World of Business in 2018 Trivia Quiz

Answer: 19%

On 26 July 2018, the loss of $120 billion represented roughly 19% of its market capitalization value dropping from $630 billion to $510 billion. The stock price closed at $176.26 wiping out all investor gains in 2018. It was the biggest loss in history of any public company in the stock market in a single day. Facebook started public listing in 2012.

At the end of 2018, the market capitalization value of Facebook stood at $541.5 billion. In term of market capitalization value, the company was ranked fifth largest in the world after Apple, Amazon, Alphabet and Microsoft in 2018.

Answer: Netflix

Netflix reached that mark, briefly overtaking Walt Disney to becoming the most valuable entertainment company. The company was founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Mark Randolph in California. The surge was brief, however, and by the end of 2018, Walt Disney's market capitalization value stood at $152.1 billion (ranked 53rd in the world) and Netflix's value at $141.9 billion (ranked 56th in the world).

Answer: Turkey

Turkish lira fell by 13% in one day when the tariff was implemented. The Turkish currency dropped by about 40% in 2018. The tariff increase by the US was to retaliate over Andrew Manson, an American pastor, who was detained by Turkey. He was alleged to be involved in the failed coup attempt against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in 2016.

Answer: CK Hutchinson Holdings

Li Ka-shing, (born June 13, 1928, Chaozhou, Guangdong province, China), was born poor and fled to Hong Kong from China in 1940 after the Japanese invasion. Without a formal education, he started as a salesman and later formed a plastic company, Cheung Kong.

In the 1950s, his business started to boom when his products were exported to the US. Real estates investment made him a leading private developer by the late 1970s. As at June 2019, he had a net wealth of $29.4 billion.

Answer: Johnson & Johnson

J&J fought some 9000 cases involving their talc baby powder products. The talc baby powder was alleged to contain asbestos causing 22 women to develop ovarian cancer after a few decades of usage. The plaintiffs claimed that J&J knew the powder was contaminated with asbestos since the 1970s but failed in their duties to warn consumers about the risks.

Talc is a very light soft rock mineral which can be found in close proximity with asbestos during mining. The two minerals can easily be mixed during the mining process making it difficult to remove the carcinogenic substance. J&J denied the allegations, claiming that their strict quality control with rigorous testing and purification processes ensure its talc is free from asbestos.

$4.7 billion represented about 1.4% of J&J market capitalization value of $341.3 billion (ranked 11th largest in the world) in 2018.

Answer: $30.8 billion

On 11 November 2018 Singles Day sale, Alibaba beat the sales record of $25.3 billion achieved in 2017 by more than $5 billion. In 2018, Alibaba was ranked the sixth largest corporation in term of market capitalization value at $499.4 billion, the highest ranking in the world for a Chinese start-up company.

Answer: Tencent Holdings

Tencent Holdings Limited, a company founded in 1998 by Ma Huateng (born 1971), specializes in internet related services, entertainment and artificial intelligence. WeChat, developed by Tencent, provides multi-purpose messaging, social media and mobile payment. Currently there are more than 1 billion users in China.

The company's headquarter is at Shenzhen, Guandong province, southern China.

Answer: General Electric

General Electric (GE) was one of twelve original members of the Dow Industrial selected by Charles Dow in 1896. GE's stock price fell by 44% at the end 2017 and by 54% in June 2018. Revenue in 2018 was about $122 billion (ranked 41st on Fortune Global 500 list). Drug store chain Walgreens Boots Alliance with a revenue of $118 billion (ranked 43rd in Fortune Global 500 list) in 2018 replaced GE on the Dow Jones Index.

Answer: Volkswagen

In 2015, Volkswagen was fined $25 billion in the US for violating the clean air rules. They admitted they made their software to produce false test reports on their diesel engine emission test. The German car maker was again fined 800 million Euros ($926 m) by Munich prosecutors in 2018 for similar cheating case in Europe.

In 2018, the market capitalization value for Volkswagen was $101.4 billion (ranked 87th in the world).

Answer: Walmart

Walmart topped the list with $500.3 billion worth of revenue, followed by three Chinese companies: State Grid $348.9 billion, Sinopec $326.9 billion and CNPC $326.8 billion.

Walmart hired more than 2.3 million people globally and had introduce e-commerce to their businesses.

State Grid owns the monopoly of electric power generation in China. It is the largest utility company in the world by virtue of the Chinese population.

Sinopec and CNPC are Chinese state-owned enterprises involved in multiple energy-related and petrochemical industries, operating in China and outside China, mainly in Central Asia, Africa, Middle East and South America.