT) respectively as the online retailer grew 49% to surpass the Windows-maker, which grew 40%. Tencent registered a staggering growth of 65% to achieve a brand value of $179 billion, beating Facebook (FB) and McDonald’s (MCD) in the race.

Meanwhile, Alibaba achieved 92% growth and touched a brand value of $113 billion, ahead of telecom titan AT&T (T), which came tenth. For the first time since the inception of this list, international brands outdid American brands in terms of growth. Several Chinese companies have managed to make it to the top 100 over the past 12 years, compared to just one back in 2006.

Google has managed to retain the number one position for the past eight years

Alibaba’s expansion into cloud computing and mobile payments has contributed significantly to its growth, while Tencent is now more valuable than JPMorgan Chase (JPM) in terms of market cap. Chinese brands tend to face several hurdles in terms of brand awareness, quality issues and advertising campaign investments, which Tencent and Alibaba have managed to overcome as is evident from their growth.

Alibaba has a solid international presence in countries such as Spain, Israel and South Korea and the e-commerce company is expanding its footprint into several Latin American countries as well. Tencent is gaining popularity in South Asian regions like Singapore.

Verizon (VZ), Coca-Cola (KO) and Disney (DIS) have made it to the top 20 while Nike (NKE), PayPal (PYPL) and Walmart (WMT) have been ranked at 29, 30 and 31 respectively. Vodafone (VOD), despite seeing a 9% decline in brand value, managed to top the list of UK brands.