TikTok overtakes Facebook as top social media ‘brand’

Sam Buckingham-JonesMedia and marketing reporter

Jan 18, 2023 – 5.00am

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TikTok has overtaken Facebook as the world’s most valuable social media brand, leaping eight places in the global rankings as the Meta-owned platform fell.

In Brand Finance’s annual Global 500, which ranks companies for their ‘brand value’, TikTok and its Chinese counterpart, Douyin, were valued at $US65.7 billion ($94.25 billion), entering the top 10 most valuable brands in the world.

Despite losing more than $US50 billion ($72 billion) each over the past year, Amazon and Apple have stayed the world’s top two brands – but Amazon has taken the crown as the world’s most valuable.

Brand Finance’s global list ranks ‘brand value’, which measures how much of a company’s profits are attributable to its brand. It is often used in mergers and acquisitions to measure the intangible assets that a company owns.

It also measures ‘brand strength’, which is a separate but related score out of 100 combining marketing investment, brand equity and a company’s performance. Google topped the list as the strongest brand with 93.2, ahead of YouTube (92.7) and Swiss telco Swisscom (91.7).

Facebook fell from seventh – and a valuation of more than $US100 billion – to $US58.8 billion, behind US retailer Home Depot.

Mark Crowe, the head of Brand Finance Australia.

“The main issue for Facebook is its revenue declined for a second consecutive quarter in 2022, due to falling advertising sales as it faces competition from TikTok,” Brand Finance Australia’s managing director, Mark Crowe, said.

It still had a strong ‘brand strength’, he added.

Amazon was valued at $US299.3 billion, followed by Apple at $297.5 billion, Google at $US281 billion and Microsoft at $US191.6 billion.

Tesla jumped 19 places to enter the top 10, ranking ninth, slightly ahead of TikTok.

“Brand Value for Tesla grew significantly by 44 per cent,” Brand Finance Australia’s managing director, Mark Crowe, said.

“The main driver was the increase in revenue and forecasts ... The key point for Tesla is that their revenues are still forecast to increase quite considerably, although there are lingering concerns about production ability and some signs of reduced demand.”

Woolworths was the top Australian brand on the list, on which six more Australian brands figure – Telstra, Commonwealth Bank, Coles, NAB, BHP and ANZ.

The total value of the world’s top brands was $US8 trillion, a decline of 1 per cent on 2022. The US was home to the lion’s share of companies in the list – 201, followed by China, 79, Japan, 32, France, 31, and the UK and Germany, which both had 24.

TikTok has grown rapidly over the past few years, tripling its value in 2021 to enter the top 500 list. It has been undercutting rivals to scoop up a greater share of the advertising market, and dealing with concerns locally about national security risks. That doesn’t appear to have affected its rise globally, however.

Sam Buckingham-Jones is the media and marketing reporter at The Australian Financial Review. Connect with Sam on Twitter.