Here’s how long it took 10 of the world’s biggest brands to turn a profit?

Despite its role in fundamentally shaping the landscape of modern computing, Microsoft turned a profit almost immediately after starting out. A new study by the CEOWORLD magazine has revealed that Microsoft, Apple, Paypal, and Google took less than 3 years to make a profit.

Surprisingly, there are hundreds of huge companies out there, valued in the billions, yet making zero profits, or in some cases losses. Remarkably, this scenario happens more often than you’d imagine. Here are just a few of the world’s biggest companies that are currently making zero profit: Uber, Spotify, Slack, Snapchat, Pandora, Dropbox, Pinterest, and Lyft.

Here’s how long it took 10 of the world’s biggest brands to turn a profit?

1. Microsoft
   Date of founding: April 4, 1975
   Founders: Bill Gates and Paul Allen
   CEO: Satya Nadella
   Headquarters: One Microsoft Way, Redmond, Washington, U.S.
   First profitable year: 1975
   2018 revenue: $110 billion
   Time to turn a profit: 0 years
2. Apple
   Date of founding: April 1, 1976
   Founders: Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne
   CEO: Tim Cook
   Headquarters: 1 Apple Park Way, Cupertino, California, U.S.
   First profitable year: 1978
   2018 revenue: $265 billion
   Time to turn a profit: 2 years
3. PayPal
   Date of founding: December 1998
   Founders: Elon Musk, Ken Howery, Luke Nosek, Max Levchin, Peter Thiel, Yu Pan, and Russel Simmons
   CEO: Dan Schulman
   Headquarters: 2211 North First Street, San Jose, California, U.S.
   First profitable year: 2000
   2018 revenue: $15.45 billion
   Time to turn a profit: 2 years
4. Google (Alphabet)
   Date of founding: September 4, 1998
   Founders: Larry Page, Sergey Brin
   CEO: Sundar Pichai
   Headquarters: 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, California, U.S.
   First profitable year: 2001
   2018 revenue: $136.8 billion
   Time to turn a profit: 3 years

   

5. Facebook
   Date of founding: February 4, 2004
   Founders: Mark Zuckerberg, Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes
   CEO: Mark Zuckerberg
   Headquarters: 1 Hacker Way (aka 1601 Willow Road), Menlo Park, California, U.S.
   First profitable year: 2009
   2018 revenue: $55.8 billion
   Time to turn a profit: 5 years
6. Netflix
   Date of founding: August 29, 1997
   Founders: Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph
   CEO: Reed Hastings
   Headquarters: Los Gatos, California, U.S
   First profitable year: 2003
   2018 revenue: $15.8 billion
   Time to turn a profit: 6 years

    

7. Groupon
   Date of founding: November 2008
   Founders: Andrew Mason, Eric Lefkofsky, and Brad Keywell
   CEO: Rich Williams
   Headquarters: Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A
   First profitable year: 2017
   2018 revenue: $2.6 billion
   Time to turn a profit: 9 years
8. Airbnb
   Date of founding: August 2008
   Founders: Brian Chesky, Joe Gebbia, and Nathan Blecharczyk
   CEO: Brian Chesky
   Headquarters: 888 Brannan Street, San Francisco, California
   First profitable year: 2017
   2018 revenue: $2.6 billion
   Time to turn a profit: 9 years
9. Amazon
   Date of founding: July 5, 1994
   Founder: Jeff Bezos
   CEO: Jeff Bezos
   Headquarters: 2111 7th Avenue, Seattle, Washington, US
   First profitable year: 2003
   2018 revenue:$232.88 billion
   Time to turn a profit: 9 years

    

10. Twitter
    Date of founding: March 21, 2006
    Founders: Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass, Biz Stone, and Evan Williams
    CEO: Jack Dorsey
    Headquarters: San Francisco, California, United States
    First profitable year: 2018
    2018 revenue: $3.04 billion
    Time to turn a profit: 12 years

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