• by Todd Wasserman , Staff Writer, November 9, 2022

Interbrand recently surprised many people by naming Microsoft the No.2 fastest-growing brand of 2022.

To take the No. 2 position, Microsoft had to leapfrog Amazon. Microsoft grew its brand value by 32%, matching Tesla and Chanel.

The ranking is somewhat surprising since Microsoft has been hit by rising inflation and its effects on consumer spending. Meanwhile, Microsoft’s first-quarter earnings for its fiscal 2023  caused the company’s stock to dip.

Chief among the culprits was Microsoft’s cloud computing platform, Azure, which had experienced a slowdown.

Despite the slowing growth, Microsoft’s total revenue beat analysts’ expectations of $49.6 billion for $50.1 billion, an 11% increase in revenues. That, however, was Microsoft’s slowest growth in five years. Microsoft’s revenues have typically grown 12% to 22% each quarter.

But Microsoft also reported that sales of the Windows OS on new computers declined 15% as employers and consumers returned to more regular buying patterns post-pandemic. Sales of Xbox games also fell 3%

The timing of Interbrand’s report was likely to blame: Interbrand’s report came out on Nov. 3, just a week or so after Microsoft’s not-great Q1 report. Interbrand’s ruling on Microsoft over Amazon, which had just returned to profitability, is curious.