
Farewell oil, hello tech: the world’s 5 most valuable companies in 2006 and 2016 - bootload
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/09/farewell-oil-hello-tech-the-world-s-5-most-valuable-companies-in-2006-and-2016/
======
wrong_variable
Oil never was that valuable. It was propped by a OPEC cartel.

If you go back in time and watch any press release from the saudis when asked
about the idea of "peak oil" \- they always said it was nonsense.

It was too easy to earn money just from the oil production capacity in place
that they saw no reason to increase it.

The reason why the party was over for the OPEC countries was because of a
petroleum engineer from texas who didn't even get rich or famous from
completely changing the norms in international trade and global geopolitics
[1] even spider man cannot pull something like that off.

The reduction in oil prices is doing wonders throughout the developing world.
India for example had to spend huge amount of tax-payer's money to provide
support to poor families. In a single year they saved 50 billion dollars [2] !
It might not seem that much, but a dollar in india can get you much further
then a dollar anywhere else ( especially if its taken from saudi pockets ) (
Modi for example needs 100 billion dollars in investment to kickstart a
process that he thinks will allow india to reach china's level of capacity in
manufacturing )

Open economies is good - and tech was always the king, from the invention of
the printing press. Its just investors who were dumb to think that paying for
a monopoly is a good idea.

[http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2016/08/17/490375230/oil-3...](http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2016/08/17/490375230/oil-3-how-
fracking-changed-the-world) [1]

[http://www.news18.com/news/business/global-crude-oil-
price-c...](http://www.news18.com/news/business/global-crude-oil-price-crash-
who-gains-the-most-in-india-1186520.html) [2]

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qwrusz
Going back to 1996 shows Intel, IBM, Softy and G.E. among the largest
firms...so hello tech, again?

Source: [http://etfdb.com/history-of-the-s-
and-p-500/#1996](http://etfdb.com/history-of-the-s-and-p-500/#1996)

Site appears to have market cap data back to the 1980s. Interesting shifts
over the years (Philip Morris even appears "in the pack")

I realize the article might be just a WEF staffer fill piece, but it's
unfortunate to see the WEF using market cap as the proxy for valuable
companies here.

This might get downvoted as too pedantic: but oil and tech companies
valuations use different accounting methods. Similar to stock and flow issues
- they are ~incommensurable. e.g. depletion of oil reserves (regardless of
measurement and spot prices) is value realization and is not an apples to
apples comparison to tech companies future growth/innovation value _creation_
assumptions.

------
arcanus
Oil is certainly 'high tech'. These firms employ literally thousands of
engineers.

~~~
bootload
Is the product hi-tech though? If we use the _" Five types of software"_ as a
comparison, I'd rate engineers in oil as #2, internal. [0]

[0]
[http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/FiveWorlds.html](http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/FiveWorlds.html)

