OREANDA-NEWS. British consultancy Brand Finance has published rankings of the world's most expensive, fastest-growing and strongest brands. The most expensive brand, as well as last year, was Apple: its value was estimated by analysts at $355 billion, it increased by 35% over the year. At the beginning of January Apple's capitalisation reached a record $3 trillion.

David Hay, head of Brand Finance, emphasized "an amazing level of brand loyalty" based on "quality and innovation". According to experts, the growth of the brand value also contributed to the company's attention to privacy policy and environmental issues: in March 2021 Apple announced that more than 110 of its suppliers will switch to renewable energy sources, and by 2030 the corporation plans to make its production carbon-neutral.

Brand Finance named TikTok the fastest-growing brand, up 215% from $18.5 billion in 2021 to $59 billion. The company entered the top 500 expensive brands for the first time and ranked 18th, the best result among new entrants to the ranking. In 2021, the number of users of TikTok exceeded 1 billion, the application became the most downloaded in Google Play and AppStore, analysts said. Snapchat (up 184%, to $6.6 billion) and Kakao (up 161%, to $4.7 billion) came in second and third on the list of fastest-growing brands.

For the second year in a row, the fastest-growing sector was pharmaceuticals. The number of these brands in the top 500 most valuable increased from four to eight (including AstraZeneca), with their combined value rising 94% to $ 52 billion. The most expensive of these brands is Johnson & Johnson.

Brand Finance also calculates the Brand Strength Index (BSI) based on investment, shareholder value and business performance. Russia's Sber has maintained its AAA+ rating this year and displaced Ferrari from its position as the strongest brand in Europe: its BSI was 92.3 out of a possible 100. As last year, Sber was the most expensive Russian brand in the ranking. The brand moved up from 181st to 156th place.

China's WeChat (BSI - 93.2) remains the strongest brand globally.

In the ranking of 250 CEOs (based on the Brand Guardianship Index), Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella took first place.