World of Forbes

Around the globe with our 34 international editions.

Across the planet, our 34 licensed editions span five continents, 27 languages and 24 time zones. They all share the same mission: celebrating entrepreneurial capitalism in all its guises. Here’s some of what they found.

CHINA

Real estate billionaire Hui Ka Yan topped the 2019 Forbes China Philanthropy List after he and his business gave away $590 million in 2018, most notably to poverty relief efforts.

GREECE

“I fell in love with basketball, and I told my parents that this is what I want to do . . . to fight to change our lives through it,” NBA superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo told Forbes Greece. The Milwaukee Bucks’ power forward, who was born in Athens, earned $43.2 million last year and is mulling how to put his newfound capital to work. “At the end of the day, it’s all about the legacy you leave behind.”

COSTA RICA

Costa Rican vice president Epsy Campbell Barr and Dominican actress-producer Celinés Toribio front an annual package on the region’s most powerful women leaders.

CYPRUS

First, Hollywood, then Bollywood—and now “Olivewood,” the recent push to create a Cypriot movie industry through a mix of tax incentives and cash rebates.

HUNGARY

Local rock icon Gábor Presser is taking his talents to the Great White Way, opening in a Broadway show later this year.

ANGOLA

Many of Angola’s biggest businesses can thank Salvador Abecassis for their spiffy-looking offices. He runs Insulana, whose cleaning services now attract more than 160 clients.

INDIA

With his Oyo Hotels and Homes taking off, founder Ritesh Agarwal is mounting a $2 billion deal in which he’ll buy back shares from early investors like Sequoia Capital.

ARGENTINA

Argentina’s latest unicorn: Auth0, which makes user authentication software, originally appeared on Forbes’ 2018 Next Billion-Dollar Startups.

BRAZIL

“I was very afraid of working with my family,” says Natalie Klein, daughter of former billionaire Michael Klein. So Natalie struck out on her own at age 21, starting her NK Store retail empire.

CZECH REPUBLIC

Beat Saber, a mix of Guitar Hero and Wii tennis, has become one of the bestselling VR games thanks to Praguebased Beat Games.

FRANCE

Thirty-one-year-old Caroline Receveur, model and founder of Wandertea, fronts an issue devoted to France’s most influential women.

INDONESIA

Gibran Rakabuming Raka, son of president Joko Widodo, and his cofounders hope young Indonesians will develop a taste for the traditional beverages from their startup Goola’s chain of drink stalls.

AUSTRIA

Today, Austrian startup In-Vision makes car components, tooth implants and sports helmets. It’s currently in early-stage tests to produce something else entirely: human organs.

GEORGIA

Mamuka Khazaradze, one of Georgia’s most famous entrepreneurs, is giving up business to take a stab at politics, possibly to challenge the ruling party controlled by billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili.

ISRAEL

Erez Galonska isn’t shy about the goal for his hydroponic startup, Infarm, which has raised more than $100 million: “By 2050, we will feed the 7 billion people who live in the world’s urban centers.”

ITALY

Bulgari, Fendi and Gucci have all committed to restoring Rome landmarks, including Santissima Trinità dei Monti Church and the Trevi Fountain.

LATVIA

Dace Broka’s Marksmens SIA has a chain of 28 grocery stores, mostly in the country’s smaller cities. Last year it did about $30 million in sales.

ROMANIA

Three decades ago, the Covaciu family started a ceramics business in a backyard. Then their company, IPEC, took off, thanks to an IKEA deal. They now produce goods in one of Romania’s most innovative factories.

SENEGAL

Senegalese artist Jeannot Bruce is having a moment thanks to his work, which consists of doors: old doors, rusty doors, doors washed up on beaches. The Clinton Foundation is among the collectors of the artist, who is eager to note that his work isn’t “sold,” but rather “adopted.”

SLOVAKIA

The Bergers— father Otto and son Roman— control the Niké betting empire, a $700 million (sales) business.

JAPAN

Maki Kaplinsky and her husband Guy’s recent startup NFT, a Silicon Valley-based aircraft company, has built a prototype of a threepassenger flying car.

MEXICO

“I don’t know why people say football is not a business,” boasts Alejandro Irarragorri, who owns two teams in Mexico’s Liga MX soccer league. “It’s an industry that has grown strongly.”

RWANDA

A quarter-century after the genocide, Rwanda is one of Africa’s most promising economies, ranking 29th in a recent World Bank report on business-friendly countries, ahead of Italy, Israel and South Africa.

JORDAN

As a child, Farah Al Asmar spent her time doodling designs. Now her eponymous handbag company has such fans as Jordan’s Queen Rania.

MONGOLIA

In the past, no women were in the top ranks of Mongolia’s fiscal policymakers. Enter Bulgantuya Khurelbaatar, a vice minister of finance for the past three years.

SPAIN

“As the population increases, cities must design more efficient housing,” says Luca Bovone. That conviction led him to start Projects Co-Living, which rents rooms in shared apartments.

KAZAKHSTAN

Restaurant king Almas Abdygapparov is dabbling in real estate development, taking on a $300 million project for a new neighborhood in Almaty, the country’s largest city.

POLAND

A quartet of Polish entrepreneurs have spent the past decade building up their Enter Air to carry 3 million passengers a year to France, Britain and Israel.

RUSSIA

Pavel Grudinin runs Russia’s largest strawberry farm, on the outskirts of Moscow. The fruit czar challenged Putin in the 2018 presidential elections, running as a Communist candidate.

THAILAND

As the Chokwatana family passes control from the second to the third generation, its Saha Group is trying to modernize. The venerable consumer goods conglomerate is building up its e-commerce business and launching its first unmanned store in Thailand later this year.

KOREA

Atomy, a fast-growing distributor of cosmetics and personal care products, has reached 14 countries (the U.S., Japan and Australia among them) on more than $1 billion in sales.

PORTUGAL

Actress Rita Pereira leads a list of the country’s 25 biggest digital influencers, pulling in half her income from Instagram, where she has 1.2 million followers.

TURKEY

Real estate prices have hit an 11-year low, and in 28 of 30 metropolitan areas, housing sales have shrunk more than 10%.

VIETNAM

Vinamilk dairy and brewer Sabeco—two companies partly owned by Thai billionaire Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi—and Viettel, the country’s largest mobile phone carrier, topped Forbes Vietnam’s annual most valuable brands list this year.