Google ranked 'world's most valuable brand'

Google has been officially ranked as the world's most valuable brand, with Apple and Amazon taking second and third place respectively.

Kantar Millward Brown's latest BrandZ report ranks the world's top 100 brands in terms of how effectively they use technology to make consumers' lives easier. Perhaps unsurprisingly, tech brands themselves accounted for 92 per cent of the final results.

In fourth place was Microsoft, while Tencent came in fifth. Also featured in the top ten were Facebook (sixth place), McDonald's (eighth) and Alibaba (ninth).

Interestingly, tobacco brand Marlboro came in 13th on the list, while Coca-Cola took 14th place and Disney ranked at number 19.

Peter Walshe, BrandZ global strategy director at Millward Brown, commented: "What we see this year is a strong team of technology and tech-related brand, which shows how tech is adapting and shaping our lives, and brands that are using that to do partnerships are doing really well."