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Purchasing online is second nature. When your phone breaks, a famous video game lands, or you develop a vital necessity for a three-way plug extender, your first stop is commonly the Google search box. Muscle memory directs the way, and before you know it, you’re purchasing a familiar brand of product in a popular online marketplace.
These brands and platforms are likable and trustworthy enough to attract consumers worldwide. And, in a world where traders encounter consumers as a series of clicks, consumers are coming to see themselves as a sum total of their brand preferences.
Even Amazon – which BusinessFinancing.co.uk can today report is the most popular brand by Google search volume for the second year running – lives and dies on its brand uniqueness: cost-effective, easy-to-use, and convenient. Amazon’s perfect user identifies themselves as web literate, up for a great deal, and extremely busy. Guess what? Everybody thinks they’re highly busy – particularly when sitting in front of the internet with infinite three-way plug extenders to choose from.
Now, it’s time for an update. Here are the most searched brands in every nation and U.S. state in 2022 and the most popular brands in 6 key categories.
Business Financing compiled a list of consumer brands from WorldAtlas, Forbes, BrandDirectory, the Financial Times, GameDeisnging, ICT Buzz, FashionUnited, and Interbrand, as well as industry reports and publications. The team then shortlisted the final checklist of consumer brands, concentrating on those that represent products and services. They ignored the likes of Google and Facebook.
Next, the team then applied Google Ads API to get search volume data, collecting the monthly average of searches over the last 12 months for brands alone (e.g., “Nike”) and brands with the related sector appended to a keyword (“Nike clothing”) to account for the skew in search volume figures for generic expressions and terms, such as “Amazon,” “Apple,” etc. They did this for every country and U.S. state.
For the U.S., the most favorite brand was taken as the brand with the highest share of search volume in every U.S. state within its category compared to the percentage of search volume in the whole of the U.S.
The Most Popular Consumer Brands in the World
The top 10 world’s most searched consumer brands are as follows. Amazon, the world’s largest online retailer, is searched 335,400,000 times a month and is a top searched brand in 42 nations.
But the real winners are, in a way, Netflix and IKEA. Sure, with 140.2 million and 55.3 million searches, respectively, they are behind Jeff Bezos’ brainchild, but Netflix is the most searched brand in a whopping 92 countries, while IKEA dominates 14 of them.
Curiously enough, eBay – a retailer/marketplace that’s been largely overshadowed by the likes of Amazon in recent years – has 80.6 million searches and came out on top in 6 countries.
Brand
Category
Global monthly searches, millions
Countries #1
Amazon
General
335.4
42
Netflix
General
140.2
92
eBay
General
80.6
6
Walmart
General
76.1
2
IKEA
General
55.3
14
Paypal
General
32.9
1
Costco
General
30.4
0
Starbucks
Coffee Shops
30.2
0
McDonald’s
Fast Food
29.4
0
Spotify
General
26.9
0
The Most Popular Consumer Brands in North America
North American companies dominate the list of most searched for consumer brands in the continent, with Amazon and Netflix leading the pack. Amazon is the most sought-after brand in the United States, Canada, and the Caribbean, while Netflix rules in Central America.
The Most Uniquely Popular Consumer Brands in Every U.S. state
eBay might have started out in California, but it has won the hearts of consumers across America, coming out on top as the brand with the highest search volume above the national average in 22 U.S. states – though not California itself, where they prefer Costco. Every state’s favorite brand is an American company, from Amazon through to Walmart (which, if based purely on search volume, would win everywhere).
The Most Popular Consumer Brands in South America
Research uncovered what people in South America are planning to watch tonight, with Netflix leading the way as the most Googled consumer brand in 8 countries, including Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, and Venezuela. Amazon came up on top in Colombia, Guyana, and Suriname.
The Most Popular Consumer Brands in Europe
It’s a close race for the hearts of consumers in Europe, with Netflix coming out on top in Greece, Finland, Poland, and 12 other countries. Swedish furniture giant Ikea is a favorite in 14 European nations, including Sweden, Denmark, and Norway). Amazon is most searched for in the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Germany, and Spain.
The Most Popular Consumer Brands in The Middle East and Central Asia
From Bahrain to Uzbekistan and from Qatar to Saudi Arabia, people in this region love Netflix, with 13 out of 18 nations searching for the streaming service more often than any other consumer brand. Amazon is the go-to Google search in Afghanistan, Iraq and the UAE, while car loves in Tajikistan and Turkmenistan google BMW at a higher rate than other brands.
The Most Popular Consumer Brands in The Rest of Asia and Oceania
Netflix has proven to be the most popular consumer brand in the region, leading the way in 23 of 29 countries analyzed. The streaming giant has surpassed fellow U.S. tech companies Amazon and eBay, with both brands winning in three countries each.
The Most Popular Consumer Brands in Africa
In a list otherwise dominated by American tech companies, Chinese rival Alibaba has made some inroads into Africa, becoming the most popular consumer brand in Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Lesotho, and Malawi. However, most of the continent is busy binge-watching the latest Netflix shows, including South Africa, Egypt, Morocco, and Kenya.
The Most Popular Coffee Shop Chains in the World
In Coffee Shop Brands, there’s no rivaling Starbucks with 30.1 million searches worldwide and topping the charts in 143 countries, despite only being present in about 80
Brand
Global monthly searches
Countries#1
Starbucks
30,160,000
143
Pret A Manger
497,000
5
Espresso House
269,000
3
Krispy Kreme
3,540,000
3
Costa Coffee
534,000
2
Cofix
27,000
1
Tchibo
3,300,000
1
Coffee Island
121,000
1
Coffee Fellows
36,000
1
Tom N Toms Coffee
8,200
1
The Most Popular Beer Brands in the World
Heineken, Guinness, and Aguila seem to dominate the global beer searches, with the Dutch giant having a global volume of 955,000 and being top in 77 countries.
Brand
Global monthly searches
Countries #1
Heineken
955,000
77
Guinness
341,000
20
Aguila
205,000
10
Budweiser
535,000
9
Brahma
430,000
8
Modelo
235,000
6
Carlsberg
196,000
6
Kingfisher
320,000
6
Asahi
210,000
4
The Most Popular Fast-Food Brands in the World
Subway may have the most restaurants worldwide, but it only registers as a top fast-food brand in 4 countries. McDonald’s has the most significant number of searches globally (29.4 million) but yields to KFC in terms of the number of countries. Kentucky Fried Chicken is the most searched fast-food brand in 83 countries, despite having 6 million searches fewer than its golden-arched competitor.
Brand
Global monthly searches
Countries #1
KFC
17,460,000
83
McDonald’s
29,430,000
39
Pizza Hut
17,840,000
18
Burger King
16,580,000
14
Domino’s
24,320,000
6
Subway
10,670,000
4
LittleCaesars
7,410,000
1
Tim Hortons
4,100,000
1
The Most Popular Smartphone Brand in the World
Regarding smartphones, Apple and its iPhone are still unbeaten, with 23 million searches worldwide and therefore being top in 141 countries. The dark horse in this race is Tecno – a Chinese brand that focused its business on the African, Middle East, Southeast Asia, South Asian, and Latin America markets – coming out top in 7 countries.
Brand
Global monthly searches
Countries #1
Apple
23,000,000
141
Huawei
2,320,000
8
Tecno
358,000
7
Asus
2,350,000
3
Nokia
1,560,000
3
Samsung
2,600,000
3
Motorola
2,320,000
1
OnePlus
2,600,000
1
The Most Popular Gaming Brand in the World
Regarding gaming, Epic Games is one to beat with 14.8 million monthly searches globally and tops the gaming brand charts in 122 countries. Nintendo is in second place regarding search volume country coverage, but it’s not even close.
Brand
Global monthly searches
Countries #1
Gameloft
143,000
4
Epic Games
14,870,000
122
Nintendo
3,150,000
22
Konami
435,000
9
Bandai Namco
151,000
1
Electronic Arts
309,000
1
Ubisoft
1,810,000
3
Key findings
Netflix is the most searched brand in most countries (92).
Amazon is the most searched brand by volume (335.4 million monthly searches).
Starbucks is the most famous brand in 143 nations, making it the most dominant brand in any one sector (coffee shops).
Heineken is the world’s most popular beer, with the highest search volume in 77 nations.
Great!