Top Earning Companies in the World
This post was originally published in 2009 – back then offline businesses still led the way in terms of profits, but things have changed a lot in last few years as you will see if you check out: Top Earning Websites
Top 30 earning companies in the world
First Point To make…
Running a website instead of a traditional company can be a lot better in so many ways.
For example:
- No physical products
- No physical location
- Can work from anywhere in the world
- You don’t need customers
- Can be automated
- Outsource everything
- The 9 – 5 doesn’t exist, this post was published while I was in bed!
- You have no one barking orders at you.
With that in mind, the benefits of having a traditional business over a web business are second to none. When I compare the top earning company and the top earning website, the difference is clear! Wal-Mart are on course to earn $400,000,000,000 this year with profit under $14,000,000,000 compared to Googles $21,000,000,000 in 2008 with a profit of $4,200,000,000 – making Google more than 5 times more profitable!
Wal-Mart Stores Earn $12,011.64 a Second!
| Rank | Company | Industry | Founders | Revenue Per Year | Revenue Per Second |
| 1 | Wal-Mart Stores | General Merchandisers | Sam Walton | $378,799,000,000 | $12,011.64 |
| 2 | Exxon Mobil | Petroleum Refining | John D. Rockefeller | $372,824,000,000 | $11,822.17 |
| 3 | Royal Dutch Shell | Petroleum Refining | Jean Baptiste August Kessler | $355,782,000,000 | $11,281.77 |
| 4 | BP | Petroleum Refining | T. Boone Pickens | $291,438,000,000 | $9,241.44 |
| 5 | Toyota Motor | Motor Vehicles and Parts | Kiichiro Toyoda | $230,201,000,000 | $7,299.63 |
| 6 | Chevron | Petroleum Refining | Lyman Stewar | $210,783,000,000 | $6,683.89 |
| 7 | ING Group | Banks: Commercial and Savings | Jan Hommen | $201,516,000,000 | $6,390.03 |
| 8 | Total | Petroleum Refining | Ernest Mercier | $187,280,000,000 | $5,938.61 |
| 9 | General Motors | Motor Vehicles and Parts | William C. Durant | $182,347,000,000 | $5,782.19 |
| 10 | ConocoPhillips | Petroleum Refining | Frank and L.E. Phillips | $178,558,000,000 | $5,662.04 |
| 11 | Daimler | Motor Vehicles and Parts | Gottlieb Daimler. | $177,167,000,000 | $5,617.93 |
| 12 | General Electric | Diversified Financials | Thomas Edison | $176,656,000,000 | $5,601.73 |
| 13 | Ford Motor | Motor Vehicles and Parts | Henry Ford | $172,468,000,000 | $5,468.92 |
| 14 | Fortis | Banks: Commercial and Savings | Kira Bruno | $164,877,000,000 | $5,228.22 |
| 15 | AXA | Insurance: Life, Health (stock) | Claude Bébéar | $162,762,000,000 | $5,161.15 |
| 16 | Sinopec | Petroleum Refining | Su Shulin | $159,260,000,000 | $5,050.10 |
| 17 | Citigroup | Banks: Commercial and Savings | Bill Smith | $159,229,000,000 | $5,049.12 |
| 18 | Volkswagen | Motor Vehicles and Parts | Ferdinand Porsche | $149,054,000,000 | $4,726.47 |
| 19 | Dexia Group | Banks: Commercial and Savings | Michael Wilson | $147,648,000,000 | $4,681.89 |
| 20 | HSBC Holdings | Banks: Commercial and Savings | Thomas Sutherland | $146,500,000,000 | $4,645.49 |
| 21 | BNP Paribas | Banks: Commercial and Savings | Louis Pasteu | $140,726,000,000 | $4,462.39 |
| 22 | Allianz | Insurance: Property and Casualty | Henning Schulte-Noelle | $140,618,000,000 | $4,458.97 |
| 23 | Crédit Agricole | Banks: Commercial and Savings | Henri Germain | $138,155,000,000 | $4,380.87 |
| 24 | State Grid | Utilities | Liu Zhenya | $132,885,000,000 | $4,213.76 |
| 25 | China National Petroleum | Petroleum Refining | Chinese National Government | $129,798,000,000 | $4,115.87 |
| 26 | Deutsche Bank | Banks: Commercial and Savings | Georg Siemens | $122,644,000,000 | $3,889.02 |
| 27 | ENI | Petroleum Refining | Tully Ryan | $120,565,000,000 | $3,823.09 |
| 28 | Bank of America Corp. | Banks: Commercial and Savings | Madeo Giannini | $119,190,000,000 | $3,779.49 |
| 29 | AT&T | Telecommunications | Alexander Graham Bell | $118,928,000,000 | $3,771.18 |
| 30 | Berkshire Hathaway | Insurance: Property and Casualty (stock) | Oliver Chace | $118,245,000,000 | $3,749.52 |
Which would you prefer a top earning website or a top earning company?
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If Google was to make $400,000,000,000 it would possibly make $80,000,000,000 profit! (If my calculations are correct.)
Makes Wal-mart’s $14,000,000,000 look like peanuts.
Just shows you which business model is best! Although I am sure there will be some who will still think a traditional business is the best way to go….
Thats simply mad, and kinda hard to get your head around at first. The thing i love most about a web based business is that your running costs are stupidly small, leaving your earnings to generate a substantial profit….
…and afterall, that’s only good business.
What you have not taken into consideration is that Wal-Mart and the others are MUCH OLDER than Google and the Internet itself.
Just give it some time, websites will take over.
I can’t say I’m surprised to see so many petrol refining companies in there.
WOW! Awesome list Michael!!!
$12k per second?! Jeez, I’d be extatic with $12k per month! lol 😀
Really cool blog you have here btw, will definately drop by more often. I also retweeted this post for you 🙂
OMG! That’s even more than I can count :O
Imagine if one petrol company bought the others out, that would be HUGE!
Awesome, Wal-Mart is top, i never knew that.
Wow, another great blog post. I myself would prefer a web based business just because I don’t have to get out of bed, don’t have to deal with face to face contact etc and hardly need any capital to start.
*sigh* You missed me Michael in the list! Nevermind, will spare you this time 😛
Anyways, an awesome list like always! 😀
Most of the companies are related to Petroleum Refining industry. :S
Michael, great list as always. Just out of interest, how long does it take you to write on of these lists up? Surely researching takes some time?
I get my assistant to do the research, usually takes around 5 hours at $10 a hour.
Best money I have ever spent getting him to do these lists for me.
5 hours per post?! Ouch!
I suppose you need to be running a decent size blog for it to really matter. On a smaller blog like mine I’m not sure whether it would be worth the effort to be honest 😉
How do you even go about finding such information?!
Simon: It’s a better investment over advertising because this creates natural linkbait which drives a lot more traffic and gives you life time links and SEO benefits.
Daniel: Wikipedia and the press have most things 😉
I always new Walmart was #1. I wonder wheres microsoft because everyone has a pc nowadays
Right now id like to unvail a competition. First one of us to get up there wins!
Seriously now, very good post and very interesting/inspirational.
Bring it on James 😀 haa…
You always amaze us with these great lists!
For me, I would definitely choose a web-based biz because it’s so much easier to keep running without the overhead. I’m all about simple profits!
That’s not to say I would turn down an inheritance that gave me ownership to Walmart, however! I’d just do what the pros like you do, Michael, and outsource!
Haha thanks Coree, glad you enjoyed it. The different is definitely the profit levels. When I say my sites make $xxx,xxx a year, a lot of people are like yet but what is your profit and I have to explain that everything is profit with my Internet business.
what an awesome list… damn wal-mart making 12K a second that’s just insane!
I’m still trying to get my head around Wal-Mart making that much ahead of all those Petroleum companies, amazing!
Hello Michael, Great post !!
Not sure if
“traditional business over a web business” needs to read as
“web business over traditional business”.
Correct me if I am wrong.
Exactly Jeromy! Totally different lifestyles for both business models…
Very informative. Great list. The numbers completely blew me away. I did not know they were making that much money by the second.
Thanks for the info.
Wow! 🙂
Amazing!
My company also there in future! 😉
wallmart? Hoho..i know it and i hope i can build my own company soon.
I work with ING as a marketing executive. Kind of proud to have it stands within the top 10 of the of top earning companies in the world.
$12,000 a sec would be very nice. Can’t wait till my company makes that a month maybe? haha
And the auto and financial industries are still struggling? That doesn’t make sense to me. Imagine how inefficient a company must be to make this list and still have to contemplate bankruptcy. The Internet is the way to go. I bet 30 years from now, half those companies will be Internet-based. Nice list, Michael (and your assistant)!
Well you also have very popular sites like facebook.com that is not profitable. It also shows that have adverts alone on big time sites, is very hard to turn a profit. They may do it some day im sure. Also twitter has yet to start making any money at all, but I know they have plans for that.
I’m confused…
you wrote that the
profit for Walmart is: $14,000,000,000
profit for Google is: $4,200,000,000
doesn’t that show that Walmart is over 5x more profitable than Google?
then you argue that traditional businesses are best when the rest of your post seems to say that online businesses are.
Quote:
“With that in mind, the benefits of having a traditional business over a web business are second to none.”
So are you saying that traditional businesses make more but it’s easier to run an online business?
-Janet
its easier to run an online business but the reason why walmart is more profitable is because food and physical needs will always be in demand more than online resources
it’s gud to know about cmpanies revenue. Tnanku