Global internet market capitalisation leaders: where is the EU?
| Date | 10 September 2018 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/DPRG-09-2018-062 |
| Pages | 600-608 |
| Published date | 10 September 2018 |
| Author | Simon Jean Paul |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Information management & governance,Information policy |
Research note
Global internet market capitalisation
leaders: where is the EU?
Simon Jean Paul
Each year, in May, Mary Meeker[1] releases her annual presentation about “Internet
Trends”. The presentation includes a slide disclosing the market caps[2]ofthe
global internet leaders. Even if the market cap can be a questionable indicator[3]
that triggers different assessments[4] as well as conflicting views, the figures for 2018
(Table I) are nevertheless impressive both from a quantitative (scope of the figures) and
qualitative (as it reveals a strong domination of both Asia and China) viewpoint. This paper
is simply meant to take a note of the issue, to give some perspectives about the meaning of
the phenomenon, and to ask a few questionsabout the positioning of the EU.
According to the World Bank (2018), the global GDP,as of 2016, was US$77.564tn (current
US$)[5]. The market capitalisation of listed domestic companies (current US$) reached US
$79.214tn in 2017, US$64.915 in 2016, growing faster than the GDP. For instance, the
market cap of the number one company, Apple, hasbeen increasing from US$418 in 2013,
to US$924 in 2018 (Meeker, 2018, p. 218). As of 2018, the total of the market caps of these
leading twenty global companies, US$5.788tn, is higher that France’s GDP, US$2.810tn,
higher than Germany’s, US$3.781 and higher than the UK’s GDP, US$2.757. Only China
with US$9.504 trillion and the USA with US$16.920tn, have a larger GDP. As stressed by
Meeker (2018, p. 40) tech companies are becominga larger part of USA business: “In April
2018, they accounted for25 per cent of USA market capitalization”.
Domination of Asian and US companies –market cap
With 11 US companies and 9 Chinese companies (in italics in Table I), from an EU
viewpoint, the most striking element is the absence of any EU companies within these top
20 in 2018. If one compares this 2018 ranking with a 2012 ranking (Table II),[6] the picture
remains the same (with obviously some companies going down and others going up) with
only two exceptions (in bold in Table II): Experian (Ireland),ranking 16 in 2012, and the Otto
Group (Germany), ranking 19. The two companies reached respectively a market cap of
$16 and $10bn in 2012. Experian is a global information services company that provides
credit services, analytical tools, and marketing services (www.experianplc.com/[7]). The
Otto group is a globally operating retail and services group and one of the biggest
e-commerce companies, mainly based in Germany and France but operating in more than
30 countries (www.ottogroup.com/en/die-otto-group/Facts-Figures.php)[8]. SAP (www.sap.
com/index.html), a leading technology company that develops enterprise application
software, although with an over US$136.63bn cap (2018: https://ycharts.com/companies/
SAP and e23.76bn of revenues as of 2017[9],is not included in any of these rankings.
Simon Jean Paul is based
at the JPSMultiMedia,
Seville, Spain
PAGE 600 jDIGITAL POLICY, REGULATION AND GOVERNANCE jVOL. 20 NO. 6 2018, pp. 600-608, ©Emerald Publishing Limited, ISSN 2398-5038 DOI 10.1108/DPRG-09-2018-062
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