China’s Tencent has emerged as the fastest growing brand in the world.

According to the 2014 BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brand rankings, Tencent almost doubled its value to $54 billion to rise to number 14 brand globally. In the process it overtook China Mobile as the most valuable Asian brand.

“Tencent continues to innovate and increasingly plays a bigger role in helping people to organise their lives, like other successful brands such as Google and Facebook,” said Deepender Rana, MD of Millward Brown Greater China.

“With 11 brands in the Top 100, China continues to have the largest representation from Asia. However, Chinese brands should not be complacent about the need to continuously invest their brand-building, as apart from the technology brands, other brands saw significant fluctuations. There is a need for the big SOE brands to become more market-oriented, and for Chinese brands to go abroad to become truly global,” said Rana.

Globally, Google has overtaken Apple to become the world’s most valuable global brand in the 2014, worth $159 billion, an increase of 40 per cent year on year.

“Google has been hugely innovative in the last year with Google Glass, investments in artificial intelligence and a multitude of partnerships that see its Android operating system becoming embedded in other goods such as cars. All of this activity sends a very strong signal to consumers about what Google is about and it has coincided with a slowdown at Apple,” says Nick Cooper, MD of Millward Brown Optimor.

After three years at the top, Apple slipped to number 2 on the back of a 20 per cent decline in brand value, to $148 billion.

Whilst Apple remains a top performing brand, there is a growing perception that it is no longer redefining technology for consumers, reflected by a lack of dramatic new product launches.

The world’s leading B2B brand, IBM, held onto its number 3 position with a brand value of $108 billion.