ANKARA 

Apple and Microsoft top the list of World’s Most Valuable Brands for 2015, according to Forbes.

According to the list released Wednesday, Apple led for the fifth straight year with a brand value of $145.3 billion after selling 74.8 million smartphones worldwide in the fourth quarter of 2014, with phone sales up by 49 percent.

The smartphone maker’s value is up 17 percent since last year.

Apple is followed by Microsoft with $69.3 billion, up 10 percent since 2014 and Google with $65.6 billion, an increase of 16 percent since last year. The search engines’ value increased thanks to its mobile advertising revenue.

Coca-Cola ($56 billion) and IBM ($49.8) took the fourth and fifth slots in the ranking.

The top ten list also included McDonald's ($39.5 billion), Samsung ($37.9 billion), Toyota (37.8 billion), General Electric ($37.5 billion) and Facebook ($36.5 billion), which for the first time entered the top ten.

Samsung (South Korea) and Toyota (Japan) came in seventh and eighth places respectively.