I'm interested in understanding how the global tobacco industry is structured. I looked into the statistics and realized that this market is truly enormous — a few corporations hold the lion's share of the business. The largest tobacco companies in the world control literally everything: from cigarette production to investments in alternative products.

In terms of production volume, the Chinese state-owned CNTC leads — it alone produces over 40% of all cigarettes worldwide, with an annual profit of about $30 billion. Next are the American and British giants: Philip Morris with a market capitalization of $141.93 billion actively invests in IQOS, British American Tobacco owns over 200 brands in 180 countries, Altria controls Marlboro. Japanese JTI, Indian ITC, South Korean KT&G — each of these tobacco companies occupies its own niche in regional markets.

What surprised me — even despite the global fight against smoking, tobacco companies continue to remain highly profitable enterprises. Imperial Brands with brands like Davidoff and Gauloises, Swedish Match with its smokeless products, Egyptian Eastern Company — all show stable profitability. It seems the industry is adapting to new realities, but it’s not disappearing anywhere. It will be interesting to see how the structure of this market changes in the coming years.