[Edaily Reporter Kim So-yeon] Samsung Electronics took the top spot in this year’s Best Korea Brands rankings. Hyundai Motor, Kia, LG Electronics, and Naver followed in second through fifth place.

On the 11th, Interbrand, the world’s largest brand consulting group, held the 14th Best Korea Brands 2026 Conference and announced the top 50 representative brands of South Korea. Samsung Electronics and Hyundai Motor secured the top two spots, continuing their rankings from last year.

Interbrand selects the 100 brands with the highest brand value globally every year. In Korea, it has been announcing the Best Korea Brands using the same criteria since 2013. The total brand value of this year’s top 50 Best Korea Brands stood at 231.1005 trillion won. This represents a 1.6% decrease compared to the previous year.

Interbrand analyzed that this year saw a clear polarization in brand value based on companies’ ability to secure future growth engines and respond to market changes amid a rapidly evolving market environment characterized by the shift to artificial intelligence (AI), changing consumer behavior, and corporate ethics issues.

Samsung Electronics ranked first among the Best Korea Brands with a brand value of 113.2061 trillion won, despite a 7.4% decrease from the previous year. Hyundai Motor followed with 30.7459 trillion won, a 10.1% increase from the previous year. The rankings continued with △Kia (10.6841 trillion won, up 8.7%) △LG Electronics (8.5956 trillion won, up 9.4%) △Naver (8.2419 trillion won, up 4.8%).

Notably, SK Hynix (3.2269 trillion won) entered the top 10, climbing four spots from 13th place the previous year to 9th. Its year-over-year growth rate reached 34.8%. SK Hynix, which led the growth of the AI semiconductor market; CJ Olive Young, which expanded its reach with a wellness platform; and Doosan Enerbility, which accelerated the transition to eco-friendly energy, garnered attention as growth brands.

CJ Olive Young (951 billion won) and Doosan Enerbility (498.9 billion won) ranked 27th and 44th, respectively. Krafton (542.1 billion won) and Dongwon (385.6 billion won) entered the top 50, ranking 41st and 50th, respectively.

Interbrand analyzed that, driven by the spread of generative AI and agent technologies, consumer search behavior is rapidly shifting from a traditional search-centric structure to an AI-recommendation-based structure. Consequently, the “Role of Brand” is emerging as a new competitive factor, and brands with a strong “Role of Brand” exert even greater influence in the AI environment. The report explains that in the AI era, it is crucial to design brand identity using concrete and trustworthy information.