Bloomberg Billionaires Index updated rich list.

For the Christmas just past, and during the whole of 2018, did you buy, or order anything, or receive any pressies bought on Amazon? 

Well you are among the tens of millions of customers who have contributed to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’s wealth, as he has been affirmed as the world’s richest man, according to the just updated Bloomberg Billionaires Index. 

The Amazon mogul’s personal worth increased by 24 billion to 123 billion dollars over the past year.
However after gathering the 500 largest fortunes in the world, reported the Belgian newspaper “De Tijd”, 2018 ended with the richest group of people losing a collective 451 billion dollars.  Top guy Mr Bezos lost about 45 billion US dollars in the last three months of 2018.

A year of volatile trading conditions had diminished the bank account of many of the billionaires on the index, such as falling stock markets, weaker consumer’s confidence and a generally challenging trading environment.
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Other top names on the list that made it to the top 30 wealthiest people globally included founders of some of our fashion retailers Inditex (Amancio Ortega), Alibaba (Jack Ma) and Fast Retailing (Tadashi Yanai) the largest clothing retailer in Asia and parent of Uniqlo.

Also further down on the rich list are the Walton family, owners of Walmart; Stefan Persson, chairman and largest shareholder of Hennes & Mauritz, the world's second-biggest retailer of private-label apparel; and Henry Cheng, chairman of Chow Tai Fook Jewellery, a Hong Kong-based jeweller.

Google, Lego and Gucci among the top brands in the world according to study

Google has taken over from Apple as the world's most valuable brand according to the latest ranking study published by Brand Finance Global 500.

Gucci Timepieces & Jewelry will unveil their new addition to its
Le Marché des Merveilles collection at the Baselworld 2017
March 27 - 30.
The hallmark features of the bee, the tiger and the snake
are elegantly embroidered on a nylon dial against the famed Gucci stripe.
On the sportier versions, this stripe continues into a woven
strap which bears Gucci's expression, "L’Aveugle par Amour". 

In the annual study by Brand Finance which calculates the most valuable and powerful brands in the world,  it claims that Apple's fall after five years at the top comes as its brand value dropped 27% to US$107/1bn over 2016, while Google's rose by 24% to $109.5bn.

In third place was Amazon, while Facebook moved up from 17th last year to ninth. The highest ranked British brand is Vodafone, which came in at 50th, 20 places down from 2016.

Technology brands aside, toy brand Lego - spurred by the Lego Batman Movie - has replaced Disney as the world's most powerful brand, according to the ranking.
When looking at the top 20th retail brands, two luxury watch brands - Rolex and Cartier have been listed  respectively at 18th and 20th place, with fashion brand Gucci squeezed in the middle.  The only other brands with a watch and jewellery retail offering in the top 40 strongest firms are Tiffany & Co (38th place) and Burberry (40th place).

Meanwhile, according to David Haigh, CEO of Brand Finance, in an interview on the Telegraph.co.uk, there is also a growing dissatisfaction across the globe with American brands, when commenting on why global fast food chains McDonald’s, KFC and Domino’s Pizza continue to drop down the rankings of the world’s most valuable brands, saying the election of Donald Trump could impact a company’s international standing.“There was a period when American brands were considered to be very aspirational. Gradually goodwill towards American brands has been eroded,” he said.“One of the interesting dimensions at the moment is the extent to which Trumpism is actually going to accelerate this negative view about American brands.”

Christmas jumpers at Amazon