Just as technology companies such as Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon have become a routine part of people’s lives, so they dominate lists of the world’s most valuable brands. Car companies and banks, on the other hand, are seeing their brand standing slip.

In this year’s BrandZ ranking of the world’s 100 most valuable stocks, compiled by Kantar Millward Brown, part of the WPP advertising group, tech companies dominate the rankings with Google, Apple and Microsoft occupying the top three slots for the third consecutive year with Amazon in fourth place and Facebook in fifth place. The brand value of the top five companies has risen by 14 per cent to $893bn, outperforming the 8 per cent increase of the top 100, valued at $3.64tn.

The importance of tech brands is demonstrated by how they have taken a greater share of the value of the top 100 than a decade ago. The 37 tech companies in the top 100 account for more than half the value of the total — 54 per cent. That is up from 37 per cent in 2006.