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FORTUNE.COM // NOVEMBER 2019
Rakuten
40 JAPAN (RKUNY, $10)
What doesn’t Rakuten
do? The Japanese e-
commerce/fintech/In-
ternet company has its
fingers in everything
from cryptocurrency to
the cloud. Rakuten op-
erates globally and is
moving to expand in
the U.S. A Q2 loss of
$43 million (owing
largely to the plummet-
ing value of its stake in
Lyft) has helped knock
the stock down 20%
from its 52-week high.S. F. Holding
32 CHINA ($6)*
China’s e-commerce
boom has sent deliver y
firms like S.F. Holding
skyrocketing in recent
years. The logistics
services company
boasts a premium
brand, and is at the
cutting edge of tech-
nology investments.
Despite stiffening
competition, S.F. is
growing fast and
struck a major deal to
take over DHL’s China
supply operations.Alibaba
11 CHINA (BABA, $165)
JACK MA, THE CHARISMATIC, BOMBASTIC founder of e-commerce megagiant Ali-
baba, officially resigned as the company’s chairman in September to pursue
philanthropic work. But his creation, Alibaba, has proved resilient, boasting
a market cap of $446 billion. In addition to weathering Ma’s departure, the
company more than doubled net profit in the most recent quarter, despite
the Chinese economy’s ongoing slowdown and trade war tensions with the
U.S. Growth projections are strong despite protests in Hong Kong that forced
Alibaba to delay its listing on the city’s exchange. But Alibaba isn’t stopping
with e-commerce: The company is rapidly expanding its cloud services and
payments businesses. Alibaba says its mobile payments service, Alipay, has
over 1 billion active users.
T HE FU TURE 50 —THE LIS T
DIGITAL COMMERCE
Shelf help: Workers at appliance retailer Suning, in China’s Jiangsu
province, transfer packages sold through Alibaba.