DUBAI: Saudi Arabia’s Aramco continues to hold a place in the annual BrandZ Most Valuable Global Brands Report 2025 by marketing data and analytics company Kantar.
Although it dropped by eight places to No. 22, Aramco is the only brand from the Middle East to have a presence in the global ranking.
US brands dominate the list, comprising 82 percent of the total value of the top 100 brands.
However, the report signals changing times, with Chinese brands having doubled their value over the past 20 years, now making up 6 percent of the value of the top 100 brands.
European brands, on the other hand, have seen a decline. They now account for 7 percent — down from 26 percent in 2006 — of the top 100 brands.
The top five spots are taken by tech companies Apple, Google, Microsoft, Amazon and Nvidia.
“Innovators keeping up with consumer needs or redefining them entirely are the brands fundamentally reshaping the Global Top 100 over the past two decades,” said Martin Guerrieria, head of Kantar BrandZ.
The most successful brands, like Apple, Amazon, Google and Microsoft, have long moved away from their original product base, he added.
Apple retained its top position for the fourth year in a row with a brand value of $1.3 trillion, up 28 percent from 2024.
Google and Microsoft recorded a 25 percent and 24 percent increase in brand value this year compared to last year, while Amazon’s brand value rose by a massive 50 percent.
ChatGPT debuted on the list this year in 60th place, showing “how a brand can find fame and influence society to the extent that it changes our daily lives,” Guerrieria said.
He cautioned that as competition grows in the AI space, “OpenAI will need to invest in its brand to preserve its first-mover momentum.”
Despite controversies and concerns, Instagram and Meta saw significant growths of 101 percent and 80 percent, respectively, while TikTok grew by a modest 25 percent.
The success of brands like Apple and Instagram “underlines the power of a consistent brand experience that people can relate to and remember,” said Guerrieria.
He added: “In a world of digital saturation and tough consumer expectations, brands need to meet people’s needs, connect with them emotionally and offer something others don’t to succeed. They need to be not just different, but meaningfully so.”
