Google replaces Apple as world's most valuable brand

Apple has been overtaken as the world's most valuable brand, after fellow US tech giant Google gained the top spot in the latest Brand Finance Global 500 report.

Google, which is owned by parent company Alphabet, tops the list for the first time since 2011, seeing its brand value rise from $88.2bn in 2016 to $109.5bn in 2017, a 24% rise.

Apple's brand value decreased by 27% during that time to $107.1bn sending it to the second spot. The iPhone maker has had to put up with a sharp rise in competition in the smartphone market, especially from the likes of Samsung, and more affordable Chinese brands such as Huawei.

"Put simply, Apple has over-exploited the goodwill of its customers, it has failed to generate significant revenues from newer products such as the Apple Watch and cannot demonstrate that genuinely innovative technologies are in the pipeline," the report said.

One of the companies with the highest rising brand value was e-commerce company Amazon, which saw an impressive 2016 in which it posted a series of record financial results.

Jeff Bezos' firm's brand value increased by 53% according to the Brand Finance report, while its share price traded 0.77% higher in early morning trade.

"The firm is growing strongly as it continues to both reshape the retail market and to capture an ever larger share of it," the report said of Amazon.

AT&T and Microsoft made up Brand Finance's other top five of the most valuable brands in the world.