The Biggest Companies in the US by Revenue Each Year Since 1955

Posted by countdookee

6 comments
  1. I remember as a kid ExxonMobil being the big dog on the stock market. Now it’s basically all tech companies. Crazy how much the world has changed.

  2. Insane how much money is spent on healthcare (United Health Group, CVS Health). If we got proper competition via price-quality transparency and breaking up some of the big dogs, US citizens become so much more richer.

    20% of US GDP is spent on healthcare. 2X as much as richest european countries, yet we have lower lifespan and health outcomes.
    [https://www.mercatus.org/research/data-visualizations/us-health-care-spending-more-twice-average-developed-countries](https://www.mercatus.org/research/data-visualizations/us-health-care-spending-more-twice-average-developed-countries)

    Seems pretty straightforward. Earn in US, retire in Europe or Australia so you don’t blow up most of your earned wealth on healthcare.

  3. As much as I wanted to love this, I struggled a couple times understanding the diagram. 

    If a company just suddenly appeared on the diagram does that mean it was just made publicly tradable or is that when the company was formed or is it moving in from the right? Why not show the dotted line from “off the page” to show if a company’s revenue has increased or if it is a new, disruptive company that blew in and suddenly got a tonne of revenue. What about when a line stops suddenly? Did that company stop existing or did it move right?

    Too many lines of similar colours adjacent to each other. Alphabet and AT and T basically line up in 2021. Since there is no meaning or context when a line starts or ends I find this discontinuity confusing.

    What do the dotted lines mean? Texaco skips a year with a dotted line in 1984. Did it tie with AT and T in 1985 or what does that mean? Chrysler skips several years in the 1960s with a dotted line. Did the revenue stay the same or what? Why not solid line? 

    It’d be interesting to use the visual to capture mergers and splitting off parts of the company. Chevron Texaco ends then Chevron starts. I’d that the same company with a different name or should we assume the revenue is split now in multiple places?

    I know I can look at a lot of the source data and wiki these questions but IMO the visual leaves too much context and questions unanswered.

  4. By revenue is weird. You’ve probably never heard of McKesson or Cencora (formerly AmerisourceBergen). They handle pharmaceutical distribution among other things. Their revenues are large but their profits are relatively small because they are effectively distributors/warehouses and have to pay a fuck ton to the manufacturers. Let’s do it by profit instead.

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