ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT QUARTERLY
LARGEST TEN PUBLICLY TRADED COMPANIES IN THE WORLD BY MARKET CAPITALISATION
2007 4th quarter
Company
2017 4th quarter
Market cap $b
Company
PetroChina 724.0
Exxon Mobil 511.9
General Electric
China Mobile
I&C Bank of China
374.6
354.1
339.0
Market cap $b
Apple Inc. 868.9
Alphabet Inc. 727.0
Microsoft 659.9
Amazon Inc. 563.5
Facebook Inc. 512.8
Tencent 493.3
Microsoft 333.1 Gazprom 329.6 Berkshire Hathaway 489.5
Royal Dutch Shell 269.5 Alibaba Group 440.7
Johnson & Johnson 375.4
AT&T
Sinopec
TOTAL
252.1
249.6
JPMorgan Chase
371.1
3,737.5 5,502.1
TOTAL TECH 333.1 4,266.1
%TECH 8.9% 77.5%
Source: Complied by Systems Knowledge Concepts from data at
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_public_corporations_by_market_capitalization
This represents one of the largest most rapid
transformations in industrial structure in the world’s
history. Value has been destroyed and created
at an unprecedented rate. In the emerging digital
economy:
• traditional definitions of industry boundaries are
being challenged – is Uber in the transport or
ICT industry? Is Airbnb in accommodation or
technology?
• our current methods of measuring economic
activity are now missing large components of
consumer benefits which are not ‘traded’ in
the conventional sense – they have become
non-monetary exchanges – personal data for
technology-based services. Consumers benefit
with no impact on GDP
• many digital business are high value but low
employment calling into question traditional
employment-based measurements of
specialisation.
To the extent that forward-looking economic
opportunities are based on existing specialisations,
the directions of future economic development are
relatively easy to divine. In the future however,
economic opportunity increasingly arises from
networks of talent, capital and dispersed value
chains. In this world connections to marketplaces
are not necessarily to do with geographic proximity
but rather with personal networks, associations and
various types of social and economic connections.
This raises the economic significance of prominent
well-connected individuals and fluid, often-informal
‘innovation communities’.
Not all regions can access, attract and foster
such individuals and communities but for those
with the right combinations of resources, amenity
and reasonable proximity to major urban centres,
strategies based on this thinking are increasingly
viable. This is particularly the case as rising costs
and congestion drive the digital creatives out of
our growing global cities and towards regions with
lifestyle advantages and enabling networks.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Simon is a consultant economist with over 25 years’
experience and focuses on telecommunications, information
technology, education, and the arts and media. He has
authored or co-authored multiple papers on digital disruption
economics and regulation issues for the International
Telecommunications Union and has undertaken numerous
business case analyses for investments and program
implementation in the arts and education sectors. Besides
numerous projects in Australia, Simon undertaken in-country
assignments in the numerous countries including South
Africa, Malaysia, Thailand, Bangladesh, Nepal, Taiwan,
China, Indonesia and the Pacific Islands.
VOL.11 NO.2 2018 | 30