(Yicai Global) Aug. 2 -- Mainland China has the most companies on the 2021 Fortune Global 500 list, which ranks the world’s biggest companies by revenue, for the second year in a row.

Some 135 Chinese mainland companies made the 27th edition of the ranking released today by US business magazine Fortune. This is 11 more than last year and 13 more than the United States which took second place.

US hypermarket giant Walmart came top for the eighth consecutive year with USD559 billion in 2020 revenue. State Grid Corporation of China, the world’s largest grid operator, moved up one place to second, while US e-commerce giant Amazon reached third place for the first time.

Total revenue of the Global 500 fell 5 percent last year from a year earlier to USD31.7 trillion due to the pandemic, New York-based Fortune said. Their total net profit plummeted 20 percent to USD1.6 trillion, the largest drop since 2009.

The average profit of the 135 Chinese companies was USD3.5 billion last year, more than the overall average of USD3.3 billion made by the Global 500, it added.

Four Chinese internet giants were among them. JD.com was in 59th place, Alibaba Group Holding in 63rd, Tencent Holdings came 132nd and Xiaomi 338th. All had higher rankings than last year and Beijing-based Xiaomi advanced the most, moving up 84 places.

Editor: Kim Taylor