Brand value:$145.3 billion

Change over the year:+17%

The Apple brand is worth at least twice as much as any other brand on the Forbes list. In the fourth quarter of 2014, the company sold 74.8 million smartphones worldwide, overtaking Samsung, which has not happened since 2011. iPhone sales grew 49%, with revenue for the quarter amounting to $18 billion.

Brand value:$69.3 billion

Change over the year: +10%

Since February 2014, the company has been headed by Satya Nadella, a native of India. In the summer of 2015, Microsoft is going to release a new version of Windows.

Brand value:$65.6 billion

Change over the year:+16%

Google is still the main search engine in the US. Its share of the search engine market is 64.4%. In April 2015, the European Union accused Google of violating antitrust laws. EU officials say the company is abusing its dominant position. If the search giant is found guilty, it faces a $6 billion fine.

Brand value:$56 billion

Change over the year: 0%

Coca-Cola's US sales increased 0.1% in 2014. But this small increase is significant for the company, since this is the first increase in Coca-Cola sales in the domestic market since 2000. The fly in the ointment: the company's net profit in 2014 decreased by 17%, and Diet Coke sales fell by 6.6%.

Brand value:$49.8 billion

Change over the year: +4%

The company has been having a hard time lately - sales of IBM equipment have been declining for 12 consecutive quarters. But IBM is not discouraged and is going to turn from a hardware manufacturer into a leader in the cloud computing market. In the first quarter of 2015, income from the clouds it created grew by 60%.

Brand value:$39.5 billion

Change over the year: -1%

McDonald's serves about 69 million customers every day in 100 countries. But recently, the brand has been faced with changing eating habits in the United States and high demands for food quality in Asia. In the first quarter of 2015, McDonald's sales decreased by 11 %. This year the company plans to close about 700 unprofitable restaurants in the United States, China and Japan.

Brand value:$37.9 billion

Change over the year:+8%

Due to strong competition from Apple in the expensive gadget segment and Chinese manufacturers in the budget price segment, Samsung's growth has slowed down. This year the company hopes for successful sales of the new S6 smartphone.

Brand value:$37.8 billion

Change over the year:+21%

Toyota is the most profitable brand in the world - in 2014 the company showed a net profit of $19.8 billion.

9. General Electric

Brand value:$37.5 billion

05/22/2015 at 01:29 pm · Johnny · 58 610

Top 10 richest people in the world in 2015

Humanity has always loved money and it did not matter what it was made of: shells, metal or paper. Money is not only the key to a wealthy and comfortable life, but also a symbol of prosperity, power and success. In the modern world, rich people are very popular, films are made about them, books are written, journalists do not give them a pass. And the more money a person has, the more attention his person attracts. People are interested in his personal life, family, habits and the way in which the person earned his money. We present you the top 10 list richest people in the world in 2015.

10. Liliane Bettencourt | $30 billion

Our list begins with a woman who in 1957 became co-owner of the French company L’Oreal. A former socialite, she was declared incapacitated in 2011 due to Alzheimer's disease. Her net worth is 30 billion American dollars, and it is considered richest woman in Europe.

This year, the Bettencourt family managed to buy out another 8% of the shares of L’Oreal, which was founded back in 1907 by Lilian’s father, Eugene Schueller.

9. Jim Walton | $40.6 billion

This is an American billionaire, the son of the famous Sam Walton, who created Wal-Mart. The son continued his father's work. His fortune is estimated at an astronomical amount, 40.6 billion dollars. He ranks ninth in our “hit parade” of the richest people in the world.

The global chain was heavily criticized last year for the low pay it pays its employees. In early 2015, Wal-Mart announced an increase in minimum wages.

Jim Walton also runs the family bank.

8. Christy Walton | $41.7 billion

At number eight on our list of the richest people on the planet is another woman who also got her fortune thanks to the Wal-Mart retail chain. Her late husband, Sam Walton, created the chain and after his death in 2005, Christy Walton became a very wealthy widow. She was very prudent in investing in First Solar's solar panel business. Today her net worth is 41.7 billion dollars.

At the same time, Christy does not like to appear in public. In one year, Christie became $5 billion richer.

7. David Koch | $42.9 billion

Another US citizen who has a fortune at 42.9 billion dollars. Over the course of a year, Koch managed to become 2.9 billion richer. David Koch and his brother own Koch Industries, which is involved in many areas of activity. These include oil refining, pipeline construction, logistics, paint and varnish production, and construction materials manufacturing.

David Koch is actively involved in politics: he is called one of the main sponsors of the American Republican Party. In addition, he spends a lot of money on charitable projects.

6. Charles Koch | $42.9 billion

Number six on our list of the richest people is another representative of the Koch family - Charles Koch. The family business allowed him to become the owner of a fortune in 42.9 billion dollars for 2015. It is Charles who manages the family business and does it very successfully. He took over Koch Industries in 1967 and managed to turn it into the largest US company. He is considered one of the most influential people in American business and politics. The brothers are constantly expanding their own business, acquiring new assets.

5. Lawrence Alison | $54.3 billion

Another US representative on our list of the world's richest billionaires. Alison, a native of Silicon Valley, thanks to his intelligence and talent, was able to create the largest company, Oracle, and become the owner of a fortune in 54.3 billion dollars. Alison started his career as a simple programmer, worked for the CIA, and then went into business.

In 2014, Alison left his post as CEO of Oracle Corporation and became director of technology development. He is a fan of sailing and actively buys real estate. His daughter, Megan, is a highly successful film producer and has already directed several films in Hollywood.

4. Amancio Ortega | 64.5 billion

In fourth place is a billionaire of Spanish origin, who was born into a very poor family, but managed to become one of richest people on the planet. Amancio Ortega grew up in the family of a simple railroad worker, and is now called one of the best traders in the world. His net worth is 64.5 billion dollars. Ortega is the founder of the Zara brand.

He began sewing clothes together with his wife right in his own apartment. Currently, his company’s stores can be found in dozens of countries around the world. Zara survived the 2009 crisis quite easily, and over the past year Ortega was able to earn $0.5 billion. The company has a very strict investment policy and spends relatively little money on advertising. Ortega personally runs his empire. In recent years, the billionaire has been actively investing in the purchase of luxury real estate in different parts of the world. Zara is one of the most successful companies in Spain and throughout Europe.

3. Warren Buffett | 72.7 billion

Another billionaire comes from the USA. His net worth is 72.7 billion dollars. Over the past year, Buffett became richer by another $14.5 billion. 2014 was a very successful year for Buffett, but even the record amount he earned was not enough to return to second place in our ranking of the richest people on the planet.

Berkshire Hathaway, Buffett's financial empire, controls many companies in different sectors of the economy: energy, transport, construction and many others. The company's shares are among the most expensive on the American stock exchange. Despite his advanced age, Buffett is actively involved in the company's affairs; at the end of last year, Berkshire Hathaway bought shares of the world famous battery manufacturer Duracell.

Buffett has a reputation as a generous patron and philanthropist. Every year he spends billions of dollars on charitable causes. The total amount of his donations is $23 billion.

2. Carlos Slim Helu | 77.1 billion

In second place on our hit parade richest people on the planet settled by Mexican businessman Carlos Slim Helu, who has a fortune 77.1 billion dollars. This man made his fortune in telecommunications, mobile communications and financial transactions. Over the past year, Elu became richer by another $5.1 billion. His empire includes the industrial holding Grupo Carso, the financial group Grupo Financiero Inbursa and the company Ideal, which is engaged in infrastructure projects.

1. Bill Gates | 79.2 billion

Our list is headed by the creator of Microsoft, Bill Gates. For the sixteenth time he became richest man on the planet over the past twenty-one years. For several years, Carlos Slim lost the palm to El, but last year he was able to regain his leadership position. This happened largely due to successful financial policies. Gates' net worth: 79.2 billion dollars, over the past year he became richer by another 3.2 billion.

In recent years, Bill Gates has been investing more and more in various assets around the world and reducing his stake in Microsoft. Gates is actively involved in charitable activities, his projects are aimed at helping, and he also spends large amounts of money on educational projects in the United States.

What else to see:

Companies that showed the highest market capitalization in 2016 and were recognized as the most expensive by this indicator: Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft, ExxonMobil, Berkshire Hathaway, Facebook, Johnson & Johnson, Amazon, General Electric, Wells Fargo.

The holdings whose shares collectively have the highest price in the world are the most expensive by market capitalization. This indicator should not be confused with market value.

During inter-exchange trading, the price of shares constantly fluctuates, so capitalization changes daily. The rating indicates capitalization, on the basis of which the English-language edition of Forbes magazine prepared and published a list of the most valuable companies in the world in May 2016, as well as some capitalization indicators in 2017. All ten places in the ranking belong to American corporations.

Apple

The status of the world's most valuable corporation by market capitalization belongs to the legendary Apple, a public company founded by Steve Jobs, Ronald Wayne and Steve Wozniak in April 1976. Until January 2007, it was called Apple Computer, Inc.

Produces:

• computer equipment;
• telephones;
• tablets;
• TVs;
• smart watch;
• digital music players;
• software;
• operating systems under the iCloud and Apple brands.

Apple has firmly established a unique reputation as a manufacturer of electronics with aesthetic design coupled with modern innovative technologies.

Capitalization: 586 billion US dollars at the time of Forbes magazine’s ranking for 2016, and 766 billion dollars at the beginning of April 2016

Since 2016, the company’s capitalization has had a pronounced growth trend, reaching a figure of more than 700 billion US dollars by the beginning of 2017.

Corporate headquarters Apple is located in the Californian city of Cupertino.

Apple has gone from a small startup founded in Steve Jobs' garage, which later became a cult figure and idol of youth around the world, to the richest corporation in terms of capitalization. It is interesting that the initial capital for starting the business was the money earned by Jobs from the sale of a minibus and Wozniak from the sale of a calculator (!).

Alphabet

Second place is occupied by a company owned by the founders of the Google Inc holding, Larry Page and Sergey Brin. It owns several large companies and Google Inc itself, whose shares were converted into shares of Alphabet Inc.

Market capitalization: $500.1 billion in May 2016 and $586 billion at the beginning of 2017.

The transformation of Google into Alphabet was officially announced in August 2015, a move that raised eyebrows among the general public. Since then, the Google receiver has repeatedly overtaken the giant Apple and taken first place in the top of the most valuable companies in the world by market capitalization.

The headquarters of the holding is located in the world center of high technology accumulation - Silicon Valley in the USA in the small town of Mountain View, California.

Before the end of 2017, the American holding Alphabet intends to begin construction of a building with an area of ​​85 square meters. meters in London, which will become its headquarters.

According to the publishing house Gazeta.ru, analysts expect a significant increase in the capitalization of the holding due to the rapid growth of the mobile advertising market; according to forecasts, by 2019 the volume of this market could reach $200 billion.

Remarkable is the fact that Alphabet controls 12% of all the money spent on media advertising in the world. This information is provided by the national professional advertising industry magazine Adweek. No company in the world has previously single-handedly controlled such a gigantic share of the global advertising market.

Microsoft Corporation

The largest transnational software developer, founded by Bill Gates (now the richest man in the world) and Paul Allen, turned 42 years old in April 2017. The programs that Microsoft develops are intended for personal computers, laptops, mobile phones, and game consoles.

Capitalization:$407 billion in May 2016 and $514 billion at the beginning of April 2017.

The holding's headquarters is located in the city of Redmond, located in Washington state (USA).

Microsoft Corporation has launched several IoT laboratory projects: in Washington, Redmond and Shenzhen, and recently in Munich, Germany. These are the so-called Internet of Things laboratories. The idea of ​​the projects is that in the near future all household appliances: from vacuum cleaners to refrigerators will be connected to the Internet.

ExxonMobil

Exxon Mobil Corporation, the world's largest publicly traded oil company, ranks fourth on the list. The founder of the parent trust of Standard Oil Corporation, Exxon Mobil Corporation, is John Rockefeller, the first dollar billionaire in human history.

It is engaged in the exploration, development and distribution of gas and oil, trades in petroleum products, and produces petrochemicals.

Capitalization: 363.3 billion US dollars in May 2016, 366 billion dollars at the beginning of 2017.

The headquarters is located in the Texas city of Irving.

In 2011, Exxon Mobil entered into an agreement with one of the largest Russian oil companies, Rosneft, on joint exploration and production of oil reserves on the Black Sea shelf. However, due to US sanctions imposed in 2014, joint work was suspended.

Berkshire Hathaway

The holding was founded in 1955 by Oliver Chase (now chairman of the board of directors and owner - Warren Buffett). Activities of the holding: insurance, investments, utilities and other services. Freight and rail transportation, financial transactions, trade, production.

Capitalization:$360.1 billion as of May 2016.

The headquarters is located in Omaha, Nebraska, US.

In 2015, according to Forbes, Berkshire Hathaway was ranked fifth (the first four places belong to Chinese banks) among the largest public companies in the world and first among American ones.

Facebook

The world's largest social network Facebook and the company of the same name, created in 2004 by a psychology student at Harvard, Mark Zuckerberg, together with his friends: Dustin Moskovitz, Eduardo Soverino and Chris Hughes, were also included in the list of the 10 most valuable companies in the world.

Facebook owns: an application with elements of the social network “Instragram” and the instant messenger WhatsApp. The main server of the site is located in the Californian city of Menlo Park.

Facebook is one of the five most visited sites in the world, and its creator, Mark Zuckerberg, at the age of 23, was awarded the title of the youngest billionaire in the world.

Johnson & Johnson

Johnson & Johnson holding, founded by three brothers Robert, James and Edward Johnson in 1886. Produces medicines, medical equipment and hygiene products.

Capitalization:$312.6 billion.

The head office is located in New Jersey in New Brunswick. Current Chairman of the Board: Alex Gorski.

At first, the holding was engaged in the production of plasters and dressings. Now the corporation has more than 250 subsidiaries around the world.

Amazon.com

The world's largest company selling goods via the Internet was founded in 1994 by Jeffrey Preston Bezos.

Capitalization:$292.6 billion as of May 2016.

The name was chosen in honor of the Amazon River. Initially, only books were sold, then CDs and video products appeared. Now through the Amazon online store you can buy almost industrial goods: from clothing and toys to food and electronics.

General Electric

The American diversified manufacturing giant General Electric was originally founded by the inventor of the phonograph, Thomas Edison, in 1878. Now the key figure of the company is CEO and Chairman of the Board of Directors Jeffrey Immelt.

The company produces engines, turbines, locomotives, nuclear reactors, photo and household appliances, lighting equipment, military products (including nuclear warheads) and other products.

The company's headquarters is located in Connecticut, Fairfield (USA).

Serial production of the holding began in 1910 with the production of light bulbs with tungsten filament, the patent for the use of which was acquired from the Russian inventor A.N. Lodygina.

Wells Fargo

The banking company founded by Henry Wells and William Fargo in 1852 is one of the four largest banks in the United States and the most valuable bank by market capitalization in the world. Provides financial and insurance services.

Capitalization:$256 billion as of May 2016.

The company itself is located in San Francisco, California, and the headquarters of the banking division is in South Dakota.

Wells Fargo was the first bank to offer customers in 1995 the opportunity to carry out account transactions via the Internet: buy and sell securities, pay bills. The controlling stake in the company is controlled by the Berkshire Hathaway holding, owned by multi-billionaire Warren Buffett, which is in fifth place by capitalization in this ranking.

This is a list of companies whose shares collectively have the highest price. The largest Russian companies, as well as others except American ones, were not included in it.

This year, for the first time since the financial crisis of 2008-2009, the number of Russian companies in the list of the 500 largest in the world decreased to five - the list included Gazprom (26), LUKOIL (43), Rosneft (46), Sberbank (177), VTB (443 ). Not a single domestic company entered the top 20. Here's who came in:

20. AXA

• Place in the 2014 ranking: 16
• Revenue:$161.2 billion (2014: 165.9 billion)
• Profit:$6.7 billion (2014: 5.6 billion)

10. Glencore

• Place in the 2014 ranking: 10
• Revenue:$221.1 billion (2014: 232.7 billion)
• Profit:$2.3 billion (2014: loss - 7.4 billion)

Glencore (LSE: Glencore) is back in profit despite last year's $7.4 billion loss following its acquisition of Xstrata. However, sales fell 5% under pressure from commodity prices.

9.Toyota

• Place in the 2014 ranking: 9
• Revenue:$247.7 billion (2014: 256.5 billion)
• Profit:$19.8 billion (2014: 18.2 billion)

8. Volkswagen

• Place in the 2014 ranking: 8
• Revenue:$268.6 billion (2014: 261.5 billion)
• Profit:$14.6 billion (2014: 12.1 billion)

Volkswagen (XETRA: Volkswagen) is the most profitable automaker in the world and the only non-energy company in the top 10 of the ranking. The German auto giant benefited from rising sales in the Asia-Pacific region.

7. State Grid

• Place in the 2014 ranking: 7
• Revenue:$339.4 billion (2014: 333.4 billion)
• Profit:$9.8 billion (2014: 8 billion)

China's largest state-owned electricity company has been strengthening its position in the international market for several years, but has not forgotten about the domestic market. Last year it announced plans to spend $65 billion a year over five years to modernize the national network.

Below is a list of the world's largest companies based on their market capitalization. The first place on the list is occupied by Apple Inc., founded in 1976, with a market capitalization of over $900 billion; second and third places are occupied by Alphabet and Microsoft, respectively. Apple Corporation, headquartered in Cupertino, California, employs approximately 123,000 people (including more than 76,000 in the United States) and operates approximately 500 retail locations in 22 countries. For the 2017 fiscal year, the company's income (net sales) amounted to $229 billion. Apple created about 2 million jobs in the United States. Alphabet, headquartered in Mountain View, California, is the second largest company in the world by market capitalization.

Top 50 most valuable companies in the world

Place 2017	Place 2018	Company	A country	Market capitalization (billions of US dollars, January 17, 2018)	Market capitalization (billions of US dollars, January 17, 2017)
1	1	Apple	USA	911.1	630.9
2	2	Alphabet	USA	788.8	562.9
3	3	Microsoft	USA	695.4	486.0
5	4	Amazon	USA	624.0	383.7
13	5	Tencent Holdings	China	550.2	243.8
4	6	Berkshire Hathaway	USA	528.5	395.8
6	7	Facebook	USA	518.3	369.6
14	8	Alibaba	China	470.8	239.5
8	9	Johnson & Johnson	USA	394.9	312.1
9	10	JPMorgan Chase	USA	392.0	300.4
15	11	Industrial & Comm Bank of China	China	376.8	231.4
7	12	ExxonMobil	USA	372.9	357.8
17	13	Bank of America	USA	325.2	228.7
11	14	Wells Fargo	USA	314.6	272.6
26	15	Wal-Mart Stores	USA	304.2	209.3
21	16	Samsung Electronics	South Korea	301.7	224.2
16	17	Royal Dutch Shell	Netherlands	296.6	229.6
30	18	Visa	USA	276.4	189.9
18	19	Nestle	Switzerland	268.5	228.5
32	20	China Construction Bank	China	267.1	188.3
22	21	Chevron	USA	251.4	218.9
23	22	PetroChina Co Ltd	China	235.9	217.4
25	23	Anheuser-Busch InBev	Belgium	234.2	212.8
39	24	Home Depot	USA	233.3	165.9
20	25	Procter & Gamble	USA	231.4	227.3
45	26	UnitedHealth Group	USA	231.1	150.1
29	27	Toyota Motor	Japan	229.6	193.8
31	28	Novartis	Switzerland	227.4	188.9
12	29	AT&T	USA	226.2	250.6
43	30	Taiwan Semiconductor	Taiwan	223.7	152.9
38	31	HSBC Holdings	Great Britain	222.4	166.5
28	32	Pfizer	USA	221.6	194.4
–	33	Ping An Insurance Group	China	217.7	94.0
46	34	Agricultural Bank of China	China	217.1	148.3
24	35	Verizon Communications	USA	211.0	213.004
27	36	Roche Holding	Switzerland	210.5	202.8
–	37	Boeing	USA	209.1	97.3
41	38	Oracle	USA	208.1	160.8
34	39	Intel	USA	207.7	174.2
19	40	China Mobile	China	207.6	227.4
40	41	Citigroup	USA	204.8	163.5
44	42	Cisco Systems	USA	203.7	150.7
33	43	Coca-Cola	USA	199.5	178.1
35	44	Comcast	USA	194.8	173.0
48	45	Bank of China	China	189.4	146.2
–	46	Mastercard	USA	174.0	117.2
47	47	PepsiCo	USA	169.5	147.3
37	48	Merck	USA	169.0	168.7
36	49	Walt Disney	USA	168.7	171.3
–	50	AbbVie	USA	166.5	98.5

20 largest companies in the world by revenue

Below is a list of the largest companies in the world based on their total revenue. Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the American retail giant, is the largest company in the world with total revenues of $485 billion. The company, headquartered in Bentonville, Arkansas, employs 2.3 million people. It serves more than 250 million customers each week online and in 11,700 locations in 28 countries.

Place	Company	A country	Revenue (USD billion, 2016)	Net income (billions of US dollars, 2016)
1	Wal-Mart	USA	$485.3	$13.6
2	State Grid Corporation	China	$301.4	$12.5
3	China Petroleum & Chemical	China	$255.7	$7.0
4	Toyota Motor	Japan	$236.7	$19.3
5	Volkswagen Group	Germany	$228.9	$5.4
6	Royal Dutch Shell	Netherlands	$213.0	$4.2
7	Berkshire Hathaway	USA	$222.9	$24.1
8	Apple	USA	$217.5	$45.2
9	PetroChina	China	$214.8	$1.2
10	ExxonMobil	USA	$197.5	$7.8
11	McKesson	USA	$196.5	$2.0
12	UnitedHealth Group	USA	$184.9	$7.2
13	BP plc	Great Britain	$183.8	$0.1
14	CVS Health	USA	$177.5	$5.3
15	Samsung Electronics	South Korea	$174	$19.3
16	Daimler	Germany	$169.5	$9.4
17	General Motors	USA	$166.4	$9.4
18	AT&T	USA	$163.8	$13.0
19	Glencore	Switzerland	$152.9	$0.94
20	Ford Motor Company	USA	$151.8	$4.6