The combined value of South Korea’s top 50 brands has been estimated at 136 trillion won, up six percent from last year.
 
According to brand consulting company Interbrand on Wednesday, Samsung Electronics topped the list with a brand value of 50-point-8 trillion won, followed by Hyundai Motor, Kia Motors, Naver and SK Telecom. 
 
Kakao, Naver, AmorePacific, SK Innovation, NCsoft and Hankook Tire saw their brand values surge the most in the past year.
 
Kakao, which operates Kakao Talk, the most widely used free mobile messenger application in Korea, had its brand value surge the most at 31 percent to 695-point-five billion won.
 
Lotte Chemical, S-Oil, Hyosung, CJ CGV, Loen Entertainment and Ottogi entered the top-50 list for the first time.