Followed by E-Mart and KakaoTalk

Samsung Galaxy placed first in this year’s Top 100 Brands of Korea released by BrandStock on Dec. 8. It claimed the top spot of the BrandStock Top Index (BSTI) for nine consecutive years.

BrandStock said Samsung Galaxy has strong upside potential in terms of brand value as the share of Samsung Electronics’ Galaxy series in the Japanese smartphone market tripled in the third quarter.

Samsung Galaxy was followed by E-Mart (2nd) and KakaoTalk (3rd). KB Kookmin Bank went up by one notch to fourth place, followed by Incheon Airport (5th), Lotte World Adventure (6th), Shinhan Card (7th), Shin Ramen (8th)and Naver (9th). Lotte Hi-Mart rose to 10th place.

In this year's brand rankings, the biggest change was made in the car category. The brand value of Korean cars generally declined due to the shrinkage of the global car market and rapid changes in mobility environments. The Hyundai Grandeur, the most famous Korean sedan, fell 42 notches to 86th this year from 44th last year, and the Hyundai Sonata also fell to 90th place. The Genesis, the only premium brand among Korean cars, also fell to 31st place this year from 26th last year.

GM Korea's best-selling Chevrolet Spark was pushed down to 92nd, down 12 notches from last year, while SsangYong's flagship model, the Tivoli, failed to make the top 100.

But Mercedes-Benz, on the other hand, ranked 77th, up by 18 notches from last year, and finished first in the imported car category by outrunning BMW for the second year in a row.

The brands that recorded the biggest jump this year are Coupang and Xi. Coupang has been on the decline due to various negative issues in the past. But it strengthened its financial structure by receiving an additional US$2 billion investment from Softbank Vision Fund last year. It received good responses from customers with its early morning delivery of fresh foods. As a consequence, its ranking rose to 54th this year from 100th last year.

In the apartment category, GS E&C's Xi came in first by jumping to 20th this year from 67th last year.

Uniqlo, a Japanese fashion brand, plunged to 91st place due to the Korean people’s boycott of Japanese products, and may not be included in the top 100.

The top 100 brands in Korea are picked through a brand valuation and certification system. This year’s top 100 brands were selected based on the BSTI rankings from January to November of this year.


The BSTI is a brand value valuation model that combines the brand stock index (70 percent) created through mock trading of stocks of about 1,000 representative brands in 230 categories at the Brandstock Stock Exchange and a regular consumer research index (30 percent).

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