Top Earning Websites – How Much The Worlds Largest Internet Business Make
Our first Top Earning Websites List was published in March 2009.
There have been significant changes since then. AirBnB founded in 2008 did not make the original list but are here today. Myspace no longer features!
Please Note: Despite their significant size, some companies are intentionally left out because they are primarily retail based that does web based revenue, but ultimately the service or product offered does not necessarily depend on the internet to generate the majority of its revenue and certain companies have been left out because they have since been acquired by other companies. We have also excluded from the list any business that is primarily App Based.
Use this table as motivation. It is easy to think that the numbers below are impossible but at a certain point the founders of the companies listed felt the same way. Also please see our various notes at the end of this list.
Last time we updated Google was the top earning website and Amazon was No 2 – this time they have swooped positions around. Amazon is that Juggernaut of a Money Earning Machine and they continue to innovate and grow.
In 2009 the top earning website was making $691 per second, today it is making $3392 per second!
Enjoy!
30 Top Earning Websites That Make A Lot Of Money Online
| Amazon | Jeff Bezos | $107 Billion | $3392.94 | |
| Larry Page, Sergey Brin | $74.98 Billion | $2378.23 | ||
| JD.com | Liu Qiangdong aka Richard Liu | $28 Billion | $887.87 | |
| Mark Zuckerberg, Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz, Chris Hughes | $17.93 Billion | $568.56 | ||
| Tencent | Ma Huateng | $12.89 Billion | $408.74 | |
| Reuters | Paul Reuter | $12.6 Billion | $399.54 | |
| Alibaba | Peng Lei, Jack Ma | $12.29 Billion | $389.71 | |
| Paypal | Peter Thiel, Yu Pan, Luke Nosek, Elon Musk, Ken Howery, Max Levchin | $9.248 Billion | $293.25 | |
| "target="_blank">Priceline | Jesse Fink, Jay S. Walker, Scott Case | $9.22 Billion | $292.36 | |
| eBay | Pierre Omidyar | $8.59 Billion | $272.39 | |
| Expedia | Richard Barton | $6.67 Billion | $211.50 | |
| Rakuten | Hiroshi Mikitani | $6.3 Billion | $199.77 | |
| Salesforce | Marc Benioff, Parker Harris | $5.37 Billion | $170.28 | |
| Baidu | Robin Li, Eric Xu | $5.21 Billion | $165.21 | |
| Yahoo | Jerry Yang, David Filo | $4.97 Billion | $157.60 | |
| Groupon | Eric Lefkofsky, Brad Keywell, Andrew Mason | $3.1 Billion | $98.30 | |
| Reid Hoffman, Konstantin Guericke, Jean-Luc Valliant, Allen Blue, Eric Ly | $2.99 Billion | $94.81 | ||
| Evan Williams, Noah glass, Jack Dorsey, Biz Stone | $2.22 Billion | $70.40 | ||
| NetEase | Ding Lei | $2.0 Billion | $63.42 | |
| Sohu | Charles Zhang | $1.937 Billion | $61.42 | |
| Overstock | Patrick M. Byrne | $1.66 Billion | $52.64 | |
| NYTimes | Henry Jarvis Raymond, George Jones | $1.59 Billion | $50.42 | |
| TripAdvisor | Langley Steinert, Stephen Kaufer | $1.5 Billion | $47.56 | |
| ASOS | Nick Robertson, Quentin Griffiths | $1.4 Billion | $44.39 | |
| Orbitz | Jeff Katz | $932 Million | $29.55 | |
| Yandex | Arkady Volozh, Arkady Borkovsky, Ilya Segalovich, Elena Kolmanovskaya | $900 Million | $28.54 | |
| Airbnb | Joe Gebbia, Brian Chesky, Nathan Blecharczyk | $900 Million | $28.54 | |
| Stubhub | Eric H. Baker, Jeff Fluhr | $500 Million | $15.85 | |
| Blue Nile | Mark Vadon | $480 Million | $15.22 | |
| DropBox | Drew Houston and Arash Ferdowsi | $400 Million | $12.68 |
Click To Share on Facebook | Click to Tweet
How Did We Calculate The Earnings
To obtain the turnover of the companies in this list we first analyzed SEC 10-K reports that are submitted by publicly traded companies within 60 days of the company’s fiscal year end.
For private companies, reputable sites such as BusinessInsider, Forbes, and Bloomberg were utilized and cross referenced to identify revenue amounts for each companies most recent completed fiscal year. In cases of multiple sites showcased varying numbers, the lowest was used.
Top Earning Websites Notes:
=> Yandex is a Russian Internet company which operates the largest search engine in the Russian Federation with about 60% market share in the country.
=> NetEase, Inc. is a leading China-based Internet technology company founded in 1997 that pioneered the development of applications, services and other technologies for the Internet in China.
=> AirBnB Revenue – How Much Does It Make?
=> Dropbox was one of the most difficult websites to track down revenue for, with varying revenue figures quoted – but there are plenty of references to its large valuation.
=> Myspace featured in our original list – whatever happened to them?
How Can I Make Money Online?
Every great website, starts with an idea. If it’s a good one, traffic comes naturally and money is a bi-product of your success. If you want to learn more about creating a website, check out our FREE eCourse. If you have not already done so – also check out Traffic Domination – where I share how this website has got over 10,000,000 visitors.
Read Next
-
The 100 Richest Internet Entrepreneurs -
Where 14 Of The Top Internet Businesses Got Started -
Top Earning Blogs – Make Money Online Blogging -
Who Owns Facebook? – The 10 Richest Facebook Shareholders -
Top 20 Most Awesome Company Offices -
20 Movies All Entrepreneurs Should Watch -
20 Top Blog Sales – Sell Your Blog For Millions -
20 People Who Started As Bloggers, Who Are Now So Much More!
"Do Not Write Another Blog Post Until You Watch This Free Video..."
Watch this free video to learn...
- How I got over 10,000,000 people to visit my websites.
- The types of blog post that got me all that traffic.
- How to get someone else to do it for you!
Where should I send your video?
Please enter your email address
How We Get Over 64.73% Of New Email Subscribers
We first added a popup opt-in box to IncomeSup back in 2010. Today, it gets us more subscribers than our homepage opt-in, footer opt-in, sidebar opt-in and squeeze pages combined.
After seeing how well it worked for us, we decided to develop it into a plugin our readers could use. It's been so popular that over 60,000 websites now use it!
Click Here To Get Instant Access
Wow .. that’s crazy man .. I would be happy when I make some cents per second
well, EBITDA is missing so it’s hard to analyze this kind of data on practical meanings.
Indeed, I feel the same way.
ha ha ha few cents a sec?….. i would be happy with few cents a min:)
Well one point i was loseing 2.00 a day in costs of server.
but now i make some times 100 a week or so not much i no but if we dont try we never will earn more like those
The ideal think is think of some think that ever one wants to do for at least 15 mins aday and then your be laughing as you may get brought out or just be siting on a mass money machine.
Wow that’s pretty amazing – I’m especially surprised to see Zappos earning more than AOL!
$691 per second! Wow, I did the maths because it didn’t sound right to equate to $21,800,000,000 but it sure did.
What an amazing bunch of sites…
now that’s what i call making money online..wooow…nice post
great…, internet is a place for richest
Crazy amounts and now that Google Checkout is going to start charging the same as Paypal that is set to rise even more.
Lets them do charitable gestures without batting an eyelid.
Sergey Brin is funding a Parkinson’s gene trial by 23andMe and then there is Google.org too.
Now if only if all the high profile companies had been this forward thinking in the past 20 years. I wonder how many others on that list contribute something back to society?
Very interesting & informative information
Thanks for all your kind words guys, the list is great inspiration!
Great point Stuart, I wonder if this so called recession will effect Google.
No!!!These Companies are Not Stupid and All have Major OffShore Accounting Firms pumping Millions into “Dirivative”,”MutualFunds”,”ProfitableStockMarkets”, “Options”,Currencies”&”ForexExchangers” on a “Hourly,Daily,Weekly,Monthly&Yearly” Basis and are using a Battery of Investment Brokers involved with these Financial Instruments & Tools!!!That’s what All Smart Companies & Wealthy Individuals do when they are making in excess of Hundreds of Millions of Dollars and must let their Money Make More Money even while their companies are still Racking in the “Big Dough”!!!
Could u please tell us that how much u are earning per second ? just wanted to know your level.
wow, that’s amazing … who knows knows… no recession for the brave
Impressive. I want to meet them!
Googles profits WILL soar this year as there are so many extra people turning to the net who have been made redundant etc… a real damned shame but a recession is and has been proven to make the big boys get bigger and it is a time when the shrewd explode thier profits while evryone else buries their head and mourns.
Moral: Take action and create your success story
Great post!
It looks like the Internet has a few recession proof portals! Huge $
Great list Michael. Thanks for sharing.
Nice list, but who the hell is Erik Prince? And when did he start AOL?
Another interesting post Michael. Very inspiring!
Great point Lewis, this recession is doing wonders for my business model!
Thanks guys, glad the list has inspired you!! Now do something about it
Once more. Michael… you supply great resources on posting… thanks so much.
Thanks Alvin I hope it inspires you with your recent project!
WOW! I wish I had a site up there, I’ll be happy when i start making pence per minute let alone per second.
Wow thats wicked! $700 odd a second for Google!!
“GOggle wow.” I goggle a lot hmmm……..
Great list Michael! I never knew that Google was making that much, haha
Dang, talk about a BIG earning per second, lol. Multiply it and it’s like wtf?!?!
-Mike
Is this outdated? Because if I’m not mistaken, Google owns YouTube so shouldn’t the YouTube earnings be added to Google?
This list would have been better if it stated what the sources of revenue were. For example, how is Skype making it’s money?
Please do this Michael
nice list but the important part was the presence of travel sites on that list…..looks like online travel is for sure a a good online prospect…
Thanks for all the support guys Will take in your thoughts for future top lists!
Thinking about doing one every week! Let me know what lists you want to see.
Michael, I found this post through a contact on Twitter who runs a very well known travel website.
I run a travel website myself too, but I also have a blog on a more personal subject. It relates to mind management, and I’m interested to see that you describe yourself as a dyslexic college drop out. I’m interested to see if I can monetise my blogs, as I have no problem in writing quality content.
Glad there’s no exams to pass when it comes to making money online, keep up the good work!
I would love to see Twitter on that list. The list is a great motivation.
Michael! Hey man, love the new site. I can’t wait to see http://www.retireat21.com up there in the list sometime!
Take care!
The online medium will be the future, no doubt about it. But an online medium controlled by giants will not be very helpfull.
Hey James! Long time and thanks so much man!
Could we really live without Google?
No I do not think we could live without google anymore… They have such a big market share, in everything!
Live without google? hmmm… probably, but not successfully. As a software engineer google plays a BIG part in my career, because I do a lot of research and problem solving.
Without it, you’d be reinventing the wheel everyday!
hmm…wonder where bonanzle.com is on that list.
wow!! That is amazing!! I’m interested to know how much of that they give away….a lot I reckon.
Facebook??
That is funny
Wow!! It’s amazing… $691.27/second
This is an amazing list. I thought Facebook was not making any money. Only last Friday, I heard they are trying to figure out how to make money with the site.
You can check how much you should be making from cubestat.com or websiteoutlook.com. they give you estimates of your should earn based on your pagerank and traffic ranking. Remember they are just ESTIMATES but if you really know how to monetize your site and turn the traffic to money, you’ll probably make more than the estimated figures.
I’m into lists…thanks
Michael,
Internet is really for someone who is looking for serious wealth!!!! The info is awesome. keep up the great job. Thanks.
Thanks for sharing this list.
Real Inspiration.
Regards
Jenney MaC
Keep up your good articles!~ I love your site. Bookmarked!
Woowww…. Amazing people.
wow. nice post dunlop. any time soon retireat21.com will be number 31.
keep it up mic you are my inspiration
Wow. Lots of money. BTW where did you get the numbers? Did you interview them Michael?
Great one
Very interesting information
Thank you
What I would love to see is a list of blog earnings although I do recognize that data would be far more challenging to come by.
Revenue isn’t everything… a few of those sites are actually operating at a loss, so they lose money every second instead
Does this mean the rest of us are on the other list? Great list – awesome income $691.27 per second now I have severe ‘income envy’
I hope tomorrow I will get my site name on the lists
Dear, i want to do online work related to the Netwrok and telecommunication ,any website where i found the the payable work.please guide me for such a website addresses so that i can start work.
Regards,
Great stuff! I wish I could be making $691.27/second haha.
I would like to own google for few minutes ((-;
I thought Google made more than that….
Wow per second That looks like fun. I hope one of these days I can reach $1 per second. That would be a ton of money lol
Nice list!
I’m ready M….ready to JV partner?
Tony
Wow! This is some crazy shit! I am suprised Facebook is that far down! I actually thought it would be close to the top.
Nice. Who would have thought. Little ol’ Google when it first came out…
wow decent list, good to see how much people can make white hat
Great List really i never thought paypal was so much earning, woneder if moneymaker stands some where
Nice list. Big G is the best.
7*MSN=G
3*Yahoo=G
so yahoo and msn aren’t even closer to G.
Really marvel at the amt earned by these guys if every my website gets to a fraction of what they earn I will be so happy
Waoooo Its amazing…………..!!!!!!!!!!
I look forward to getting my share. This was really inspirational.
I’m curious about top earning web sites from ad revenue only … most of those sites are selling things. What about content-only sites that have only advertising as their revenue? That’s what I’m curious about – what levels of traffic would I need for a site to be supportive via ad revenue only.
Niiice post thanks so much for this useful info
Impressive. While I took around 2 minutes to read through your chart, Google has already earned $82k…
$691.27 / second ?!!??!?!!?
Great list provided, Actualy these sites are may earning more day by day even we could think. But Google is alltime best all of these one.
Regards,
http://www.myfastmoney.com
http://www.fastmoneyproducts.com
.
What about wordpress?? Maybe top 50.
wow google awesome. the gaps between google n yahoo too far
I want a Site Like This….really
Wow, making so much cash with nly one website is incredible !
good site and all of us know that really top earning website.
WowWwww!! Per Second?????? Amazing! Tom Anderson is one of my idol..
My wide eyes could not come to rest even after 5 mins of reading the post. Fabulous compilation.
Surely China’s Tencent must be on this list?
Wow.. Amazing figures.. Really, Online business or websites is a new stream of income for many people nowadays.
Mmm.. nice sharing … i dont suprise wit the top 30 site. See how their site contribute to us .. good job !
I am overwhelmed with inspiration. Michael Iike you to visit my country perhaps you can inspire a lot of young people out there.
hey great site and i woudnt mind makeing a couple of cents either i know my mate whose 13 made $200 in a month. the same month he started up.
How about Digg? Multiply? Friendster? Shouldn’t they be included in the list also?
WoooW !!! THats amazing…Very inspiring people inside…
Another Quality list cheers mike
Yeah.. amazing..!
Where did u get from all these info ?
how did you calculate these figures? Can you outline your methodology. You obviously don’t factor costs in – YouTube loses scads of money on bandwidth costs
Wow, this is a fascinating list. I would never ever have guess that MySpace made less money than some of these others. OR even that Blue Nile made less than Zappos.
I guess what fascinates me the most is that the top 4 are all sites where other people can make some amount of money through affiliate contracts. I guess Zig Ziglar was right.
WOW! This is an amazing list. All these companies have changed the way we live our lives both online and off line. Thanks for the great info.
Michael,
I would love to see a list up to 100 or 500 companies
Maybe like a “Fortune 500” type thing….perhaps you can call it “Internet 500”
Thanks,
Colin
This was a very interesting post to read. Thanks for the good info you have provide here.
God have mercy
Darn! My site was number 31 on the list! I WISH!!
I’d love to know how much they invested to get started.
te
Awesome, awesome list Michael!!! Surely it id inspiring to see that there is a huge market in cyberspace.
Thank you.
Interesting list. It amazing how cyberspace can be a completely different world….. thanks for the list
Really Helpful Post.
Google making Amazing something..i wish once i could be,..haha
But Great Post man
Great list! Thanks. I wish it listed info about where the facts are from like why do they rank? Based on users? Stock?
When I see this list and compare it with the top earning blogs, I believe building web apps/websites are much more profitable. Can leverage the job of building the content to other people around the globe compared to blog posting done by few people in a team..
Now that’s alot of loose change being generated!
The big G the champion! If i can earn 0.01 percent per year from what they earn, i would be retire in early 30’s!!!
Thanks for this article. It gives us all a sense of the power of what you call “The Internet Lifestyle”. It points the way to our future.
Shallie Bey
Smarter Small Business Blog
hohoho…is that all of the money?? Nice posting man..you have great blog!!
Awesome.. Great income !! its give me inspire
i make $60/day.
that means 0.07/cent
great list…..i am wodering if amazon comes next to google
Hmm, i’m surprised about the youtube’s position, i expected it to be somewhere in top 10, it’s only 25th..
I wish some day my site will be in the list of TOP 10.
Wow that’s amazing Amazon is so close to google.
Soon you will see my website in that list!!^^
Wow, this is way cooler than I thought cents per seconds I thought cents per minute would be good for me but they got it in seconds…. Wow.
Google is leading
Thanks for sharing this list.
Youtube.com is google site…
why list it separately?
Wow, that is some serious money. Hopefully I can make my way up to making some money myself with my membership site. I teach how to create blog sites.
691.27$ a second…..
amazing….
Excellent article – thanks! Another site to check out that has loads of cool Domain Development info is
have pictures, videos, games, tutorials, product comparisons, and more.
Have fun!
This is a very inspiring post, that if you own a company like this you will be millionaire in no time. Someday, I will be on the list lolz….Aim high right?
Cheers,
Julius
so when do we get started………………. internet here i come..
Wow, that is really amazing! Very encouraging!!
Thanks Michael, but I think these Companies should help grassroot organisation who are also striving to help needed people with what they make in seconds.
They often support big organisations that already has a lot.
Can you advice on how want can starting raising funds?
Why not China’s Tencent ?
thanks for the info…i like it
True I would be happy with earning $5 a day. I feel the best way to make money is to start a website that you can build a community and that is what I am trying to do. I have to revamp it to make it a community so people can have fun and then people will keep coming back for me.
Amazon is above yahoo? That’s is surprising.
I remembered when amazon started, they were losing money every year.
Wish I would be on this list.
wow!!!!! Great list . Thanks for sharing
So unbelievable! What’s the source of this list? and this is as of 2009?
some of those websites really surprise me theyre up there.
hi cashyork.com also want to join in this group .
wait 10 years it will also come to here.
i belive it.
Well, I came here looking for subject ideas for my own website. Very interesting though and different than I’d expected.
great info it just blows your mind how much the companies are making on the internet. The vast majority of internet businesses are starving. Wow!
Hi Michael,
Some of the most original content that we have seen.
Good job!
Thanks
Sharon
FingerBiz.Com
Hey.. Thanks for sharing.
There is no sign of recession on this list.
It’s amazing.
Hope this inspires other peoples for their project.
I appreciate Ebay’s founder.
I’m sweating when looking at the figures.. (especially per second!)
this is …..razzzzzzzzyyyyyyy
I didn’t know that Amazon is second
nice list. More than i have lear’nt from the stats is how nice you keep readers on the page with numbers and $$s.
Cheers buddy, all the best.
Regards
Josh Thomas
Founder, OrangeCopper Solutions
That list is amazing. Only makes you realize you should have done something different out of college. darn!
Nice to see the revenues figures in this format (revenues, aren’t they?), just one comment, can you post a similar list with the profit revenues (positive and negative!!), so we can se as well how much money is lost every second by some of these majors -:()
all this time.. I thought porn sites would be included on the top 10.. =D
all what I can do is just dream about those ‘little’ numbers…:)
amazing wowwwwwww
You still didn’t tell us how do you make personally ? Would you please make a list of websites where the average person can make money .?
Great List, Fascinating to see the value of oAmazon, ebay,
Nice post …thanks
how the money can be earned online…
I can’t believe that….700 per second??? I make 700 per month…. :((
The traits of a Internet Entrepreneur are totally unique and to make this much money you must fit every stereotype.
Its unbelievable but it isn’t impossible. i wish i could earn some dollars in a day.
Goood list..And laso few of the sites is new to me like hotels.com and bidz like that..
I really like your post. Google is my home page, & loved to see that Google is in the first position. I really appreciate your post.
Thanks
Good list, thanks for sharing. Regards, Jasper
Wow…This web page is Awesome. Thanks for sharing the detailed information on top earning websites.
They are earning because they launch new concepts and note every site is having its own specialty . good one….
They are online legends. Great post.
I hope to enter that realm of profitability someday.
Wow wow ohh wait a minute. is this cash real people are making? you gotta be kidding me.I have looked at their bios n 90% are computer scientists!!!
OMG, they have income per second
can you tell me where you get it ?
amazing info dude
Everyone feel facebook is causing a threat to Google… facebook has looong way to catch up with Google
Wow man google founder is top 1
My site is almost there.
Google is way ahead of the game.
I wonder how much of Amazons profit came from Cloud Hosting?
Wow amazing income…..Hope, I can get few cent per second!
I love Google because I earned lots of money from Google Adsense. I think the coming next would be Face Book due to increasing popularity at every second.
Thanks
Chris Gill
This is interesting information and also enjoyed viewing the ad question readiness to take blogging seriously.
Hope someone well versed can contact me and also have a look at my quick blog prepared at CashnHits site, why is it not possible to do blogging at other good blog sites like WP and Bloggers on similar lines?
Is there a good and decent way to promote our well tested products to others in the mlm online income sites using good blogging style?
its best list ,its grate
nice it would be a great pleasure if i will be in this list
Yar Really this is amazing, i can’t believe it. I make 5.54$ in 10 days so they make in only 1 second.
Thanx Michael, for info any body tell me that how to increase our revenue
Mark Zuckerberg had become one of the youngest billionaire and his Facebook now is much much greater value than this 300,000,000.
It’s so powerful.
nice post from where you got this information. i was searching this
Surprisingly high profiting Sites.
Very inspirational to see the details of Topmost Websites on the Web.
I work for 170 hours a month,to make 350 euros some get almost twice that in one second welcome to eternal damnation
Real Cash always in wrong pocket
money always in wrong pocket help me make same money on my site http://realcash.org/