YouGov Global Technology Rankings 2021

Tech brands that enable us to stay connected and remain entertained at home during the COVID-19 pandemic comprise much of our 2021 ranking of the most favored global tech brands, as determined by consumers around the globe.

Tech giant Samsung, most ubiquitous in the mobile phone and television spaces, is the leader of our list this year. While the brand may be better known for its mobile phones and TVs in parts of the western hemisphere, its place as a major supplier of innovative domestic appliances in other parts of the world sees it capture our number one slot this year.

These rankings are calculated using data we collect from members of the public around the globe every day, for our BrandIndex tool. The brands in the YouGov Technology Rankings 2021 were ranked based on a 12-month average Impression score - a net measure of whether a consumer has a positive or negative impression of a brand.

YouGov BrandIndex draws data from 11 million interviews across 40 sectors and 55 markets globally. This year’s ranking includes the views of more of the world’s public than ever before, including consumers from United States, China, Japan, Germany, India and the United Kingdom.

South Korean tech firm, Samsung, sits atop our global list. The firm has had a busy year, embedding itself in our lives during a tumultuous 12 months and cementing its reputation as an innovator in tech and domestic products.

Unlike many tech brands, its product range is broad, straddling everything from phones to washing machines and this may be reflected in its performance. Recent product launches have taken in folding phones, ear buds and even a cleaning and drying wardrobe known as as AirDresser, putting Samsung in almost every area of consumers’ domestic lives.

Another ubiquitous brand - Google - comes second on our list. Its tech surely now touches the majority of human lives, whether consumers know it or not. Like Samsung, its product line is broad but alongside its digital wares, it’s sometimes easy to forget that Google now reaches into many homes with physical items like Pixel phones, Nest, and Chromecast.

Social media platforms – including instant-messaging platform WhatsApp, image sharing service Instagram and Facebook – are all also featured on the list. Twitter makes an appearance in the top 25, as does LinkedIn and Line, the instant messaging platform popular in markets such as Japan, Thailand, and Taiwan. Some of these brands had challenging years with regulatory and reputational challenges around the world to surmount, but these do not appear to have had much bearing on consumers’ impression of them.

No list of tech brands is complete without Apple, which secured the No. 5 spot among consumers around the world. The past twelve months has seen the usual raft of product launches from the brand, including its iPhone 12, as well as a move into Apple Silicon.

Rival optical product manufacturers Canon and Nikon both appear on our list, at the No. 11 and 22 slots respectively. For many around the world, Canon has also provided the printing that has enabled home schooling and working.

Chinese tech brand Oppo makes our list as well. While it is one of the biggest mobile brands in China and is available in select European markets, it is the only brand on our list with limited or no availability in the US, as it has no agreements with any of the major American carriers.

Oppo is joined on our list by fellow Chinese smartphone maker Huawei. The mobile tech company has suffered from diplomatic rows this year which have led to it losing access to the Android operating system but sales have continued to grow in its home market.

Talking of Android, the operating system loaded onto most of the world’s smartphones has also secured a spot in this year’s ranking, coming in at 23rd.

For the audiophiles, both Bose and Bang & Olufsen make it to our ranking. Other familiar brands to make it into the global top 25 include Panasonic, LG, Bosch, Philips, Sony, Microsoft, Siemens, HP and Yahoo!.

Some social media platforms, instant messaging services and tech firms didn’t make our list despite strong brand recognition because they don't resonate with older demographics or have the same global reach as those who did appear on our ranking.

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Methodology: The brands in the YouGov Technology Rankings 2021 were ranked based on the Impression score, which is a measure of whether a consumer has a positive or negative impression of a brand calculated by taking the average over a period of 12 months.

The rankings chart shows the brands with the highest average Impression score between March 1, 2020 to February 28, 2021. The scores are representative of the general population of adults 18 and over (some are online representative).

All Impression scores listed have been rounded to a single decimal place; however, we have used additional precision to assign ranks. All brands have been tracked for at least six months to be included in the rankings.

Where brands are tracked in more than one sector within one market, we have taken the average Impression score.

The categories we have included in the YouGov Technology Rankings 2021 are:

• Hardware manufacturers
• Software manufacturers
• Social media platforms

In most cases, only master brands have been included within the rankings. The exception to this rule is the inclusion of Instagram and WhatsApp where it may not be widely known by the public that Facebook is the parent company of these brands.

The categories we have excluded from the Technology Rankings are:

• Fintech/Payments
• Streaming/media platforms
• Gaming consoles

• Apps
• White goods and appliances
• Ecommerce/Online marketplaces*

*Amazon has not been included in the YouGov Technology Rankings as this brand will be included within the YouGov Retail Rankings in line with the primary sector tracked for the master brand in BrandIndex.

The above categories will feature in the relevant, subsequent YouGov sector rankings.