The latest announcement of 2018 global Fortune 500! Global finance has selected three most respected and well-known companies - Fortune Global 500, 'Forbes Global 2000' and PricewaterhouseCoopers Global 100, with the top five China occupying three seats.
The Fortune Global 500 is based on the financial year ended March 31, 2018 or earlier. The top 500 companies ranked by revenue broke the record in 2017, with a total revenue of $30 trillion, up from $27.7 trillion in 2016, and profits soared to $1.9 trillion from $1.5 trillion the year before. Profits of the top 500 companies also reached a record high of $1.88 trillion, an increase of 23% year on year.
The number of Chinese companies on the list reached a record 120, 22 of which ranked in the top 100, up from 115 last year, only six fewer than in the United States. Among the five largest enterprises in the world, Chinese enterprises occupy three seats. In general, the top 10 countries with the largest number of global top 500 enterprises are the United States (126), China (120), Japan (52), Germany (32), France (28), the United Kingdom (21), South Korea (16), the Netherlands (15), Switzerland (14) and Canada (12). These countries together make up 87.2% of the list.
Forbes Global 2000 is a comprehensive list of the largest and most powerful listed companies in the world measured by revenue, profit, assets and market value. By the close of May 11, 2018, the four figures, including all outstanding common shares, were weighted equally to produce a composite score.
This year, China and the United States ranked Forbes' top 10 richest people in the world in 2000. There are 291 top 2000 global companies in mainland China and Hong Kong, up from 262 in 2017. Only 43 of the companies listed for the first time in 2003 came from Hong Kong, China.
In terms of the number of listed companies, the United States still dominates, with 560 companies accounting for nearly 30% of the market share. At the same time, Japan, the United Kingdom and South Korea are the five countries with the largest number of companies. Listed companies from 60 countries are listed in Forbes 2000, with total sales of US $39.1 trillion, profits of US $3.2 trillion, assets of US $189 trillion and market value of US $56.8 trillion. All indicators were double-digit year-on-year, with an impressive 28% increase in average profit.
Market value ranking of PwC's top 100 companies: the larger the market value of a company, the higher its ranking. The valuation is based on the share price as of March 31, 2018 multiplied by the number of shares. The market value of the world's top 100 companies increased 15% year on year.
There is no doubt that apple is the top 100 company in the world. The company topped the list for the seventh consecutive year. In PwC's list, Apple's market capitalisation increased 13%, although the gap with alphabet, the second largest company after Google's restructuring, narrowed by 25%. PricewaterhouseCoopers calculated the value as of March 31, 2018, but soon after, apple made history: on August 2, 2018, it officially reached a market value of $1 trillion, becoming the first American company to reach this milestone. Alphabet - and Microsoft and Amazon, which are third and fourth, respectively - may follow.
Although the top four companies haven't changed since last year, two of the top 10 new companies are on the list: Chinese technology companies Tencent and Alibaba, which have replaced US companies Exxon Mobil and Wells Fargo. Of the 100 companies, US companies still dominate, accounting for 54, down from 55 last year.
In terms of market value, the technology industry has become the largest industry for the second consecutive year (US $4806 billion), followed by the financial industry (US $4421 billion) and consumer goods (US $2827 billion).