Throughout 70 years of the Fortune 500, which ranks the top U.S. corporations by revenue, and 35 years of publishing the Global 500 list, which surveys companies worldwide, economic shifts have prompted Fortune’s researchers to adjust their methodology only occasionally. The biggest shakeup came in 1995, when service providers joined the rankings for the first time, reflecting a world where banks, retail, telecoms, tech, health care, and other players were assuming dominance.
Over the past year, Fortune has been accounting for changes in the global landscape in a new, more granular way: We’ve expanded our “ultimate business scorecard” to focus more closely on additional geographic regions. In November 2023, Fortune 500 Europe debuted. On that list, the top 10 consisted exclusively of energy- and motor-vehicle-sector companies. And today marks the launch of the newest Fortune 500 ranking: The Fortune Southeast Asia 500.
The companies on the SEA 500 skew smaller than your typical 500-ranked firm. The No. 500 company on the Southeast Asia list (Thai Credit Bank) collected $461 million in revenue the past fiscal year, compared with $7.1 billion for the Fortune 500’s No. 500 (O-I Glass) and $30.9 billion for No. 500 on the Global 500 list (Xinjiang Guanghui Industry Investment). Another aspect that is important to grasp when parsing the SEA 500 is how top-heavy it is. Nos. 1–5 on the SEA 500 generated more than one-quarter of the collective revenue of the 500 companies. Year-over-year, these big five saw their combined revenue decrease by 16%. Conversely, the bottom 495 saw their combined sales tick up by about 4% from the prior year.
Despite its differences in scale and distribution, the new Southeast Asia list is no less a telling snapshot of a dynamic, growing region. Read on to learn which sectors took the most spots on the Fortune Southeast Asia 500—and how the new ranking draws parallels to Fortune 500 lists of yesteryear.