161 of the world's most successful websites, across 19 categories from search and social media to shopping, reference and AI. Each entry says when the site launched, who founded and owns it, how it makes money and why it won, with checked numbers and a link to every source. Text only, no images or videos. Last checked 13 November 2026.
A weather forecast site and app with local forecasts, warnings, radar and weather video. It comes from AccuWeather, a private weather company based near State College, Pennsylvania.
Why it succeeded
AccuWeather was founded in 1962 by Joel N. Myers, more than 30 years before it put AccuWeather.com online in 1996. Behind the site sits a large data business, and its weather data now feeds about 180,000 other websites through its API. It pays for its free forecasts with ads, sells extra features through a tiered subscription, and sells forecasting services to companies, with AccuWeather For Business serving more than half of the Fortune 500.
By the numbers
More than 1.5 billionpeople the company says it serves (Shown on its site, November 2026)
A travel booking site for hotels and holiday homes, plus flights and activities. Based in Singapore and part of Booking Holdings, it lists over 6 million properties and is available in 39 languages.
Why it succeeded
School friends Michael Kenny and Robert Rosenstein co-founded it in 2005, folding in Phuket-based websites Kenny had launched earlier. Booking Holdings, then The Priceline Group, bought it in 2007. It added iOS and Android apps in 2011, then flights and business-to-business tools such as a white label platform in 2019, and it now employs more than 7,000 staff in 27 markets.
By the numbers
Over 6 millionhotels and holiday properties on the platform (Shown on its site, November 2026)
A marketplace where hosts rent out homes, rooms and unique stays to travellers. Guests use it to book places to stay and experiences in over 220 countries and regions.
Why it succeeded
Airbnb says its story began in 2007, when two hosts let three guests stay in their San Francisco home. The Airbedandbreakfast.com website launched on 11 August 2008. By March 2009 it had 10,000 users and 2,500 listings, and by October 2019 two million people were staying with Airbnb on a given night. It listed on Nasdaq on 10 December 2020. It makes money by charging a commission on each booking.
By the numbers
155.0 millionnights and seats booked in the quarter (up 16% on the year before) (Q3 2026)
A spreadsheet and database hybrid where teams build their own apps, workflows and AI agents without code, sold on free and per seat paid plans.
Why it succeeded
Airtable launched in 2015 with the aim of letting anyone build software, mixing the ease of a spreadsheet with the power of a database. Teams use it to run projects, content calendars and operations without waiting on engineers, and it has added AI agents on top. More than 500,000 organizations rely on it, including 80% of the Fortune 100. Italian app company Bending Spoons completed its purchase of Airtable in September 2026.
By the numbers
More than 500,000organizations that rely on airtable (September 2026)
A Chinese online marketplace owned by Alibaba Group, where companies and small sellers list goods for shoppers around the world.
Why it succeeded
It launched in 2010 as a place where small businesses in China and elsewhere could sell to online buyers abroad. Since 2013 it moved away from small wholesale deals and towards ordinary shoppers. It also put money into logistics and payments, and in Russia postal delivery times fell from weeks to as little as 5 to 7 days, according to Wikipedia. In its June 2026 quarter results Alibaba said AliExpress made an operating profit.
By the numbers
RMB27,761 million (US$4,091 million)revenue of alibaba's international e-commerce business (includes aliexpress), down 1% on the year before (June quarter 2026 (April to June 2026))
RMB117,731 million (US$17,067 million)alibaba international commerce retail revenue (includes aliexpress and lazada), up 9% on the year before (Fiscal year 2026 (ended March 2026))
Poland's largest e-commerce platform, an online marketplace where thousands of merchants sell to millions of shoppers. It now also runs marketplaces in Czechia, Slovakia and Hungary.
Why it succeeded
Allegro started in Poznań in 1999 as an online auction site and grew into Poland's leading online marketplace. It earns mainly from commissions and fees on sales by its selling partners, and adds its own delivery network, Allegro Pay buy now pay later loans, advertising tools and the paid Smart! subscription, which has over 9 million users. Its 2020 listing was the largest IPO in the history of the Warsaw Stock Exchange.
By the numbers
About 21 millionactive buyers (15.6 million in poland, 5.3 million abroad) (Q2 2026)
A huge online store where people buy products sold by Amazon itself and by outside sellers. The same company also runs subscriptions, advertising and the AWS cloud business.
Why it succeeded
Jeff Bezos started the company in 1994 in Bellevue, Washington, under the name Cadabra, and the amazon.com site went live in July 1995. Today the money comes from many places at once: Amazon's own online stores, fees from third-party sellers, subscriptions, advertising and AWS. In the quarter to September 2026 the third-party seller services line alone was bigger than $46 billion.
By the numbers
$201.9 billion ($201,944 million)net sales in the quarter (Q3 2026)
A web and mobile work management platform that helps teams organise, track and manage projects and tasks, now with AI agents that work alongside people.
Why it succeeded
Dustin Moskovitz and Justin Rosenstein left Facebook in 2008 to build Asana after making a productivity tool there, and it came out of beta in 2011. A free plan lets small teams start, while paid per user plans and enterprise deals bring in revenue. It went public on the New York Stock Exchange in 2020 and has added AI Studio and AI Teammates. In the quarter to July 2026, 890 customers each spent $100,000 or more a year.
By the numbers
$216.4 millionquarterly revenue (up 10% on the year before) (Q2 FY27 (quarter ended 2026-07-31))
China's leading search engine. People use it to search the web in Chinese, and the company also runs AI cloud and app products.
Why it succeeded
Robin Li had built an earlier search technology called RankDex in 1996, and Baidu was set up as a company in January 2000 by Li and Eric Xu. It first supplied search to Chinese portals, then in September 2001 launched search on its own Baidu.com site and began charging advertisers each time someone clicked their ad, which became its main money engine. In August 2023 it unveiled Ernie Bot, its own AI chatbot. It is listed on Nasdaq and the Hong Kong exchange.
By the numbers
644 millionbaidu app monthly active users (June 2026)
An online music store where fans pay artists and their labels directly for music. It started in 2008 and has belonged to music licensing company Songtradr since October 2023.
Why it succeeded
Ethan Diamond and his cofounders built Bandcamp in 2008 so artists and labels could sell their music directly to fans. It keeps a 15% cut of sales, falling to 10% once an artist passes $5,000, so on average about 82% of each sale goes to the artist or label. Bandcamp Fridays, when it waived its share, raised more than $40 million for artists in 2020 and won it a loyal following. It changed hands twice, going to Epic Games in 2022 and Songtradr in 2023.
By the numbers
$1.83 billionpaid to artists and labels by fans (All time, as of November 2026)
The online home of the British Broadcasting Corporation, with news, sport, video and radio. bbc.com is the international edition and bbc.co.uk serves the UK.
Why it succeeded
BBC Online officially launched in April 1997 and sat on top of an already famous public broadcaster founded in 1922. At home it was funded mainly by the UK television licence fee, so it started free of ads. The BBC bought the bbc.com domain in 1999 for $375,000 and added banner ads in November 2007. BBC.com now also sells a subscription to readers in the US and Canada, and its World Service gives it reach well beyond the UK.
By the numbers
502 millionglobal weekly audience across bbc news, world service and bbc studios content (July 2026)
The online store of Best Buy, the largest specialty retailer in US consumer electronics. Besides its own range it now hosts a third-party Marketplace and sells ads through Best Buy Ads.
Why it succeeded
Best Buy's own timeline says it entered online retail in 2000 by launching bestbuy.com. The site works hand in hand with more than a thousand stores and with Geek Squad repair, warranty and service plans. Online is now about a third of the business: in Q2 FY27 domestic online revenue reached $3.00 billion, 33.1% of domestic revenue, and the company pointed to strong performance in its Best Buy Ads and Marketplace work.
By the numbers
$3.00 billiondomestic online revenue in the quarter (up 5.1% on a comparable basis) (Q2 FY27 (quarter ended 2026-08-01))
A Chinese video community known for anime, games, vlogs and user-made videos, with comments that scroll across the video.
Why it succeeded
It started in 2009 as a fan site for Hatsune Miku and took the Bilibili name in 2010. It grew around a young audience that loves anime, games and user-made content, then added a paid membership in 2016, mobile games and original programming. It listed on NASDAQ in 2018 and on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2021.
Microsoft's web search engine. People use it for web, image, video and news search, and for AI chat answers built into search.
Why it succeeded
Microsoft launched Bing on 3 June 2009 to replace Live Search, which itself grew out of MSN Search from 1998. In February 2011 it passed Yahoo in search share for the first time. In 2023 Microsoft added AI chat to Bing, and in April 2026 it said Bing had passed 1 billion monthly active users for the first time. Wikipedia also notes it is the second-largest search engine in the world.
By the numbers
1 billion, reached for the first timemonthly active users (Q3 FY2026 (quarter to March 2026))
A Dutch online store and marketplace for the Netherlands and Belgium. It sells general merchandise itself and lets tens of thousands of partner sellers list their goods.
Why it succeeded
Bertelsmann launched bol as an online bookshop in March 1999, and Ahold bought it in 2012. It opened to outside sellers in 2011 and now lists tens of millions of items from more than 43,000 partners. Its owner Ahold Delhaize calls it one of its leading platforms in Europe, and it serves 14 million active customers in the Netherlands and Belgium.
By the numbers
14 millionactive customers (netherlands and belgium) (March 2026)
A travel site for booking hotels, apartments and other places to stay around the world. It is one of the brands of Booking Holdings.
Why it succeeded
It began in 1996 as Bookings.nl, started by a University of Twente student. In 2000 it merged with Bookings Online and took the Booking.com name. Priceline Group, now Booking Holdings, bought it in July 2005 for $133 million and later merged it with ActiveHotels.com. Wikipedia notes some observers have called it the best acquisition in internet history. In 2020 the US Supreme Court ruled the Booking.com name could be trademarked.
By the numbers
$54.5 billiongross travel bookings across all booking holdings brands, up 10% on the same quarter of 2025 (Q3 2026 (July to September 2026))
Brainly is a homework help and test prep platform for students in grades 7 to 12 and their parents. It started in Poland in 2009 as a peer to peer question and answer community and now centres on AI help plus optional human tutors.
Why it succeeded
Brainly grew by letting students ask homework questions and get answers from other students, which built a huge library of solved questions in many languages. It has since shifted to AI that breaks problems into steps and turns weak spots into test practice, sold to parents as a paid plan with a learning advisor and a 30 day money back guarantee. Its site says it serves more than 15 million parents and students.
By the numbers
15M+parents and students (As stated on site, November 2026)
The online home of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, with more than 120,000 articles that are updated regularly. Non-subscribers can read it with ads, and schools and libraries pay for wider access.
Why it succeeded
The encyclopaedia began in Edinburgh in 1768 and had more than 200 years of brand trust before it moved online. The company launched Britannica.com in 1999 with the complete encyclopaedia, and in March 2012 it said it would stop printing and focus on digital. Articles are revised on a schedule, and it sells subscriptions to schools, colleges and libraries while free readers see ads.
By the numbers
Over 7 billionpage views a year (Shown on its site, November 2026)
An online design tool where people make social posts, presentations, videos and more, free or on a paid plan.
Why it succeeded
Canva was released in August 2013 and had more than 750,000 users in its first year. It reached profitability in 2017 with 294,000 paying customers. Its co-founder and COO said annual recurring revenue hit $4 billion by the end of 2025, and the company reported more than 31 million paid users by then.
An AI chatbot from OpenAI that answers questions, writes and edits text, and works with images and voice. People use it for everything from homework and coding help to everyday research.
Why it succeeded
ChatGPT was released on 30 November 2022 and reached 100 million monthly active users within two months. OpenAI runs it as a freemium product with paid subscriptions, and in 2026 it began testing ads in the free version for adults in the US. By August 2026 those ads were available in more than 40 countries.
Added 1 November 2026 · Last checked 9 November 2026
Every entry is written up from the linked sources and re-checked on the date shown. "Successful" here means a website that ranks among the most visited in the world or leads its category by users or revenue. Numbers are as reported by each source, often the company itself, for the period shown, so treat them as claims, not audited results. Owners, traffic and revenue change, so check the source before you rely on a figure. Spot something out of date? Tell us and it will be fixed. Company and product names belong to their owners, and we are not affiliated with any of them.
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