The global giants of the web are traveling at full speed also in 2021. In the first half of 2021 the growth in turnover was double-digit (+ 31,1%) equal to 667 billion euros and in Italy they are worth 4,6 billion euros . The Mediobanca Research Area presents the annual survey on the 25 Software & Web companies worldwide with a turnover of over 9 billion, just the tip of the iceberg (the research area has mapped another 119) which in 2020 had a turnover of 1.153 billion, half of which are by Amazon, Alphabet (or Google) and Microsoft with the former alone concentrating more than a quarter.
And they have a feeling with the stock market that does not go out, their aggregate capitalization (imagine 10 times the value of Piazza Affari) has grown by 87,8% in the three-year period 2018-2020 and by + 20,7% since December 2020 as of October 15, 2021. They are not only champions in revenue growth but also in margins (+ 49,6% net operating margin on the first half of 2020) and in net profits (+ 80,2%): they came to earn 27 million per day, almost triple compared to 2018.
To give the size of the treasury on which they sit, a comparison can be made with the GDP, equal to 70% of Italy's 2020 gross domestic product, writes Ansa. The United States and China, with 11 and 8 companies, shared the largest share, respectively 65 and 27% and only 8%, from groups in Japan (3), Germany (2) and South Korea (1). ). At the level of individual groups, there was a surge in the revenues of the young Asian Meituan (+ 94,8% in the first half of 2021, operating in particular in the food delivery sector) and Coupang (+ 72,8%, active in e-commerce), both established in 2010, in front of the almost adult age Facebook (+ 51,7%). Followed by Alphabet (+ 47,5%), Vip shop (+ 35,2%) and Amazon (+ 34,8%). Negative sign for SAP alone (-1,9%).
As for industrial profitability in the first six months of 2021, Facebook leads the ranking by ebit margin (43,0%), ahead of Microsoft (41,1%) and Oracle (40,5%). At the end of June 2021, Nintendo, without financial debt, shines for its financial solidity, followed by Facebook (net capital equal to 11,5 times the financial debts) and by the Chinese Vipshop (9,1). If in 2020 Covid was a booster for almost all the giants of the web, those companies that operate online but are specialized in travel have not been spared from the effects of the lockdown.
Now with the easing of social distancing measures and the change in consumer habits, "the rebound is powerful", observe the analysts of theMediobanca Studies Area: in food delivery + 85,6%, advertising + 48,2%, online travel sales + 43,7% and fintech +43,6%. In the first six months of 2021 liquidity also increased (+5,5 billion per month) to 639 billion at the end of June, partly invested in short-term securities and partly for M&A transactions. However, they continue to take refuge in tax havens: all the Chinese have their registered office in the Cayman Islands and all the Americans (with the exception of Microsoft) have their registered office in the state of Delaware. In 2020, about 40% of the Top25 pre-tax profits were taxed in countries with subsidized taxation, with consequent savings of 10,7 billion in 2020 and 24,5 billion in the three-year period 2018-2020.
Aggregate taxes amounted to 27,8 billion, with an average rate of 12,8%, lower than the theoretical average of 22,4%. The Italian taxman collected 80 million with a tax rate of 31,4%. With the Global Tax, the agreement on the taxation of multinationals signed on 8 October by 136 states (Global Tax) would have been 30,3 billion.