[OC] Unternehmen sind in den meisten Ländern und Territorien vertreten

Sources: Primary sources were company annual reports, 10-K filings, and official corporate disclosures (DHL 2024 Annual Report, FedEx 10-K, UPS 10-K, Marriott 2024 10-K, Hilton 2024 10-K, etc.). For companies that don’t publish a specific country count (Siemens, IBM, McDonald’s, Nestlé, Shell), figures were inferred from external research and aggregated public sources.

Methodology:
For each company, I cross-referenced three numbers:
(1) the company’s official self-reported country count
(2) Veridion’s verified location data (offices, plants, stores mapped to countries), and
(3) external sources where no official figure exists. When Veridion’s verified count exceeded the official claim, the higher number was used (Marriott, IHG).
When they matched within a reasonable range, the official figure was kept. „Country“ here follows the ISO 3166 definition, which includes both sovereign states and dependent territories under the control of other countries (such as Greenland, Puerto Rico, or French Polynesia). This is why top logistics players hit 220, well above the ~195 sovereign states on Earth. „Presence“ means at least one physical location, not just sales or distribution, which is why Nestlé shows 86 (factories + offices) instead of the 186 markets they sell into.

Caveats: Some official numbers are rounded up for marketing purposes („220+“, „150+“). Russia figures for companies like Mango may be stale post-2022 due to incomplete disclosure of retreat. Franchise-heavy models (McDonald’s, Hertz) include franchised locations.

Tools: Python (pandas) for data processing and cross-referencing, and Claude for visualization.

DHL uses local contractors at dirt cheap rates but has them use DHL branding to look legit.

Where is Microsoft? They have offices in 190 countries.