The World’s Largest 50 Companies by Revenue

World’s Largest 50 Companies by Revenue in 2016

Today’s data visualization comes from Datashown, and it compares the world’s largest companies by their 2016 revenues to really help put the size and scale of these companies into perspective.

As just one example, despite being worth more than the majority of brick and mortar retailers combined, Amazon ranks just #44 in terms of global revenue to barely crack the list.

If Amazon is a “small fry”, then what kind of massive conglomerates populate the list?

Flying Under the Radar

While familiar global oil firms and massive banks make up a good portion of the companies on the list, there are also many companies in China and Europe that are less likely to ring a bell.

Here is a primer on some of the companies that clearly rank among the world’s largest, but fly a little under the radar – especially for North Americans:

Exor
Have you heard of Exor? It was the second-largest financial company in the world in 2016 with $153 billion in revenue. This Italian investment company owns chunks of The Economist Group, Fiat Chrysler, Ferrari, Juventus F.C. – just to name a few of its holdings.

Ping An Insurance
Ping An literally means “safe and well”, and the company is China’s second-largest insurer. The company is also well-known for being an early backer of Lufax, an online P2P lending platform, which is one of the biggest fintech unicorns out there.

E-ON
E-ON is a European conglomerate based in Essen, Germany. It’s one of the world’s largest investor-owned electric utility service providers, and serves 33 million customers in over 30 countries. The company is focused on energy networks, customer solutions, and renewables. It also owns nuclear power plants in Germany, but considers that a non-core part of its business. According to Fortune, the company brought in $129 billion in revenues in 2016.

AXA
AXA is a French multinational insurance firm with business in global insurance, investment management, and other financial services. It had $129 billion in revenues in 2016.

State Grid
The second-largest company in the world is a state-owned electric utility company in China. It has a whopping 1.9 million employees, 1.1 billion customers, and revenues of $330 billion.

Other State-Owned Enterprises in China
It’s hard to keep track of all the state-owned giants in China such as State Grid – but there are many others out there that also make the list of the top companies by revenue.

Those include massive enterprises like Sinopec, China National Petroleum, ICBC, China Construction Bank, Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China, and China Construction Bank.