2020 HURUN GLOBAL 500

Apple world’s most valuable company worth US$2.1 trillion, followed by Microsoft and Amazon with US$1.6tn each and Alphabet worth US$1.2tn. World’s four trillion-dollar companies added US$2.6tn in year, equivalent to the GDP of India, to take their total value to US$6.6tn, 13% of Hurun Global 500.

Total value of Hurun Global 500 companies hit US$50tn, equivalent to combined GDPs of world’s six largest economies of USA, China, Japan, Germany, India and the UK.

Despite Covid-19, Hurun Global 500 rose by 25% to an average of US$99.3bn. 60 companies doubled in value: 25 from USA and 21 from China.

 Hurun Global 500 employ 43 million in total, the equivalent of the working population of Germany, with an average of 86,000 employees.

Total sales of Hurun Global 500 came to US$18tn, larger than the GDP of China, with an average of US$38bn. 

USA led with 242 of the Hurun Global 500, followed by China 51, Japan 30, followed by France and UK with 21 each. India was 10^th with 11. USA companies added US$6.3tn or 27%, followed by China companies up US$2.2tn or 73%.

UK worst performer, shedding US$155bn of value, followed by Brazil (down US$65bn) and Russia (down US$33bn).

E-cars, healthcare and e-commerce were the best performers. Tesla stormed into Top 10, jumping 8-fold to US$546bn and 9^th spot. China e-car maker Nio was the fastest riser of the year, up 22-fold to US$61bn. Others include BYD (up US$55bn) and Xpeng (up US$34bn). China e-car battery producer CATL added US$59.3bn to take it to US$86.9bn.

Covid-19 vaccine producer Moderna from Massachusetts up 6-fold to US$55.4bn.

Covid-19 boom in e-commerce, led by Pinterest and Pinduoduo, which quadrupled in value to US$42.2bn and US$167.4bn. Food delivery companies DoorDash and Meituan tripled to US$55.6bn and US$219bn.

Financial Services led the way with 97 companies, headed by payments platform Visa worth US$465bn, followed by Healthcare with 54, led by Johnson & Johnson worth US$388bn.  Next up were Energy, Software & Services, Consumer Goods, Retail and F&B.

Visa overtook JP Morgan Chase to become most valuable Financial Services business, rising US$111bn or 32% to US$465bn and a Top 10 slot. Mastercard, Paypal, Ant Group, Square and Adyen added US$458bn on the back of e-commerce boom.

AI and semiconductors have had a strong year with Nvidia and Taiwan Semiconductor rising US$202bn and US$188bn, shooting them into 18^th and 11^th place respectively. Curiously, Intel had a bad year, losing US$25Bn or 11%.

By city, New York led with 28 of the Hurun Global 500 headquartered there, followed by Paris and San Francisco with 16 each.

China’s 51 companies are worth US$5.2tn, more than the combined total of the next three countries of Japan, France and the UK. They were led by Tencent worth US$712bn, followed by Alibaba, the only two non-USA companies in the Hurun Top 10. 59% or 266 of the non-China Hurun Global 500 have regional headquarters across 13 China cities, with the overwhelming majority in Shanghai (160) and Beijing (79), followed by HK, Shenzhen and Guangzhou.

India’s 11 companies led by Reliance Industries worth US$169bn, followed by Tata Consultancy Services with US$139bn and HDFC Bank with US$108bn. 49% or 239 of the non-India Hurun Global 500 have a regional presence in India, spread across ten cities, led by Mumbai with 64, and followed by Bengaluru with 39, Gurugram 27, New Delhi 23 and Pune with 11.

Biggest losers were energy companies, followed by airplane manufacturers and traditional financial services.

Energy had a bad year with the oil price down 23%. Exxon Mobil, formerly most valuable company in world, down US$127bn or 44% to US$163bn to 61^st place, followed by Chevron Corp, BP, Royal Dutch Shell, Eni and Conoco Philips.

Airplane manufacturer Boeing lost US$80bn or 40% to US$120bn, whilst Airbus was down US$28bn to US$82bn.

Traditional banking had a bad year, led by Wells Fargo, which shed US$106bn, or 48%, to drop it down to US$116bn. Other banks that had bad years included Lloyds Banking Group, HSBC, Citigroup and JP Morgan Chase.

Average age of Hurun Global 500 was 64 years, ie founded in 1956.

125 companies older than 100yrs, led by the London Stock Exchange founded in 1698 and Takeda Pharmaceuticals from 1781.

61 start-ups founded in the 2000s, led by three China businesses. E-commerce platform Pinduoduo youngest, founded only five years ago in 2015, and today worth US$167bn, followed by e-cars Nio and Xpeng founded in 2014.

‘Big 4 Accounting Firms’, Accenture and McKinsey & Company made the Hurun Global 500, led by Accenture worth US$160bn, and followed by Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, PwC, EY and KPMG. Together they are worth US$560bn on sales of US$211bn and over 1.6 million employees.

AirBnb at US$83bn worth double world’s largest hotel group Marriott International at US$43.5bn

Ride-hailing app Uber at US$87bn worth more than Volkswagen, whilst China-based ride-hailing app Didi Chuxing at US$53.7bn worth more than BMW.

Two education companies broke into the Hurun Global 500: home tutoring platform TAL Education and Chinese civil service examination test prep platform Offcn, both based in Beijing.

Video conferencing platform Zoom another big gainer, breaking into Top 100 with 5-fold rise to US$115.6bn.

Cloud platform Snowflake grew 6-fold to US$74.1bn

Dating platform Match doubled to US$37bn, storming into Hurun Global 500

Netflix added US$86bn or 63% to US$223bn and 33^rd in world.

China e-cigarette maker Smoore quadrupled in value to US$37bn.

Credit rating agencies S&P and Moody’s both made the Hurun Global 500 with US$80.6bn and US$52.4bn. Credit reporting agency Experian enters the list with a value of US$32 bn

54% sell physical products, with 46% selling software and services

59% sell direct to consumers, whilst 41% are B2B

10 companies featured in the Hurun Global Unicorn List 2020, led by Ant Group, ByteDance, Didi Chuxing and SpaceX

160 shareholders of the Hurun Global 500 made the Hurun Global Rich List 2020, led by Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos.

Only 3 individuals founded more than one Hurun Global 500: Elon Musk (Tesla, PayPal and SpaceX), Jack Ma (Alibaba and Ant Group) and Li Ge (Wuxi Biologics and Wuxi AppTech).

313 companies from the Hurun Global 500 do not feature in the Fortune Global 500

Hurun Research Institute today released the 2020 Hurun Global 500

(12 January 2021, Oxford, United Kingdom, Shanghai, China and Mumbai, India) The Hurun Research Institute today released the 2020 Hurun Global 500, a list of the 500 most valuable non-state-controlled companies in the world.  Released in association with China luxury tea brand Empereur, the 2020 Hurun Global 500 are ranked according to their value, defined as market capitalisation for listed companies and valuations for non-listed companies. The cut-off date used was 1 December 2020.

Rupert Hoogewerf, chairman and chief researcher of Hurun Report, said: “To make the cut-off of the Hurun Global 500 required a value of US$31.9bn. Companies from the Hurun Global 500 were founded in 1956 on average, with sales last year of US$38bn and 86,000 employees. Surprisingly, there has been no slowdown in a year dominated by Covid-19. Far from it. Total value rose by 25%.”

“It is easy to see why the Hurun G500 represents the most powerful group of companies in the world. Together they are worth a massive US$50tn, equivalent to the GDPs of the world’s six largest economies or 60% of global GDP. They had combined sales last year of US$18tn, equivalent to the GDP of the USA, and employed 43 million staff, equivalent to the working population of Germany.”

“Covid-19 put rocket fuel under an already powerful tech boom, resulting in a concentration of massive economic power. The Top 10, for example, are worth US$10tn, making up 20% of the Hurun Global 500, the equivalent of more than China’s GDP. Five years ago, the Top 10 were worth US$3.5tn and ten years ago US$2tn.”

“Antitrust trends are picking up with US, European and China regulators launching investigations into anti-competition and monopolistic practices.  In China, for example, Alibaba dropped 20% in December after the launch of an investigation into anti-competitive behaviour.”

“E-cars, healthcare and e-commerce have seen the fastest growth.  Apple and Amazon gained US$1.7tn between them over the year, equivalent to ‘two Facebooks’, and making them the biggest winners in this Covid-19 year.  Covid-19 has redistributed value to technology companies, which successfully disrupted traditional sectors.” 

“The speed of value creation is remarkable. In the month since our 1 December 2020 cut-off for the Hurun Global 500, Tesla has grown a further 50% to break through the US$800bn mark, propelling Elon Musk, 50, to overtake Jeff Bezos, 57, of Amazon to become the richest man in the world.”

“Value is perhaps the best way to measure a company’s economic power in today’s world, rather than sales.  US biotech company Moderna, for example, generated only US$60 million of sales last year, but is worth a massive US$56bn, on the back of announcing it is at the forefront of developing a Covid-19 vaccine. By contrast, Walmart had the largest sales of any company on the planet but comes in only at 12^th place on the Hurun Global 500. Another example is German car company Volkswagen, which is worth ‘only’ US$84bn despite US$283bn of sales, one of the ten largest sales on the planet, but placing it at 150^th place on the Hurun Global 500.”

"To found one Hurun Global 500 company is already a crowning lifetime's achievement for any individual but three individuals in the world have founded two or more, led by Elon Musk with Tesla, PayPal and SpaceX, and followed by Jack Ma with Alibaba and Ant Group, and Li Ge with biotech companies WuXi Biologics and WuXi AppTec."

“Curiously, six consultancies who made their names by servicing the world’s biggest companies, are on the Hurun Global 500: Accenture, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, PwC, EY, KPMG and McKinsey & Company.”

“Energy companies have been the worst performing companies of the last year, on the back of a combination of the drop in the oil price, the impact of Covid-19 on global travel and the growth of renewable energy at the expense of fossil fuels.”

“Two thirds of the companies on the Hurun Global 500, which is ranked by value, are not on the Fortune Global 500, which is ranked by sales.”

“By value, five industries make up half the Hurun Global 500, led by Financial Services, and followed by Healthcare, Retail, Media & Entertainment and Software & Services.”

“Hurun has been promoting entrepreneurship through its lists and research since 1999. Starting with the rich list and philanthropy lists, Hurun has gone on to rank unicorns and recently the 500 most valuable companies, on a global level as well as for individual countries, eg China and India.”

“The Hurun Global 500 does not include state-controlled companies, meaning that the likes of Saudi Arabia’s Aramco (worth US$2tn) does not make the list, as well as China state-controlled companies like baijiu brand Kweichow Moutai worth US$344bn or bank ICBC worth US$261bn.”

“Hurun is delighted to partner with luxury tea brand Empereur Hua Tea for the Hurun Global 500. Tea drinking is one of the most popular rituals of hospitality in the world today and Empereur has gone to extraordinary lengths to bring consumers the finest teas.”

“Despite the impact of Covid, it has been a good year for the stock markets generally. Nasdaq was up 43%, whilst India and China’s stock markets rose 13% and 12%. The US dollar depreciated 9% against the Euro and 7% against the Chinese Yuan, whilst appreciating 5% against the Indian Rupee. Oil was down 23%.”

Xiao Wenhua, chairman of Empereur, said: “The Hurun Global 500 is unique in that it is a measure of value created, rather than just sales revenue and profits. At Empereur we share a similar philosophy. Enterprises should create value and take on responsibilities by providing consumers with quality products and making a contribution to society. Over the past twenty years, Empereur has built eight tea estates across China, with the aim of controlling product quality from the source to make good Chinese tea. As a leading enterprise in the tea industry, we drive the tea industry forward through our tea estates and contribute to the national efforts of rural rejuvenation. After the COVID-19 outbreak, we took the initiative to donate tea and other materials, showcasing our sense of responsibility as an exemplary national brand.

Empereur is proud to have been chosen as a state gift on three occasions, and contributed to state tea receptions on eight occasions. Empereur ‘Tea for State Guests’ has become an unforgettable Chinese flavour for 76 national leaders.

Our mission at Empereur is to attract more people globally to fall in love with Chinese tea. Our latest initiative is the Empereur Hua Tea tearoom on the Shanghai Bund, which aims to become a bridge connecting China and the rest of the word.”

8 of the Top 10 from the US

The Hurun Global 10 are worth a combined total of US$10.3 trillion, equivalent to more than the GDP of China and 20% of the total value of the Hurun Global 500.

Table 1: 2020 Hurun Global 500 Top 10

Source: Empereur Hua Tea · 2020 Hurun Global 500

Compared with 5 and 10 years ago?

The most valuable company on the planet is seven-times more valuable than that of ten years ago, and four-times that of five years ago. Ten years ago US oil company Exxon Mobil was the most valuable company, worth US$302bn, whilst five years ago it was Alphabet worth US$533bn. Only four companies have made the Top 10 over ten years: Apple, Microsoft, Berkshire Hathaway and Alphabet.

Table 2: Top 10 Five Years Ago                                            Top 10 Ten Years Ago

Source: Hurun Research Institute

Geographical distribution

The Hurun Global 500 came from 30 countries, led by the USA, China and Japan, and followed by France, the UK and Germany.

By city, New York led with 28, followed by Paris, San Francisco, London and Beijing.

By continent, North America led with 259 companies, followed by Europe and Asia with 114 and 109. Africa had only one of the Hurun Global 500. South America and Africa, with a quarter of the world’s population, have less than 1% of the Hurun Global 500.

Table 3: Top Countries and Cities of the Hurun Global 500

Source: Empereur Hua Tea · 2020 Hurun Global 500

Table 4: Continents of the Hurun Global 500

Source: Empereur Hua Tea · 2020 Hurun Global 500

Biggest Gainers & Losers

In terms of growth, the Hurun Global 500 was led by e-car manufacturers Nio, Xpeng Motors and Tesla. China-based online real estate platform KE grew 9-fold to US$75.9bn.

By absolute value, the biggest gainers were Apple, Amazon and Microsoft.

Table 5: Biggest Gainers by %                                 Biggest Gainers by US$bn

Source: Empereur Hua Tea · 2020 Hurun Global 500

Energy companies were the biggest losers of the year, followed by aircraft manufacturers and traditional banks.

Table 6: Top 10 Losers – % wise                                       Top 10 Losers – US$bn

Source: Empereur Hua Tea · 2020 Hurun Global 500

Which industries performed?

Financial Services was the biggest contributor to the Hurun Global 500 with 97 companies, making up almost 20% of the companies, followed by Healthcare with 54. The Top 5 industries made up half the list, with the Top 10 making up 70% of the list.

In terms of fastest-growing industries, Autos & Auto Components led the way, mainly due to E-Cars, followed by Consumer Electronics, Semiconductors and Retail. The only industries to see a drop in value were Aerospace and Defence, down 16%, and Energy down 11%.

Table 7: Industry Breakdown of Hurun Global 500

Source: Empereur Hua Tea · 2020 Hurun Global 500

Less than US$1bn revenue companies

Average sales of the Hurun Global 500 was US$40bn.

158 of the Hurun Global 500 had sales of less than US$10bn last year, of which 14 managed to make the list with sales of less than US$1bn last year.

Moderna, at the forefront of developing a Covid-19 vaccine, was the company with the smallest revenue last year to make the Hurun Global 500. With only US$60 million of sales last year, Moderna managed to create US$56bn of value today.

Table 8: Companies from the Hurun Global 500 with revenues of less than US$1bn

Source: Empereur Hua Tea · 2020 Hurun Global 500

How old are they?

The average age was 64 years, ie founded in 1956.

128 companies – or a quarter of the list – have a history of more than 100 years, of which just six are more than 200 years old.

61 start-ups were founded in the 2000s, making up US$5tn or 10% of the Hurun Global 500. 22 are less than 10 years old, led by China e-commerce platform Pinduoduo, e-cars Nio and Xpeng Motors, as well as USA food delivery DoorDash.

Table 9: Top 10 Companies with the Longest History    Top 10 Youngest Companies

Source: Empereur Hua Tea · 2020 Hurun Global 500

Table 10: Largest start-ups founded in the 2000s

Source: Empereur Hua Tea · 2020 Hurun Global 500

Table 11: Youngest Companies created through Mergers & Acquisition

Source: Empereur Hua Tea · 2020 Hurun Global 500

How many do they employ?

Companies from the Hurun Global 500 employ 43 million people around the world, an average of 86,000.

124 have more than 100,000 employees, led by Walmart with 2.2 million employees and China-based Hon Hai Precision Industry (better known as Foxconn) with 800,000 employees.

77 have less than 10,000 employees.

Table 12: Top 10 Largest Employers                                       Top 10 Smallest Employers

Source: Empereur Hua Tea · 2020 Hurun Global 500

Serial Entrepreneurs

Elon Musk co-founded 3 of the Hurun Global 500, followed by Jack Ma and Li Ge.

Table 13: Individuals Who Founded More Than One Hurun Global 500

Source: Empereur Hua Tea · 2020 Hurun Global 500

By Country

USA: From the Hurun Global 500 it is easy to see why the USA is the world’s No. 1 economy in the world. When it comes to the most valuable companies in the world, the USA contributes nearly half of the companies in Hurun Global 500 and a combined value of US$29.6 trillion, equivalent to a third of global GDP. Financial Services and Software & Services contributed the most number of companies (34 and 26), followed by Medical Equipment & Devices (14). Led by New York, 5 US cities made the top 10 cities.

China. 51 companies from Greater China made the Hurun Global 500, led by Tencent and Alibaba both making the Top 10. The 51 China companies were spread across 18 cities, led by Beijing with 14 and followed by Shenzhen and Shanghai with 8 and 6. Others included Hangzhou, HK and Foshan. The average age was 24 years, much younger than the 64 average age of the whole list.

266, or 59%, of the non-China Hurun Global 500 have regional headquarters across 13 cities, with the overwhelming majority in Shanghai (160) and Beijing (79) and a few across HK, Shenzhen and Guangzhou.

Table 14: Global Headquarters of Hurun Global 500 based in China

Source: Empereur Hua Tea · 2020 Hurun Global 500

Table 15: Regional Headquarters of Hurun Global 500 in China

Source: Empereur Hua Tea · 2020 Hurun Global 500

With 30 companies, Japan has the third largest number on the Hurun Global 500. With a valuation of US$186bn, 83-year old, Toyota Motor was the most valuable Japanese company followed by SoftBank (US$130bn) and Keyence (US$122bn). Financial Services led the way with 4 companies, followed by Manufacturing, Automobile & Auto Components, Retail and Industrial Products with 3 each. The combined value of the Japan companies is US$1.9tn. The average age is 80 years, 16 years older than the average age of the whole list. Tokyo is the preferred headquarter city for 11 of the Japanese companies followed by Minato with 4 and Osaka with 3.

France was 4^th with 21 companies, led by LVMH. The average age was 92 years, 28 years older than the average age of the list.  Like the UK, France has no start-ups from the 2000s on the list. Financial Services led the way with 3 companies, followed by Luxury Goods and Food and Beverages with 2 each. The combined value of the French companies in the list is US$1.7tn. Paris was the preferred HQ.

With 21 companies, UK shares the 4^th position in the Hurun Global 500, led by Unilever (US$163bn), and followed by Linde (US$136bn) and AstraZeneca (US$133bn). The UK was the worst performing country on the Hurun Global 500. The average age was 82 years, 18 years older than the average of the list and with no start-ups from the 2000s. UK is home to the oldest company on the 2020 Hurun Global 500: the 322-year old London Stock Exchange. Financial Services led the way with 6 companies, followed by Professional Services and Consumer Goods with 3 each. 3 of the Big 4 accounting companies are headquartered in London. Their combined value was US$1.6tn, less than the value of Amazon.

Canada is home to 16 companies from the Hurun Global 500. 16-year old Shopify, valued at US$118bn, is the most valuable Canadian company, ahead of 156-year old Royal Bank of Canada, valued at US$117bn. With 6 entrants, Financial Services led the way, followed by Oil & Gas, Transportation & Logistics, Retail and Telecommunications with 2 each. Toronto was the preferred city with 6 companies, followed by Montreal with 4 and Calgary with 3. The combined value of Canada companies came to US$978bn.

Australia is at 9^th spot with 12 companies, with 5 in Melbourne, 4 in Sydney, 2 in Perth and one in Bella Vista. With US$113.6bn, BHP Group is the most valuable business group in Australia, followed by Commonwealth Bank (US$100.9bn) and CSL (US$96.8bn). Interestingly, all of the top 3 Australian companies are centenarians. Financial Services led the way, with 5 companies, followed by Metals & Mining, with 3 companies, and Retail with 2. At the age of 185, ANZ is the oldest Australian company in the list and at 17 years, Fortescue Metals Group is the youngest in the list. The combined value of the ‘kangaroos’ was US$760bn.

India is 10^th with 11 companies: 7 in Mumbai and one in each of Pune, Bengaluru, Kolkata and New Delhi. With US$139bn, Tata Consultancy Services is the most valuable company. Financial Services led the way, with 5 companies, followed by Software & Services and Telecommunications with 2 each.

239 or 49% of the non-India Hurun Global 500 have a regional presence in India, spread across ten cities, led by Mumbai with 64, and followed by Bengaluru with 39, Gurugram 27, New Delhi 23 and Pune with 11. “India has a big opportunity ahead of it, since only half of the non-India Hurun Global 500 are officially present in India today.”

Table 16: Global Headquarters of Hurun Global 500 based in India

Source: Hurun Research Institute

Table 17: Regional Headquarters of Hurun Global 500 based in India

Source: Empereur Hua Tea · 2020 Hurun Global 500

What about state-controlled companies?

The Hurun Global 500 focuses exclusively on non-state-controlled companies, meaning that state-controlled companies like Saudi Aramco or China’s Kweichow Moutai are out of contention to make the list.

45 listed state-controlled companies would have made the cut-off, as set out in the table below, of which 36 from China, 3 from Russia, 2 from Saudi Arabia and 1 from each of Norway, France, Japan and India.

Other non-listed state-controlled companies would have made the list including China’s State Grid.

Table 18: Most valuable listed state-controlled companies in the world

Source: Hurun Research Institute

Disclaimer. All the data collection and the research has been carried out by Hurun Research. This report is meant for information purposes only. Reasonable care and caution have been taken in preparing this report. The information contained in this report has been obtained from sources that are considered reliable. By accessing and/or using any part of the report, the user accepts this disclaimer and exclusion of liability which operates to the benefit of Hurun. Hurun does not guarantee the accuracy, adequacy or completeness of any information contained in the report and neither shall it be responsible for any errors or omissions in or for the results obtained from the use of such information. No third party whose information is referenced in this report under the credit to it assumes any liability towards the user with respect to its information. Hurun shall not be liable for any decisions made by the user based on this report (including those of investment or divestiture) and the user takes full responsibility for their decisions made based on this report. Hurun shall not be liable to any user of this report (and expressly disclaim liability) for any loss, damage of any nature, including but not limited to direct, indirect, punitive, special, exemplary, consequential losses, loss of profit, lost business and economic loss regardless of the cause or form of action and regardless of whether or not any such loss could have been foreseen.

Empereur Hua Tea · 2020 Hurun Global 500 Top 100

For the full list, please see www.hurun.net