With the on-going pandemic of 2020, many companies around the world have struggled to maintain their spots in the international market. Some renowned names even had to file for bankruptcy due to no business. However, some companies have withstood the storm and have come out stronger than before. Some of these companies have made it onto the list of the biggest companies in the world.
Top 5 biggest companies in the world by market value are as follows;
Name: Market Value 2020(in billion Dollars)
Saudi Aramco $1684B
Microsoft $1359B
Apple $1285B
Amazon $1233B
Alphabet $959B
What is the Market Value and Market Capitalization?
Before we discuss the companies, Our readers should understand what is the market value and market capitalization. According to Investopedia ” The market value of a company is based on the shares that are trading in the market by multiplying the stock price. Market value is a little more complicated for non-finance related peoples because of numerous assessment methods used to calculates the market value such as price-to-earnings, price-to-sales, and return-on-equity.
Hence assuming the basic knowledge of our readers about finance we emphasized market capitalization instead of market value, which is calculated by multiplying the total number of a company’s shares trading in the market by the current market price of a single share.
For instance, assuming $10 (per share) X 1000 (number of shares) = $ 10000 will be the market value of the company.
Below is a list of some of the biggest companies in the world based on the concept of market capitalization:
Saudi Aramco
Saudi Aramco, also known as Saudi Arabian Oil Company is a primarily state-owned affair. It has been termed as the largest oil-producing company in the world. It is located in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, and is believed to have over 270 billion barrels of oil reserve.
Saudi Aramco had initially hidden its vital business information from the rest of the world, but in early 2020 it revealed the most anticipated information that shook the world’s companies to the core. It unveiled that Saudi Aramco made $111.1 billion last year which landed it the top spot among the biggest companies in the world. This reveals showed the true position of Saudi Aramco in the world. It exceeded Apple by a long shot. Other than this, it was also ahead of the most renowned oil companies in the world such as Royal Dutch Shell which stood at $23.9 billion and Exxon Mobil which is said to have generated $20.8 billion. Although Saudi Aramco is a highly profitable company, it is mainly confined to the price of oil and limited to one country.
On the bright side, Saudi Aramco has extended its branches to many countries including but not limited to Russia, the USA, Japan, China, United Arab Emirates, etc. It is also known to collaborate with other oil manufacturing companies such as Royal Dutch Shell, Sinopec, Lukoil, and others.
Microsoft
Microsoft is a common name among every household in the world. It was founded by Bill Gates in 1975 and he has superseded it into a technology giant it is now. Bill Gates has also secured himself a position among the richest man’s list in the world. Microsoft has maintained its presence in the list of the biggest companies in the world. It is one of the largest software development corporations in the world.
Microsoft rose to fame in the 90s and early 2000s, when people were rushing to buy their personal computers for their homes and offices. It had made its debut in 1995 by introducing Windows 95 which gained immense popularity in a short period. It allowed people to master their computer skills all the while in the comfort of their homes. It was affordable and well within the reach of people. Other than this, with the arrival of the Internet, Microsoft also introduced its web browser, Internet Explorer in the year 1995.
Today, Microsoft has garnered many loyal customers over the years and it continues to introduce new software to the world while keeping the older ones updated. Other than this, Microsoft has delved into the world of smartphones and applications as well.
In the recent turn of events, Microsoft has also added $77 billion in market value after it confirmed to conduct talks to buy a famous application, TikTok, in the United States.
Apple Inc.
Apple has spread its branches worldwide and has managed to secure a large fan base. It has offices all around the globe, serving a large proportion of people interested in their products. It has engraved its name in the minds of people by introducing state-of-the-art technology smartphones as well as wearable technology that has already impacted the lives of millions of people.
Apple was first founded by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Rayne. It has now morphed into a business tycoon that has marked itself as a serious competitor. It first gained popularity among the common people in the 2000s when iTunes was introduced. After that, it was a smooth-sailing ride for Apple as it had already attracted the attention of many people. It then went on to introduce iPod in 2001 and then iMac G4 in 2002, with its immaculate design. Besides this, Apple also proceeded to launch iPod Nano and then MacBook in 2006. Since then, Apple has continued to dazzle its customers with new inventions possessing the latest technology.
Even though 2020 has not been the year for many companies, Apple managed to bag a lot of sales in June which has driven its stock price up by 10%. This means that Apple is very close to achieving its milestone of $2 trillion.
Amazon Inc.
Amazon is an e-commerce website that deals with anything and everything a person might need. It aids in connecting sellers with buyers and ships the products over to the customers. Other than this, Amazon is also known for its e-book readers known as Kindle. The introduction of such devices has also turned Amazon into a serious competitor in book-publishing business.
Amazon was started by Jeff Bezos in 1994. He initially thought that books would be the perfect thing to sell online so he began his online venture by selling books to the public over the internet with the promise of delivering any book to the reader anywhere. However, with time, Jeff Bezos realized that Amazon was meant to be a platform for shoppers where their shopping needs are met and transactions simplified. So, it was then that he began to fully implement his strategy, despite lack of support from the financial gurus. It was by 1999, that Amazon began selling items that extended beyond books. It started selling toys, games, software, home-improvement items, video games, and many more.
Amazon maintained its popularity largely due to its loyal customer fan-base. Although there were now more items to choose from on the site, the promise of Amazon to deliver the goods anywhere is what kept them going. Besides this, Amazon had also introduced a new feature of reviews that helped other customers who were thinking of buying the same product read the reviews of those who had already bought it.
The coronavirus pandemic 2020 has proved to be sale boosting for Amazon but it was not easy for the tech giant. There were missed orders and low staff on hand to keep up with the incoming orders. However, on the positive side, the market capitalization of Amazon has increased by $600 billion in 2020.
Alphabet
Alphabet Inc. is an American multinational company with a headquarter in Mountain View California. It is a parent company of a well known Google search engine. It was formed in 2015 after many years of Google and became the parent company of Google. While everyone knows about the Google but there are numerous businesses working under the umbrella of the Alphabet.
Larry Page one of the two founders of the Alphabet, defined the reorganization of Google under the Alphabet is as follows “clearer and more accountable and better”. The motive to create Alphabet was to move many other subsidiaries from Google to Alphabet for more narrowing Google’s scope. Besides the largest subsidiary of Alphabet which is Google, there are other many subsidiaries working under Alphabet Inc. which are as follows.
Company Name Business Nature
Calico Human health
CapitalG Private equity for investments in techno companies
Deepmind Working on AI
Google Fiber Working on Internet Fiber
Jigsaw Tech incubator
Loon Internet via balloon
Sidewalk labs Urban Innovation
Verily Human Health
X R&D
Waymo Autonomous driving
Wing Drone-based delivery
Once upon a time in the conference, Eric revealed that Alphabet was created after getting inspiration from Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway.
With more than 123000 employees, the total asset was more than USD 275B in 2019, while the total equity and the total net income were USD 201.4B and USD 34.34B respectively. The company was ranked on no. 15 on the Fortune 500 rankings. The main source of income is still an advertising network that is run by Google and known as Google ads. Under the Google platform, they make money through a search engine, Youtube, Google clouds, Chrome browser, and the Android operating system. They are now third-largest in the US capital markets behind Microsoft and Apple Inc makes it one of the biggest companies in the world.
Waqar Hussain is the founder of The Business Goals. He writes about entrepreneurial strategies and is an SEO consultant by profession. He is a B.Com, GDM, and an MBA from the Australian Institute of Business.
