Apple

As the founder of Apple, Steve Jobs said, “Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me. Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful… that’s what matters to me.”

Apple is an American multinational technology company that designs, develops, and sells consumer electronics, computer software, and online services. The company was founded by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne. Currently, the company generates billions of dollars annually. Steve Jobs loved apples and that is why he named the company after that. Steve Wozniak worked in that company and left after 12 days. He sold his share for only 700 dollars. Nowadays, the company has about 90,000 employees. Now it can buy companies such as Netflix, Facebook, Tesla, and Twitter because it has 150 billion dollars. Three-quarters of Apple’s income is from products that were invented within the past 10 years. Apple's app is the most downloaded in the world. Over 25 billion apps have been downloaded from Apple’s store. The company launched the first mass-market digital camera in 1994. Now it is one of the most successful companies in the world.

Amazon

Amazon, an American multinational technology company focuses on e-commerce, cloud computing, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence. Now it is the world’s largest marketplace. The founder of the company is Jeff Bezos. Initially, the company started as an online place for books but now it has been expanded to electronics, software, video games, apparel, furniture, food, toys, and jewelry.

The logo of the company depicts a smile that goes from letter A to Z. It shows their fine customer service, that they are willing to deliver everything anywhere in the world.

The employees of Amazon spend two days every 2 years working at the customer service desk, even the CEO. All the workers should understand the customer service process. The company has made a pet-friendly environment. Currently, it has about 6000 dogs on campus.

The key to the success of the company is that they follow one principle that the customer is the first place for them.

Amazon has a section of AmazonSmile that allows them to support charities of their chives when they shop at smile.amazon.com. Now Amazon employs over 563,000 people all over the world.

Microsoft

As the founder of Microsoft, Bill Gates said, “If you are born poor it’s not your mistake, but if you die poor it is your mistake’’

Microsoft, an American multinational technology company with headquarters in Redmond, Washington develops, manufactures, licenses, supports, and sells computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers and related services. Today, there is a rivalry between Microsoft and Apple products. But there was a time when the two were one. Microsoft and Apple worked together for years on developing software for the Macintosh computer. Then, Microsoft announced Windows, which started a rivalry between Gates and Jobs.

Now the company has bought almost 200 companies during its lifetime and at the moment it owns tens of thousands of various patents. Most of its acquisitions were to get access to new patents. Anyone who is employed by Microsoft is given the nickname ‘Softie’. Microsoft has over 88.000 employees working at their various premises. The total area covered in the square footage of their combined premises is 32,404,796 square feet. Approximately 74% of the employees at this company are male. Microsoft collated data about their staff to discover who their average worker is and found that an average Microsoft employee is a 38-year-old male. The average salary for a developer is $106,000.

Google

Google is an American multinational technology company that specializes in Internet-related services and products. The company was founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin who were Ph.D. students.

On August 16, 2013, Google was not reachable for 5 minutes, so the global Internet usage decreased by 40 percent. The company offers a Global Education Leave Program, that allows employees to pursue their education.

Nearly all of the money Google makes comes from advertising. In the third quarter of 2015, the company reported $18.67 billion in total sales, with $16.78 billion coming from the sale of ads. That makes Google the biggest ad seller in the digital world, outpacing second-place Facebook by over four times. The social-media company posted $4.29 billion in ad sales in its most recent quarter.

Samsung

Samsung is a South Korean multinational conglomerate that was founded by Lee Byung - Chul. It is not only an electronic manufacturing company, so it consists of many subsidiary companies. Now Samsung has 80 major companies and 490,000 employees all over the world. Its employees are from about 80 different countries. Let’s see the connection between Burj Khalifa, the tallest building, and Samsung. The building was built by Samsung Engineering.

The company itself has produced about 17-20 percent of South Korea’s total GDP.

The phone which broke all the sales records of Samsung is Samsung Galaxy S4, it sold about 80 million units. The name of the company means three stars in Korean.

Coca-Cola

The Coca-Cola Company manufactures carbonated soft drinks. Coca-Cola is known all over the world, moreover, they are the second most widely recognized word. Now 3,2 percent of all beverages are Coca-Cola products. The brand value is over 70 billion U.S. dollars and more than 10,000 Coca-Cola soft drinks are consumed per second.

The soft drink contains cocaine in it but after the consumer fears, the company reduced the amount of cocaine in their beverages. Mexicans are considered the largest consumers of Coke annually. You can imagine how successful the company is if you know that the Coca-Cola bottles in the world were laid end to end, they will reach the moon and come back more than 1677 times. Only two countries do not sell Coca-Cola, Cube and North Korea.

Toyota

Toyota is a Japanese multinational automotive manufacturer, founded by Kiichiro Toyoda. Sakichi Toyoda, the inventor of the automatic power loom, didn’t have dreams of developing automobiles. When he opened his company in 1933, his specialty was in his invention. Years later, the company would sell off the automated looms to gain capital for their first automobiles.

Toyota’s Crown sedan was the very first car imported by Americans. Today, Toyota has retained the U.S. as one of their largest markets. The company became the first automaker to make 10 million cars for only one year.

The Korean War saved Toyota. The company was on the verge of bankruptcy and produced only 300 trucks in June of 1950. In the first few months of the Korean War, the US ordered more than 5,000 vehicles from Toyota, and the company was revived. Toyota invests 1 million dollars every hour in research and development worldwide. They do this in pursuit of building better and safe cars. One more important thing you should know is that 80 percent of Toyotas sold 20 years ago are still on the road today.

Mercedes-Benz

Mercedes-Benz is a German vehicle manufacturer. The first petrol-powered Mercedes vehicle was made by Karl Benz, the Mercedes-Benz co-founder. His fiancee, Bertha, had to invest in the project as a part of the prevailing marriage law

Steven Spielberg used the Mercedes-Benz ML 320 car in his huge blockbuster movie in 1993. The automobile is currently on display at Stuttgart's MB Museum, Germany. The famous Mercedes logo which adorns every one of their cars symbolizes the ambition of universal motorization. They hoped to provide transport on land, on water, and in the air.

McDonald’s

McDonald's Corporation is an American fast-food company, founded in 1940 as a restaurant operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald. McDonald’s first originally sold hot dogs, not hamburgers. Now they feed 68 million people every day. Moreover, they earn about US$75 million each day. The number of restaurants has increased and now they have more than 36,000 restaurants in the World. The top ten busiest McDonald’s restaurants are all in Hong Kong, yeah, Hong Kong is in the first place.

Advertising is really important for the company, they spend about 1 billion dollars per year on it. McDonald’s sells over 75 burgers every single second. Now McDonald’s goal is to open more than 2,000 restaurants in China by 2022. One more thing you should know about their products is that only 7 items on their menu do not contain sugar. The largest McDonald’s restaurant is located in Beijing, which is over 28,000 square feet. The smallest McDonald’s restaurant with only 492 square feet is in Tokyo, Japan.

Disney

On October 16, 1923, Walt Disney and his brother Roy found the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio in California. The studio, now known as The Walt Disney Company, has had an oversized impact on the entertainment industry and is now one of the largest media companies in the world. Disney did the voice for Mickey Mouse from 1928 to 1947. Walt Disney’s First Film was “Alice’s Wonderland”.

By the time Disney opened its first store in China in 2015, there were more than 200 Disney Stores in North America, more than 40 in Japan, and more than 70 Disney Store locations in Europe. It currently operates six resorts and 12 parks across the world.

Best Ranking

You can see below the animated ranking of top 15 best global brands by Interbrand's valuation. The ranking is based on Financial Analysis, the Role of Brand, and Brand Strength.

Top 15 Best Global Brands (2000 - 2020)