Later this morning, we publish the Fortune Global 500 – the world’s largest companies ranked by revenue. A few interesting takeaways for your morning reading:
-While a U.S. company – Walmart – still tops the list, for the first time a Chinese company – Industrial & Commercial Bank of China – had the highest profits. There were a total of 98 Chinese companies on the list – up from only 19 ten years ago.
–Global 500 revenues totaled $31.2 trillion last year – triple the levels of two decades ago, when we started the list. And the companies employed 65.2 million people, up from 34.5 million two decades ago. Global 500 revenues as a share of the total world economy remain roughly unchanged at 40% compared to 37% two decades ago.
-Japan’s presence continues to shrink on the Global 500, with only 54 companies. In 1995, Japan had 149 companies on the list.
-The U.S. had 128 companies on the list this year, down from a peak of 197 companies in 2002.
-Banks (55), petroleum refiners (38) and automakers/parts suppliers (34) are the three industries with the most companies on the list.
You can see the full list online after 8:30 a.m.
And a correction from yesterday: I said that in Jack Ma’s world, “having a digital marketplace and a digital payment system in the same company still makes some sense.” In fact, Ma separated Alipay from Alibaba Group in 2011, but he still controls both.
Enjoy the day.
| Alan Murray | |
| @alansmurray | |
| alan.murray@fortune.com |
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