The 2021 Fortune 500 list is released, with Walmart first and Amazon third

The latest Fortune 500 data has been released. Walmart still ranks first, having held the top spot for eight consecutive years. Amazon has risen from ninth to third, which is the first time Amazon has entered the top three.

According to the ranking, the top ten are: Walmart (USA), State Grid (China), Amazon (USA), China National Petroleum Corporation (China), Sinopec (China), Apple (USA), CVS Health (USA), UnitedHealth Group (USA), Toyota Motor (Japan), and Volkswagen (Germany).

Of these top 500 companies, 122 are headquartered in the United States and 143 are from China.

Among them, Walmart, as the largest retailer in the United States and even the world, relies on online e-commerce and a large number of offline stores. In the past eight years, it has remained at the top of the Fortune 500. Due to the epidemic last year, sales increased by 8.6%, and sales in the United States reached US$559.2 billion.

As a beneficiary of the epidemic, Amazon's sales also achieved historic growth last year. In the first few weeks of the epidemic, due to the shortage of household necessities, Amazon suspended the delivery of non-essential items and gave priority to daily orders. In 2020 alone, sales in North America reached US$236.3 billion, a year-on-year increase of 38.4%.

But according to retail research division Edge, Amazon's total sales will surpass Walmart by 2025, ending Walmart's years of dominance.

Other e-commerce platforms that made it into the top 100 include: Costco (No. 27), Home Depot (No. 41), JD.com (No. 59), Alibaba (No. 63), Target (No. 78) and Lowe's (No. 80).

Overall, affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, the revenue and profits of the world's top 500 companies have declined this year. The total operating revenue is about 31.7 trillion US dollars, equivalent to one-third of the global GDP, a decrease of 5% from last year; the total profit is 164.87 billion US dollars, a sharp decrease of 20% from last year. In addition, the threshold for entering the ranking (minimum sales revenue) has also dropped from 25.4 billion US dollars to 24 billion US dollars.

If we rank by country, the US, China, Japan, Germany and France still rank at the top in terms of operating income and profits. Moreover, there are more and more Chinese companies on the list.

Amazon.Walmart

Top 500