How did the world’s biggest brands fare in 2024? In a year marked by a tech-fueled stock market frenzy and geopolitical instability, global brands have spent much of 2024 recalibrating and adjusting to new realities. A new report by TradingPedia breaks down how the world’s largest brands fared during a tumultuous 2024, with important insights into what’s working — and what isn’t — in a shifting global economy.

Tech giants lead the pack: After a year of non-stop speculation over the time- and money-saving applications of AI, it’s not a surprise that tech companies top the list as the world’s most valuable brands. Apple has taken the top spot with an estimated valuation of USD 516.6 bn — a 73.6% increase from last year. This surge dethroned Amazon, which now ranks fourth with a value of USD 308.9 bn. Microsoft and Google have snagged the second and third spots with valuations of USD 340.4 bn and USD 333.4 bn respectively.

TikTok is the rising star, with the company’s USD 84.2 bn valuation — a USD 18.5 bn increase over 2023 — making it the most valuable Chinese brand on the list. TikTok isn’t the only Asian brand in the big leagues, though — Samsung is also a valuable contender, with a USD 99.4 bn valuation making it the world’s most valuable non-US brand.

Industry insights: Tech continues to lead as the world’s most valuable industry, accounting for 17.0% of the total value of the top 500 brands. Retail and banking follow with 11.8% shares apiece. Banking remains the largest sector by brand count, representing 14.2% of the top 500, with retail and tech following at 10.0% and 8.4% respectively.

Regionally, the US continues to reign supreme, boasting six of the top ten global brands — led by heavyweights like Apple, Microsoft, and Google. Chipmaker Nvidia dazzled with a 162.9% surge in value, marking it as the fastest-growing US brand. US brands make up over 50% of the top 500 and top 100 brands globally, the report notes.

Elsewhere around the globe, Germany’s Deutsche Telekom placed ninth in the rankings with a valuation of USD 73.3 bn, while China’s ICBC came in tenth at USD 71.8 bn. UK’s Shell shone as Britain’s most valuable brand, with a valuation of USD 50.3 bn.

Several big brands had a less fantastic 2024: Tesla and Walmart saw declines, with Tesla’s value dropping by 12.0% y-o-y and Walmart’s by 14.9% y-o-y.

The F in Facebook stands for free speech (and false information). Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced yesterday that changes to Facebook’s content moderation policies mean that the company will no longer be fact-checking information posted on the social media site.

The job of discerning facts from misinformation and AI slop now falls to Facebook users. Instead of a sophisticated program certified by international fact-checking networks, the site will now rely on user-generated community notes similar to those on X to flag false information. According to Zuckerberg, this is a bid to “restore free expression” in the face of external forces pushing the company to “censor more and more.”

Instagram and Threads will also be seeing these changes implemented, leaving bns of users reliant on others to moderate the accuracy of the information posted across several corners of the internet. This feature will debut in the US first in the coming months before being phased in worldwide over the course of the year.

What do experts have to say about it? “It’s going to hurt Meta’s users first,” says director of the International Fact-Checking Network Angie Drobnic Holan. “The [previous] program worked well at reducing the virality of hoax content and conspiracy theories [...] most people do not want to have to wade through a bunch of misinformation, fact checking everything for themselves.”