On August 5, the 2024 Fortune Global 500 was officially announced. A total of 133 Chinese companies made the list, down nine from last year and fewer than the United States for the first time since 2018 (139, up three from the previous year). Among them, 128 in Chinese mainland (including Hong Kong), a decrease of 7 from last year; 5 in Taiwan.
The total revenue of China's companies on the list reached $10.99 trillion, down about 6% from 142 companies last year. There are 3 companies in the top 10 and 30 companies in the top 100 on the list; 5 are new and re-listed, 6 remain unchanged, 46 have moved up, and 76 have declined.
From the perspective of the distribution of urban agglomerations, there are 52 companies on the list in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, 28 in the Yangtze River Delta, and 22 in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, accounting for 76.7% of the total. In terms of provinces, Beijing is far ahead with 49, followed by Guangdong with 17, Shanghai with 13, Zhejiang with 10, Fujian with 6, Taiwan and Hong Kong with 5 each, Shandong with 4, Hebei, Jiangsu, Shaanxi and Sichuan with 3 each, Anhui and Shanxi with 2 each, and Gansu, Guangxi, Hubei, Hunan, Jilin, Jiangxi, Liaoning and Xinjiang with 1 each.
39 cities are home to Fortune 500 companies. Beijing has 49 companies on the list, a decrease of 4 from last year, but still surpassing Tokyo, New York, Seoul and other cities, ranking first in the list of global cities for the 12th consecutive year. This is not surprising, most of the headquarters of central enterprises are "clustered" in the capital, including the three major energy companies, State Grid, China Mobile, China Railway Construction, CRRC, etc. In addition, private giants such as JD.com, Meituan, and Xiaomi have also chosen to settle here.
Pinduoduo was shortlisted for the first time, ranking 442nd with a revenue of $34,981.1 million, and considering that it was founded in April 2015, it can be said that its speed on the Fortune Global 500 can be said to be very fast. This also brings the number of Fortune 500 companies headquartered in Shanghai to 13, an increase of 1 from last year. At the same time, Shanghai became the fourth largest city in the world in terms of the number of companies on the list, up one place year-on-year, behind Beijing, Tokyo and New York.
From the perspective of industry distribution, enterprises headquartered in Shanghai are mainly concentrated in traditional industries such as metallurgical materials, engineering manufacturing, and real estate. Among them, China Baowu, which ranks highest, has been on the list for 21 consecutive years, with a crude steel output of 130.77 million tons last year, ranking first among global steel companies for the fourth consecutive year.
There are 9 companies in Shenzhen shortlisted, a decrease of 1 from last year (Zhengwei International). Ping An is the top-ranked company in the region, and has been ranked first among the Fortune Global 500 companies in the Greater Bay Area for six consecutive years. BYD, the global champion in new energy vehicle sales, ranked 143rd on the list, up 69 places year-on-year.
Hangzhou added 2 Fortune 500 companies (Hangshi Group, which was on the list for the first time, and Hailiang Group, which was re-shortlisted), ranked first in the country for the first time, with a total of 9, tied for third in the country with Shenzhen. At the top of the list is Alibaba, but it has slipped 2 places from last year.
Six companies in Guangzhou have been selected into the world's top 500, ranking fifth in the country. 5 Hong Kong companies were on the list, a decrease of 1 from last year (China Merchants Group and China Taiping Insurance Group Co., Ltd. were not on the list, and AIA was on the list for the first time); Chengdu, Xi'an, Xiamen, and Suzhou each have 3 on the list; Jinan and Shijiazhuang each have 2. Looking at the major cities in China, Chongqing, Tianjin, Nanjing, Ningbo, Wuxi, Zhengzhou, Hefei, Quanzhou, etc., there are no Fortune 500 companies.