From the sex trade to the lucrative industry of food coloring, these are some of the biggest industries in the world you don't know about.
Source: Wikimedia
The Biggest Industries In The World: Illegal Drug Trade
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYiuRyLnZOk
While it is no surprise that pharmaceutical companies rank high on the list of the world’s largest industries, the darker side of that particular trade is even more vast. The illegal drug trade that encompasses the globe in various forms is actually one of the largest and most profitable industries in the world.
While it is difficult to peg exactly how much the drug trade makes annually due to the nature of the business, it is estimated that a final figure would be in the hundreds of billions per year.
Source: Wikimedia
The Big Industry Bite: The Food Industry
Thanks to the fact that food is, well, a necessity and that consuming it is an American pastime, the food industry is one of the largest industries in the planet.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eKYyD14d_0
While it is difficult to pin down an exact number due to the sheer size of the industry, it is believed the food industry alone is capable of generating trillions of dollars a year.
Source: The Food Farce
Getting From A to B: The Tourism Industry
Source: Static Flickr
Despite the inevitable hassles of the TSA, people still manage to find a way to make it from Hong Kong to France. If you combine all of those people, consider all of the services they use along the way, and all of the money spent on a single trip then you have what is considered one of the largest industries on Earth. As tourism grows yearly, it has become a trillion dollar business.
In 2011 alone, the World Tourism Industry estimates that tourists spent a whopping $1.03 trillion. So, next time you take that vacation and cringe at the price, consider that it is just a drop in a very large bucket.
Source: Hollywood Jesus
Making the Big Bucks: The Financial Industry
Source: Want China Times
While some people are content to hide money underneath the mattress, a majority of the planet’s population uses banks to keep their money managed and safe. The banks, which deal in using that money just as much as keeping it, create a multi-trillion dollar industry that involves nearly the entire population of the planet in one way or another.
The World’s Biggest Industries – Red Lights: The Sex Industry
Often considered one of the oldest trades on earth, the sex industry is to this day one of the largest and most profitable in the world. Another industry that treads the line between legal and illegal in places, the sex industry brings in billions of dollars across the globe on legal prostitution, pornography, and other related trades alone.
If the numbers were to be combined with the more illegal aspects of the trade, it would easily push the total profits annually over one trillion dollars.
