Apple Becomes ‘World’s Most Valuable Brand’, Knocks Coca-Cola From its Spot

Apple has been announced by Interbrand as the world’s most valuable brand, bringing the curtain down on Coca-Cola’s 13-year reign at the top.

The highly-regarded Best Global Brand 2013 charts, released today by the image consultancy firm Interbrand, saw the long-term reigning champion soft drinks company actually slipping down to third, with a huge surge in value seeing Google take second place.

The iPhone and iPad maker took the top spot with an estimated brand value of $98.3 billion, up 28 percent from a year ago. While the value of the Coca-Cola brand also increased – by 2 percent to $79.2 billion – the drinks company dropped to third position, with Google coming in at number 2 with a $93.3 billion evaluation.

In the 2013 rankings, half of the top 10 brands were tech companies. Leader Apple had an assessed value of $98.3bn. Google took the number-two slot, also beating Coca-Cola, with a value of $93.3bn – a comfortable lead on the beverage vendor’s $79.2bn.

"Every so often, a company changes our lives, not just with its products, but with its ethos. This is why...Apple now ranks number one," said Jez Frampton, CEO, Interbrand.

In a strong year for technology and web-based brands, the other really big risers were Facebook, into 52nd place with its value up 43 per cent to $7.7 billion, and Amazon, into the top 20 with a 27 per cent improvement in value to $23.6 billion.