Fun Facts: Business
Here are fun facts and trivia about business curated from various sources.
40% of the businesses fail because of inadequate financial management.
50% of the startups fail within five years.
64% of small business owners begin with only $10,000 in capital.
75% of all Rolls Royce cars produced are still on the road today.
90% of small businesses employ fewer than ten people.
Steven Sasson invented the world's first digital camera while working at Eastman Kodak in 1975. Kodak made billions off the digital camera patent until it ran out in 2007. But by the time the company embraced digital, it was too late. Kodak filed for bankruptcy in 2012.
Adding /4 to the end of Facebook's URL will take you to Mark Zuckerberg's profile.
Amazon was initially named Cadabra. Jeff Bezos changed the name to Amazon.com, Inc., because a lawyer misheard its original name as "cadaver."
Amazon managers attend two days of call-center training, including Jeff Bezos.
Apple I went on sale in July 1976 as an assembled circuit board with a retail price of $666.66.
Barbie's full name is Barbara Millicent Roberts.
Ben & Jerry's has a flavor graveyard in the company's Waterbury, Vermont "cemetery."
Ben & Jerry's was originally going to be a bagel company.
Blockbuster laughed at a Netflix partnership offer in 2000.
Changing the U.S. $1 bill for a $1 coin would save the U.S. $4.4 billion in 30 years.
Chess is the best-selling board game, with 3 million copies sold yearly in the United States. Last 2020, the chess market was worth $40.5 million in North America.
Clorox owns Burt's Bees.
Coca-Cola went from a cocaine-infused elixir in 1886 to a ubiquitous sugary drink by 1929. Now people in more than 200 countries drink 1.9 billion servings every day, according to The Coca-Cola Company.
Cristiano Ronaldo is the highest-earning celebrity on Instagram, with 303 million followers and an estimated average price of $1,604,000 per post.
Dasani water is just purified tap water. It doesn't come from a natural spring.
Each week, nearly one-third of the U.S. population visits Walmart.
ebay.com was the founder's second choice after echobay.com
Everything you say to Siri is sent to Apple, analyzed, and stored.
Facebook is primarily blue because Mark Zuckerberg suffers from red-green color blindness.
Gambling generates more revenue than movies, spectator sports, theme parks, cruise ships, and recorded music.
Google was initially called BackRub.
Google became a verb in 2006 when Merriam Webster Collegiate Dictionary and the Oxford English Dictionary recognized it.
Gucci holds the Guinness World Record for the most expensive pair of jeans costing $3,134.
If Bill Gates were a country, he would be richer than 40 countries.
In 1949, Frank McNamara was dining at Major's Cabin Grill in New York City and realized his wallet was sitting at home. His experience inspired McNamara and his business partner Ralph Schneider to release the first cardboard Diners Club Card in 1950.
Immigrants contribute twice as much to U.S. entrepreneurship as native-born citizens do.
In 1994, Nintendo celebrated the sale of 1 billion game cartridges.
In 2012, the CEO of Lenovo, Yang Yuanqing, was given $3,000,000 as a reward for record profits. He shared it with about 10,000 employees, the majority being production staff. This amounts to about $300 per employee, the typical worker's monthly pay.
In 2014, Dunkin' Donuts in South Korea started spraying coffee aroma into public buses every time their jingle played. Coffee sales increased 29%.
In 2019, Johnson & Johnson generated $82.06 billion in revenue — making it the top cosmetic manufacturing company by revenue.
In 2020, based on advertising expenditures, Procter & Gamble won the title of the largest advertiser worldwide, having invested eight billion in promotional activities.
In iPhone ads, the time is always 9:42 a.m. or 9:41 a.m. because Apple events start at 9 a.m. and big product reveals generally happen 40 minutes into the presentation.
In Kaifeng, China, Ma Yu Ching's Bucket Chicken House is considered the world's oldest operating restaurant, first opening in 1153 AD during the Jing Dynasty.
In response to China's air pollution, Chinese millionaire Chen Guangbiao started selling cans of fresh air for $0.80 and made over $6 million in 10 months.
It takes the average McDonald's employee seven months to earn what its CEO makes in an hour.
Lamborghini used to make farm equipment.
LEGO had the highest annual revenue of all major toy companies, generating approximately eight and a half billion U.S. dollars in 2021.
Mario is currently the best-selling video game franchise of all time.
Maurizio Antoninetti sued Chipotle Mexican Grill in 2010, alleging that Chipotle's treatment of customers who use wheelchairs violated the Disabilities Act.
McDonald's onion nuggets didn't make it past the test market stage.
Microsoft made $16,005 in revenue in its first year of operation.
More people in the world have mobile phones than toilets.
More than 80 million "mouse ears" have been sold at Walt Disney World.
Newman's Own donates 100% of its post-tax profits to charity. As of June 2012, these donations have exceeded 330 million dollars.
Nike was initially named "Blue Ribbon Sports."
Nokia has initially been a wood-pulp mill in the city of Nokia in Finland.
Robert Chesebrough, the inventor of Vaseline, ate a spoonful of the stuff every morning.
Samsung manufactures Apple's iPad retina display.
Samsung was once renowned for selling dried fish and other groceries.
Seventy percent of small businesses are owned and operated by a single person.
Starbucks' round tables were created so customers would feel less alone.
Starbucks was nearly called Pequod, the name of the whaling ship in Moby Dick. Thankfully, one of the partners rejected the name. Instead, they went with Starbucks, the name of Pequod's first mate.
Steve Jobs is credited as an executive producer on Toy Story.
The "Mayfair" filter on Instagram generates the most likes.
The arrow in the Amazon logo points from A to Z, highlighting the retailer's wide range of products.
The co-founder and CEO of Snapchat, Evan Spiegel, turned down an offer of $3 billion from Facebook and a $4 billion bid from Google.
The first Apple logo designed by Ronald Wayne and Steve Jobs illustrated Sir Isaac Newton under an apple tree, and the background had a poem written on the side of the drawing.
The first book sold on Amazon.com was Douglas Hofstadter's Fluid Concepts and Creative Analogies: Computer Models of the Fundamental Mechanisms of Thought.
The first-ever product that Sony came up with was an electric rice cooker.
The founder of FedEx saved the company by taking its last $5,000 and turning it into $32,000 in a Vegas casino.
The most expensive face mask ($1.5 million) is the Diamond Studded Mask designed by Yvel and embellished with nearly 4,000 precious stones, including 3,608 white and black diamonds totaling 210 carats and inlaid with 250 g of 18-karat gold.
The most popular search engine in China is Baidu, with 558 million active users and a 73.86% market share across all devices (desktop, mobile, and tablet).
The red and white Coca-Cola logo is recognized by 94% of the world's population.
The upside-down ketchup bottle earned Paul Brown, its inventor, 13 million dollars.
There's speculation that SPAM stands for 'Shoulder of Pork and Ham." But according to their website, "The real answer is known by only a small circle of former Hormel Foods executives."
Their leading competitor, Samsung, manufactures Apple's iPad retina display.
Tom's of Maine is owned by Colgate-Palmolive.
U.S. corporations are reportedly hiding $1.6 trillion in profits offshore.
Walt Disney World in Orlando covers over 40 square miles, roughly the size of San Francisco or two Manhattan islands.
Walter Cavanagh of California is known as "Mr. Plastic Fantastic." He has more than 13,000 credit cards, the most extensive collection in the world. He keeps his cards in the world's largest wallet, 250 feet long.
Valued at $8.5 million, the Astolat Dollhouse Castle is the most expensive and rarest toy ever.
Warner Music owns the copyrights to "Happy Birthday," so it's technically owed royalties every time you sing it to someone on their big day.
Taobao, Alibaba's crown jewel online e-commerce platform was a clandestine project, so secretive that almost no one internally knew about its existence until after product release.
YouTube broadcasts about one-third of the U.S.'s multimedia entertainment.
Approximately 20 percent of small businesses fail within the first year. Thirty percent of enterprises will have fallen by the end of the second year. By the end of the fifth year, about half will have failed. And by the end of the decade, only 30 percent of businesses will remain — a 70 percent failure rate.