By Vikas Shukla. Originally published at ValueWalk.
So, which is the most innovative company in the world? It’s not Apple, Google, Samsung, or Amazon. Fast Company magazine has published its annual list of the most innovative companies of 2020. The magazine ranks companies based on their impact on both industry and culture.
Let’s take a look at the top ten most innovative companies of 2020
Fast Company evaluated more than 400 organizations across 44 sectors on a combination of innovation and impact they made in the past year. Check out the list:
10- Zipline
Headquartered in San Francisco, Zipline operates a fleet of drone aircraft to deliver medical supplies over long distances. Zipline designs and builds its own drones. The four-year-old startup has distribution centers in Rwanda and Ghana to deliver blood, platelets, vaccines, medicines, frozen plasma and other essentials. According to Fast Company, Zipline transports nearly 75% of Rwanda’s blood supply outside the capital city of Kigali. The company plans to expand its operations to India and other countries later this year.
9- Roblox
Roblox is the 9th most innovative company of 2020. It’s a game creation platform that allows gamers to build their own games and play games created by other users. Roblox is obsessed with providing the tools its community needs to build and improve their games. It allows up to 800 people per server to play simultaneously. According to Fast Company, Roblox has more than 100 million active users spending more than 1 billion hours a month on its platform.
8- Canva
As a long-time user of Canva, I’m pleasantly surprised to see its name among the world’s most innovative companies this year. Canva has been consistently improving its graphic design templates, allowing users to create business cards, posters, and other graphics. Its Presentations tool allows you to create slide decks on mobile devices and share it on other platforms and services.
7- Shopify
Shopify is becoming a serious competitor to Amazon, even though it’s much smaller than the Jeff Bezos-led company. Shopify has more than one million merchants who use its tool to sell goods. It partners with merchants rather than competing with them. Amazon is notorious for tracking what’s selling well on its marketplace, and then launching cheaper copycats with its own branding. It first brings merchants to its platform and then slowly starts killing them. Shopify has introduced a number of tools and solutions to help its merchant partners. It’s also building out a fulfillment network that will allow sellers to offer two-day shipping.
6- White Claw
Hard seltzer sales have been growing rapidly over the last few years. Mark Anthony Brands launched the White Claw Hard Seltzer in 2016. While its competitors focused on attracting female consumers, White Claw took a gender-neutral marketing approach and highlighted its low-carb, low-cal, and gluten-free content. The marketing strategy paid off. White Claw has captured more than 50% of the hard seltzer market.
5- HackerOne
HackerOne is a bug bounty platform that connects cybersecurity researchers and ethical hackers with businesses and government agencies. Hackers on the platform test security systems and look for vulnerabilities in the online infrastructure of the business that hires them. HackerOne has launched a HackerOne Clear program to vet hackers for extremely sensitive projects. Many of the world’s largest corporations use HackerOne to look for bugs and vulnerabilities in their own systems.
4- Big Hit Entertainment
The South Korean entertainment company has become a one-stop service in the music industry. It manages Korean pop bands BTS and TXT as well as soloist Lee Hyun. The company has the Weverse Shop e-commerce platform to sell exclusive band-related products. It also offers the Weverse social networking app. These apps are part of the company’s plan to become a super-app for the music industry.
3- Tesla
Tesla has a history of over-promising and under-delivering. But the company exceeded its own target of 360,000 vehicles by selling 367,500 cars last year. The EV maker has also started production in China, tapping into the world’s largest EV market. It also launched the controversial Cybertruck last year.
2- Microsoft
Microsoft has been named the second most innovative company of 2020. Its cloud services, gaming products and services, Surface hardware, and other offerings have been pushing the limits of innovation. But Fast Company particularly praised the Microsoft Teams business chap app, which has overtaken Slack to become the most popular workplace messaging app. Teams is deeply integrated into the Office suite. It seamlessly integrates video meetings, third-party apps, file sharing, calls, and chats.
1- Snap
Snap – yes, Snap – is the most innovative company of 2020, according to Fast Company. The multimedia messaging app turned down a $3 billion acquisition offer from Facebook. Over the last few years, it was struggling. Many questioned the company’s future growth potential, especially as Facebook and Instagram were shamelessly copying Snapchat’s most engaging features. Numerous Snap executives had left the company. Its stock was crashing. Suddenly everyone thought Snap CEO Evan Spiegel should have accepted Facebook’s $3 billion buyout offer.
But Spiegel has been busy taking Snapchat in a new direction, and his strategies have worked well so far. Snap’s revenue surged 65% in 2019, and it added 31 million new daily users. Snapchat’s AR ‘Lenses’ feature has become incredibly popular among its users. According to Fast Company, more than 163 million people use its AR ‘Lenses.’ Snap has also been investing in mobile-optimized short shows to keep users engaged.
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