The Fortune 500 Global and BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands lists are perhaps the business world's most prestigious rankings.

The former ranks companies based on their past performance, while the latter ranks them according to future potential.

The 2019 BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands list was published on June 11 in New York, with Amazon topping the rankings, replacing Google at the top spot.

Fifteen Chinese brands were included on the list this year, up from 14 in 2018, with Alibaba the frontrunner among the Chinese companies included.

China Life, Bank of China and SF Express, three Chinese brands that were included on the 2018 list, did not make the 2019 rankings.

This year's newcomers from China were Haier, Meituan, Didi and Xiaomi.

Of the 12 Chinese brands that returned to the list, Alibaba, Ping An and Huawei moved up, while Tencent and eight other brands moved down.

Chinese companies accounted for 15 percent of those included on the BrandZ rankings, lower than their 24 percent on the 2018 Fortune Global 500 list.

Among the 15 Chinese brands included in the BrandZ list, 10 also saw their associated companies feature on the 2018 Fortune 500 Global list.

BrandZ's brand value system is a reminder that brand value is not necessarily in direct proportion to firm size, as global brand value must be endorsed by a global customer base.

The value of the top 100 brands on the list stands at $4.7 trillion, representing a year-on-year increase of $328 billion, or 7.5 percent.

The bar for making 100th place has grown by seven percent.

Apart from the brands that fell off the list, 34 decreased in value, with GE experiencing the steepest decline, dropping 32 percent, while 57 hit higher valuations, including nine new entrants and Instagram, whose brand value soared by 95 percent.