Placing among the likes of Apple and Amazon, Deutsche Telekom has been rated as one of the most valuable brands in the world by the latest analysis from Brand Finance. The internet and mobile phone provider’s iconic branding is now worth 73,3 billion US dollars, making the iconic "T" the most valuable brand in Europe.

2024 most valuable brand ranking by Brand Finance

To create the ranking, Brand Finance analysed 6.000 brands from 41 countries around the world, to see which are the most valuable and the most powerful. To calculate each firm’s score, the report looked at the strength and impact of a company’s brand, and how much “royalty” companies earn as a result. 

To calculate a brand’s strength, experts looked at how much firms spend on branding, how 150.000 survey respondents perceive the brand and whether firms earn more because of their branding. A simple way to look at it is to think about how much more Heinz can charge for ketchup versus other sauce brands, simply because they are Heinz.

US tech giants see brand values skyrocket

For 2024, Apple was rated as having the most valuable brand in the world, with experts estimating that their branding alone is worth nearly half a trillion dollars. American tech giants dominated the list, with Apple being joined by the likes of Facebook, Google and Microsoft in the top 10.

Brand Finance noted that the last year has seen tech companies explode in terms of both profits and value. The brand value of both Microsoft and Apple grew by over 70 percent in 2023, while processor manufacturer Nvidia saw its valuation rise by a whopping 163 percent.

Deutsche Telekom is the most valuable European brand

While the top 10 may have been dominated by Silicon Valley mega-corporations, German international companies found representation in the higher echelons: Deutsche Telekom is considered to be the ninth most valuable brand in the world and the most valuable in Europe. While not rated as highly for the strength of the brand itself, the firm's name carries more weight, with the company seeing its brand valuation increase by 17 percent in the last year up to 73,3 billion dollars.

Writing in the report, Deutsche Telekom’s Chief Brand Officer Ulrich Klenke said that the brand’s value had increased due to improvements in their service, noting that in nine out of 10 countries that they serve, either as Deutsche Telekom or T-Mobile, they are rated best in the business for customer satisfaction.

“We are proud that the T is increasingly perceived as a strong symbol”, Klenke concluded.

Most valuable brands in the world in 2024

In all, here are the 10 most valuable brands in the world in 2024, according to Brand Finance (in billions of US dollars):

1. Apple (516,6)
2. Microsoft (340,4)
3. Google (333,4)
4. Amazon (308,9)
5. Samsung (99,4)
6. Walmart (96,8)
7. TikTok (84,2)
8. Facebook (part of Meta) (75,7)
9. Deutsche Telekom / T-Mobile (73,3)
10. ICBC (71,8)

For more information, check out the official study.

Thumb image credit: DaLiu / Shutterstock.com