Brand Finance Media rankings: Twitter down while Google maintains top spot for third year running

The Twitter brand has dropped eight positions in the Brand Finance Media 50 ranking this year.

This is largely due to Brand Finance research finding a significantly weaker perception of the brand causing a very large 11-point drop in brand strength, and subsequent demotion to a brand strength rating of AA.

Aggressive business approaches from Musk have contributed to Twitter’s brand value and brand equity erosion (brand value down 32% to $3.9bn).

Twitter customers and stakeholders have perceived large redundancies negatively, which compounds difficulties for the brand to retain advertisers and corresponding revenue.

“The acquisition and privatisation of Twitter presented a strong and interesting investment case.

“However, the positive outcomes that some anticipated for the Twitter brand have not materialised,” says Richard Haigh, managing director of Brand Finance.

“Brand valuation considers intangible and tangible assets, and Musk has overlooked one of the brand’s’ most important resources: people. Twitter needs to address issues surrounding its reputation and brand equity to return to brand value growth,” he adds.

This year’s ranking of the world’s most valuable media brands is again dominated by consumer-facing online tech companies, especially in social media.

Google: most valuable media brand

The Californian tech giant, Google (brand value up 7% to $281.4bn), continues to dominate the sector with a brand value more than four times that of its runner-up, TikTok/Douyin (brand value up 11% to $65.7bn).

Google’s healthy year-on-year brand value growth is the result of continued evolution and expansion of its services, including Google Wallet, Google Pixel and Google Cloud.

WhatsApp: Highest new entrant

WhatsApp (brand value $8bn) joins the ranking in 17th as the best-performing new entrant.

As one of the most popular instant messaging platforms, the brand boasts around two billion active users each month.

This past year, the end-to-end encrypted messaging tool launched new features to its services including features such as view once images/videos and online visibility.

WhatsApp’s sister brand, Facebook (brand value $59bn) sits in 3rd in the ranking. Both WhatsApp and Facebook are owned by the same corporate parent, Meta.

Google: strongest media brand

In addition to calculating brand value, Brand Finance also determines the relative strength of brands through a balanced scorecard of metrics evaluating marketing investment, stakeholder equity, and business performance.

Compliant with ISO 20671, Brand Finance’s assessment of stakeholder equity incorporates original market research data from over 100,000 respondents in 38 countries and across 31 sectors.

As well as being the strongest brand in the US and the world, Google tops the media ranking, earning a brand strength index score of 93.2/100 and a prestigious AAA+ rating.

LinkedIn: Fastest-growing media brand

LinkedIn (brand value up 49% to $15.5bn) claims the title of media’s fastest-growing brand. In connection with its improved standing as a recruitment and news advertising tool, LinkedIn grew significantly.

Globally, LinkedIn is building a very strong position amongst professional white-collar users as a dominant tool in this sector. First launched in 2003, the brand is growing strongly in part due to its integration with other Microsoft services.

WeChat: Highest Sustainability Perceptions Score

As part of its analysis, Brand Finance assesses the role that specific brand attributes play in driving overall brand value.

One such attribute is sustainability. Brand Finance assesses how sustainable specific brands are perceived to be, represented by a ‘Sustainability Perceptions Score’.

The value that is linked to sustainability perceptions, the ‘Sustainability Perceptions Value’, is then calculated for each brand.

WeChat (brand value $50.2bn), the Chinese multi-service super-app, is best-rated for perceived sustainability with a Sustainability Perceptions Score of 6.27 out of 10.

This, in part, can be attributed to Chinese society’s prioritisation of ESG factors, deeming them crucial for economic growth and social stability.
Additionally, as part of the Tencent (brand value USD38.1 billion) family, WeChat operates under the same ESG model.

For example, in 2022, the parent company pledged carbon neutrality by 2030, as well as its commitment towards China’s overall carbon transformation goals.

Every year, leading brand valuation consultancy Brand Finance puts 5,000 of the biggest brands to the test, and publishes over 100 reports, ranking brands across all sectors and countries.

The world’s top 50 most valuable and strongest media brands are included in the annual Brand Finance Media 50 2023 ranking.

View the full Brand Finance Media 50 ranking here.