Who Rules The World 2021

Larry Page, co-founder of Google and the eighth richest person in the world, tops the Who Rules The World? (WRTW) index with a personal wealth of approximately $100 billion. Page is one of the few prominent tech founders to maintain a majority voting share in his company, which gives him an inordinate amount of power and contributes to his number one position on the index. Google products are used by an estimated 7 billion people daily, giving Page access to the world's largest network of individuals on a common platform. There are more mentions of the term Google on the internet than almost any other term, and searches for it return approximately 10.2 billion results. By comparison, ‘Microsoft’ produces 1 billion, ‘China’ 6.7 billion, and ‘coronavirus’ 1.7 billion.

The President of the United States takes the silver medal in the WRTW index. This is primarily because anyone who assumes the role of US President wields a vast amount of power and influence. In his role as President of The United States, Biden has access to the world’s largest economy and military, and has the ability to implement policies that impact every vertical measured in the WRTW index on a global scale. There is a reason the US presidential elections are so closely followed around the globe.

Brin comes in at 3rd place. Although he is the co-founder of Google alongside Page in 1998, Brin is significantly less active in public life, thus resulting in a lower influence score and overall ranking than his co-founder Page. Despite this, Brin still has equal control over the most extensive online network to exist, is the 8th wealthiest person in the world, with over $100B net worth, thus putting him in equal league with Page in terms of power and wealth.

As the leader of China’s only political party, Jinping resides over the world’s second largest economy. Furthermore, China had the largest army in the world in 2020, with over 2 million active military personnel, all of whom fall under Jinping’s jurisdiction, as do China’s 1.4 billion people. In extension to this, China's parliament recently amended its constitution, broadening Xi's power and scrapping term limits, which gives Jinping immense (and ongoing) political power.

Founder of Amazon, Jeff Bezos is often referred to as the richest man on Earth due to his $200 billion-strong personal wealth. Amazon needs no introduction beyond the fact that for every charger, dog treat or set of pens that arrives through your door, Bezos is benefitting. Bezos also has access to multiple high-influence networks through entities he owns or has invested in. These include (but are by no means limited to) Amazon Alexa, The Washington Post, Google, Airbnb, Uber, Twitter, Twitch, Whole Foods and, most recently, Blue Origin, which is a well-documented space exploration project.