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Most Innovative Companies 2011

Most Innovative Companies 2011

The goal of our list is to represent the breadth of innovation across the economy — and to inspire our readers to engage with it. We try to include surprises, which is one reason we are biased against repeating businesses that have been on the list before. Think of our Most Innovative Companies list as a tool we're using to deliver key information about innovation across the globe.

Honorees by Rank

01Apple

For dominating the business landscape, in 101 ways

02Twitter

For five years of explosive growth that has redefined communication

03Facebook

For 600 million users, despite Hollywood

04Nissan

For creating the Leaf, the first mass-market all-electric car

05Groupon

For reinvigorating retail-and turning down $6 billion

06Google

For instantly upgrading the search experience

07Dawning Information Industry

For building the world's faster supercomputer

08Netflix

For streaming itself into a $9 billion powerhouse (and crushing Blockbuster)

09Zynga

For being the $500 million alpha dog of social gaming

10Epocrates

For giving doctors and nurses instant drug reference

01 - 10

Honorees by Sector

Advertising and Marketing

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01Wieden+Kennedy

For creating the nimble, novel Old Spice campaign.

02Kraft

For recognizing and targeting an underestimated demographic.

03Ford

For taking an audacious plunge into social media.

04Mullen

For coming back to win progressive social-media clients.

05Vivaki

For driving collaboration inside and outside a giant holding company.

06Google Creative Lab

For behaving as an iterative, cross-disciplinary skunkworks.

07Horizon Media

For proving that private and profit aren’t mutually exclusive.

08Grey NY

For penetrating pop culture with story-driven marketing.

09360i

For navigating search and mobile with obsessive social-listening prowess, and creating hundreds of winning campaigns for clients.

10BBDO NY

For pushing beyond the 30-second spot.

Architecture

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01Snøhetta

For design that's both social and beautiful that blurs the lines between architecture and landscape.

02BIG

For winning high profile commissions and international accolades—a feat given the firm's small size—thanks to the work of its Danish architect Bjarke Ingels.

03Foreign Office Architects

For its bold vision for the digital media education center at Ravensbourne College.

04SANAA

For Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa's ability to design properties that meld light, transparency, and materiality into ethereal spaces.

05REX

For transforming the abandoned skeleton of an unfinished hotel in Istanbul into the Vakko Fashion Center and Power Media Center.

06Michael Maltzan Architecture, Inc.

For scoring tony commissions, such as designing Michael Ovitz's house, while also tackling less glamorous work by by providing shelter and other accommodations for the poor in Los Angeles.

07Kengo Kuma

For developing a signature style that uses light and nature to reinterpret the design of traditional buildings.

08T.R. Hamzah & Yeang International

For going beyond the usual LEED guidelines and broadcasting the green credentials of the buildings the firm designs by wrapping them in continuous strips of vegetation.

09Moshe Safdie

For having a banner year, despite the difficult economic climate for architecture, and for debuting projects from Singapore to Arkansas.

10Diebedo Francis Kere

For doing innovative architecture projects in his native Burkina Faso, one of the poorest countries in Africa.

Biotech

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01Amyris

For deploying novel methods to fight an old foe, the malaria parasite.

02Omeros

For a new test to identify potential drug receptors.

03Synthetic Genomics

For its multi-application approach to synthetic microbes.

04Galapagos

For its super-efficient drug pipeline.

05Amgen

For a new osteoporosis drug that could also battle hormonal breast cancer.

06Fate Therapeutics

For devising an innovative way to test drugs on human cells.

07Novabay

For antibiotic-like compounds that fight their battles by mimicking the human immune system.

08Oncogenex

For protein-targeting, chemo-boosting cancer treatments.

09Myelin Repair Foundation

For its unorthodox, highly collaborative approach to drug development.

10Kane Biotech

For a wound-care spray that could aid and speed healing.

Brazil

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01Azul

For converting bus riders into frequent fliers.

02Ambev

For leading the merger that formed the world’s largest brewer.

03Petrobras

For becoming the world leader in ultra-deepwater drilling.

04Osklen

For designing clothing that’s both chic and sustainable.

05Embrapa

For pioneering innovations in tropical agriculture.

06Gerdau

For responding with speed and smarts to shifts in the market for steel.

07Natura

For growing a green empire with Brazilian flora.

08Embraer

For challenging the outsourcing model in the aviation industry.

09Metalfrio Solutions

For identifying and exploiting a profitable niche.

10Solar Ear

For making hearing aids affordable.

China

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01Dawning Information Industry

For being China's leading supercomputer-maker.

02Huawei

For building the future of telecoms.

03Changchung Dacheng Industrial Group

For being the first company in the world to mass-produce plant-based glycols, which can be used as a building block for cosmetics, plastics, and household cleaning products.

04ZTE

For its whiz-bang mobile products.

05CSR

For leading the charge on high-speed rail in the U.S.

06Tencent

For turning online gaming into a massive profit generator.

07WuXi PharmaTech

For reporting stellar earnings and growing its reputation as the leader in outsourced contract research—despite a failed merger with Charles River.

08BYD

For developing cutting-edge battery tech, even as it audaciously attempts to grow its plug-in hybrid auto sales.

09MAD Architects

For being one of the first Chinese design firms to win major projects outside of China.

10Hermes

For launching a domestic brand focused exclusively on the Chinese market.

Consumer Electronics

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01Apple

For dominating the business landscape, in 101 ways.

02Samsung

For transforming itself into a steady source of cutting-edge electronics.

03Microsoft

For turning the human body into a game controller.

04Panasonic

For leaping into the third dimension.

05Livescribe

For creating a smart pen that's a mainstream tool for creative business professionals and students.

06Mavizon Technologies

For its next-gen, Internet-enabled, in-car computing system.

07Boxee

For introducing the Boxee Box, a device that bridges the gap between computers, Internet content, and your living room TV.

08Control 4

For creating the ultimate remote, which can control lighting, temperature, security, audio and video feeds, and more.

09PowerBeam

For enabling wireless electricity.

10Tremont Electric

For creating a handheld power system.

Consumer Products

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01Nissan

For creating the Leaf, the first mass-market electric car.

02Nike

For its mix of sports, style, and yes, plastic bottles.

03Samsung

For transforming itself into a steady source of cutting-edge electronics.

04Dyson

For continuing to rethink urban appliances—with style.

05P&G

For implementing a systemized, measured means of achieving a broader set of sustainability goals.

06Whirlpool

For its smart washer and dryer line that brings the kind of intelligence and personalization to laundry that we've grown accustomed to in, say, our home-entertainment centers.

07Method

For doubling down on its commitment to both good design and sustainability in home cleaning products.

08Oxo

For reshaping more and more everyday household tools with its smart design ethos.

09Unilever

For helping consumers change their cleaning habits to become better stewards of the earth—and making more of its own eco-friendly products—as part of its Cleaner Planet Plan.

10Merck

For developing a groundbreaking FootMapping technology for its Dr. Scholl's brand

Design

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01Stamen Design

For clever ways of delivering both bountiful information and surprising beauty gleaned from data sets—and Twitter.

02Local Projects

For showing how digital design can create powerful emotional experiences.

03Hoefler & Frere-Jones

For creating brilliant typefaces used in everything from presidential campaigns to stock tables.

04Berg

For tackling design challenges, from iPad apps to RFID tags, as if they were science experiments.

05fuseproject

For proving that great commercial design can be used to underwrite great philanthropic design.

06IDEO

For opening its own innovation processes to the world.

07Ammunition

For cutting-edge consumer electronics that still have soul.

08Pentagram

For graphic design that sets a new standard, for old-school books as well as newfangled animated logos.

09Michael van Valkenburgh

For transforming rotting docks and wastewater facilities into enchanting environments.

10Studio Dior

For melding visual poetry and practical multitasking in products, interiors, and architecture.

Education

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01New York University

For opening up a second campus in Abu Dhabi.

02LinkedIn

For developing LinkedIn's Career Explorer, which offers users career path recommendations that are tailored to their interests and based on the real paths of professionals with similar profiles.

03Khan Academy

For building a collection of more than 1,800 short, simple video lectures and chalkboard demos that cover everything from math to physics to economics.

04Discovery Education

For leading the way in the digital learning movement by making video-based content that reaches more than half of all U.S. schools, including 1 million teachers and 35 million students.

05Togetherville

For creating a social network built on top of Facebook for kids, families, and teachers that allows them to express their thoughts on educational issues.

06Autodesk Sustainability Workshop

For teaching mechanical engineers (for free) the principles behind sustainable design.

07OpenStudy

For building a social learning network where students can ask questions, offer help, and connect with other students studying similar topics.

08Irynsoft

For providing the first basic mobile platform that allows users to take a course on their iPhone.

09Straighterline

For developing an online for-profit college where the first year costs $999.

10Inigral

For creating Facebook apps that help students stay in college by connecting them to a community of students who share their interests.

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Energy

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01SolarCity

For being the nation's leading installer of rooftop solar panels.

02Enerkem

For finding the hidden power of trash.

03Envirofit

For manufacturing cheap, environmentally friendly stoves for consumers in the developing world.

04Portland General Electric

For creating an investor-owned utility for renewable energy customers.

05Cook Inlet Region Inc.

For establishing an Alaska-based venture capital company that's owned cooperatively by 7,500 shareholders who invest in green energy startups, wind farms, and geothermal and tidal power projects.

06Earth Aid

For building a web or iPhone-based monitor that measures the amount of energy, water, and natural gas a consumer uses in his or her home.

07U.S. Military

For experimenting with energy conservation on the battlefield by sending a Marine company into Afghanistan with new equipment such as portable solar panels, energy-conserving lights, solar tent shields, and solar chargers for computers and communications.

08GE

For doubling its R&D investment in clean energy technologies from $5 billion from 2005 to 2010 to $10 billion from 2010 to 2015.

09Joule Biotechnologies

For figuring out how to turn algae into hydrocarbon-based fuel.

10Solyndra

For designing cylindrical solar panels that, versus the conventional options, are both easier to install and better structured to collect light at various angles.

Fashion

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01Burberry

For breathing new life into a luxury stronghold.

02Opening Ceremony

For building a global brand that still feels exclusive.

03Rent the Runway

For being the Netflix for dresses (and handbags and accessories).

04J.Crew

For redefining affordable American style.

05CreateThe Group

For being the behind-the-scenes player helping luxury brands.

06IMG

For being the power broker behind nearly every Fashion Week worldwide.

073.1 Phillip Lim

For its nimbleness in the burgeoning Asian market, both on the manufacturing end and in sales.

08Forever 21

For giving the low-price chain a high-end sensibility.

09Monique Péan

For being an eco-friendly jewelry designer.

10QVC

For becoming so much more than television trunk shows.

Film

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01Netflix

For ushering in the era of streaming video.

02Double Negative

For blowing our minds with Oscar-worthy visual effects.

03RealD

For taking 3-D mainstream.

04DreamWorks Animation

For cornering the market on brand extensions.

05Participant Media

For creating big-screen movies that can affect big-time social change.

06AMC Theatres

For transforming itself into an entertainment center and venue rather than just a cinema.

07Tool

For ushering in interactive cinema on the iPad.

08Tiffen

For bringing its high-end filmmaker tools to the masses.

09Gnomon School of Visual Effects

For being the top educator in visual effects.

10Magnolia Pictures

For its creative approach to indie film marketing.

Finance

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01PayPal

For leading the charge on digital money.

02Citibank

For developing a new model for retail banking, and engineering the tech to make it possible.

03SecondMarket

For creating the largest "secondary market" for private-company shares.

04mPower Group

For committing more than $100 million to provide high-quality, low-cost financial services to the world's unbanked masses.

05Intuit

For its Mint-y fresh makeover.

06StockTwits

For building the Web's most comprehensive—and accessible—virtual trading floor.

07Kiva

For applying its uber-successful microfinance model to student loans.

08BancVue

For arming long-struggling community banks and credit unions with better-than-the-big-guys perks.

09Yodlee

For developing a platform that serves as the back-end for 85% of all online personal financial management services.

10Wealthfront

For developing an investment-centric social network that's peeling back the curtain on the $10 trillion mutual-fund industry.

Food

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01PepsiCo

For its ambitious nutrition R&D.

02Trader Joe's

For vaulting past Whole Foods to become America's favorite specialty grocer.

03Madecasse

For building a bean-to-bar chocolate company in one of the poorest countries in the world.

04Cargill

For charging into the sweetener market with a plant-based product that's aims to be eco-aware and health-friendly.

05FoodHub

For creating an online tool to connect local food producers to food buyers big and small.

06Current Energy

For greening restaurants (and saving them money in the process).

07Chipotle

For boldly taking advertising in-house.

08McDonald's

For changing the way we think about the most iconic restaurant in the world.

09Bolthouse Farms

For its ambitions to double the $1 billion baby-carrot business by using junk food tactics.

10Max Burgers

For being the first carbon-footprint fast-food chain.

Gaming

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01Zynga

For dominating—and monetizing—the social-gaming industry.

02Apple

For developing the year's most successful new gaming platform: the iPad.

03Microsoft

For developing the controller-free Kinect.

04Valve

For creating Steam, a global digital distribution platform that's quickly becoming iTunes of the gaming industry.

05Facebook

For developing the biggest social-gaming platform on the planet.

06IBM

For its audacious move into serious games.

07Rovio

For developing Angry Birds, which has easily been the year's biggest mobile-gaming success story.

08Emotiv Systems

For pioneering the thought-controlled gaming genre.

09Scvngr

For turning everyday life into a game.

10Nexon

For being the only Asian virtual-goods giant to make inroads in the United States.

Health Care

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01Epocrates

For creating software that gives doctors and nurses instant information on drug-to-drug interactions, treatment recommendations, and more on their mobile devices or laptops.

02Syncardia

For giving mobility to artificial-heart recipients.

03Voxiva

For developing mobile apps that coach users through everything from smoking cessation to diabetes management.

04Cleveland Clinic

For rethinking the entire hospital experience, from the buildings to the hospital gown, with an eye to delivering a better patient experience.

05SafePoint

For providing a solution for one of the most intractable global health care issues: reused syringes, which render most injections in India, Pakistan, and Africa—and a growing number in the U.S.—unsafe and sometimes fatal.

06Envoy Medical

For creating the first FDA-approved surgically implanted hearing system to address hearing loss caused by aging, noise and viral infections.

07GE

For promising to revolutionize diagnosis with the Vscan, a mobile, pocket-size ultrasound machine the size of an iPod, connected to short wand.

08PharmaSecure

For coming up with cost-effective protection against counterfeit drugs, which are especially prevalent in developing nations.

09NeuroVigil

For building a database of brainwave activity to help researchers recognize disease patterns in people affected by neural or nervous system maladies.

10Second Sight Medical Products

For its ground-breaking retinal-implant technology, which recently hit the European market.

India

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01Shaadi.com

For proving that marriage, Indian-style, works online as well as off.

02Tata Motors

For leveraging its knowledge of the Indian market.

03HarVa

For expanding India's outsourcing industry to rural areas.

04Apollo Telemedicine Networking Foundation

For scaling telemedicine.

05Gram Vaani (Village Talk)

For making community radio possible in villages and small towns.

06Invention Labs

For giving a "voice" to speech-impaired children.

07A Little World

For taking banking to the remotest of villages in India.

08Digital Green

For crowdsourcing instructional videos.

09Fabindia

For connecting more than 40,000 traditional craftspeople with the world's growing urban middle class.

10Godrej Group

For introducing refrigeration to India's rural masses.

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Media

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01Univision

For pleasing its Latino base, and threatening the TV network establishment.

02Huffington Post

For creating an online aggregator and tech-savvy news site—and getting acquired by AOL for $315 million.

03Discovery Communications

For making bold programming moves.

04Touch Press

For setting the bar for what a book should look like on the iPad.

05Starlight Runner Entertainment

For pioneering the field of "transmedia" by packaging stories across multiple platforms.

06Twitter

For finding a real pathway to making money in the social media world through companies' branded and promoted tweets.

07Flipboard

For effectively creating the world's first social magazine.

08Ace Broadcasting Network

For building a podcasting empire that boasts more than 60 million listeners, who consistently push the pieces into the top 10 of iTunes podcasts.

09Texas Tribune

For creating a not-for-profit, non-partisan news site that may just be the future of local journalism.

10Jumpwire Media

For developing groundbreaking new tech that uses data to figure out which TV shows to syndicate in different countries.

Mobile

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01Foursquare

For taking the concept of the "check in" mainstream and heralding a new era in local advertising.

02eBay

For challenging brick-and-mortar retailers with its vast slate of uber-engaging mobile apps, which emphasize browsing over buying.

03Voxiva

For developing mobile apps that coach users through everything from smoking cessation to diabetes management.

04Skype

For succeeding at VoIP on both AT&T and Verizon cellphone networks.

05Square

For enabling small businesses to process credit-card payments by iPhone, iPad, or Android.

06Epocrates

For software that enables mobile access to electronic health records.

07USABlenet

For turning cellphones into retail-store shopping tools.

08JPMorgan Chase

For making banking mobile.

09Clearwire

For igniting the 4G arms race, taking a considerable lead, and then disrupting the mobile data market by releasing a prepaid, dirt-cheap 4G hotspot, the Rover.

10Greystripe

For figuring out how to run Flash ads inside iOS.

Music

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01Pandora

For taking personalized music on the road.

02Coca-Cola

For building a $300 million, 160-country World Cup campaign—it's biggest ever—around the Somali-born pop star K'Naan.

03Big Champagne

For creating a pop chart that factors in YouTube views, social media mentions, and more—an important addition in an age when it seems like more people watch Lady Gaga on YouTube than listen to her records.

04Arcade Fire

For pushing the limits of HTML5 and interactivity in its "We Used to Wait For It" video to create a personalized viewing experience.

05Terra.com

For proving that the music industry can still be profitable.

06Hello Music

For being an A&R company that values artistry over business.

07Converse

For advancing the "branded" record label.

08Sonos

For building a modern, affordable wireless sound system that integrates with computers, portable music players, and Web apps (Napster, Rhapsody, Spotify)—and sounds great, too.

09Songbird

For creating an open-source music listening/organizing platform that can be customized—think new colors, layouts, skins, etc.—into something way more personal than iTunes.

10Weezer

For customizing its own business through unusual record and marketing deals—and still producing great music.

Retail

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01Groupon

For integrating web and the real-world shopping experience, changing consumer behavior, democratizing small businesses, and spawning an entire new category.

02Trader Joe's

For becoming bigger than Whole Foods while retaining its down-home image.

03Marks & Spencer

For its aggressive pursuit of sustainability.

04Amazon

For leading the way into the digital book market with the Kindle—and setting off a major shift in the public's reading habits.

05eBay

For leading the charge on mobile commerce.

06Apple

For creating platforms and products that breed entirely new businesses, including the App Store, the new iTunes 10, the Apple TV digital storefront, and the iPad, a screen that's better suited than the iPhone to leverage online buying.

07Starbucks

For listening to its customers via feedback site MyStarbucksIdea.com.

08Shopkick

For bridging the in-store and mobile retail experience.

09Ikea

For attacking waste by selling its used furniture online in Sweden, and making its venture capital unit's first investments.

10Urban Outfitters

For nurturing very distinct, successful, and quirky retail brands, including the youth-oriented Urban Outfitters, the romantic and sophisticated Anthropologie, and the high-end, bohemian Leifsdottir.

Russia

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01Yandex

For mastering search.

02Kaspersky Lab

For turning hackers into an army of virus fighters.

03ABBYY

For pioneering optical text recognition technology.

04Rosnano

For establishing a clearinghouse for innovation in nanotechnology.

05Rosatom

For expanding from nuclear power plants and warheads into medicine.

06M2M Telematics

For positioning itself to dominate the chip market for Glonass, Russia's answer to the U.S. Global Positioning System.

07Optogan

For building a full-scale manufacturing facility in St. Petersburg that will be able to produce 360 million of its patented high-brightness light emitting diodes (LEDs) every year.

08Mikron

For fine-tuning smart cards.

09NPO Saturn

For advancing military aviation.

10Lukoil

For investing in R&D.

Sports

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01ESPN

For integrating new tech like a startup.

02Turner Sports

For growing like a new tech startup.

03Livestrong

For making an athlete's foundation a major force in cancer.

04Fenway Sports Group

For its creativity as a sports owner.

05QCue

For using dynamic-pricing to fill stadiums.

06Oklahoma City Thunder

For proving that market size doesn't matter.

07Athletes' Performance

For creating the elite workout facility.

08Bloomberg Sports

For crunching the numbers differently.

09Philadelphia Eagles

For generating renewable energy to power its stadium.

10Bite Tech

For creating a mouthpiece with an edge.

Transportation

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01Nissan

For creating the Leaf, the first mass-market, all-electric car.

02Azul

For converting bus riders into frequent fliers by introducing quick, convenient, and cheap flights in Brazil.

03IBM

For revolutionizing the way we travel within and between cities.

04GE

For greening trains and planes with innovations such as Required Navigation Performance Software, which creates the most fuel-efficient path for a landing aircraft.

05B-cycle

For bringing the first large-scale bike-sharing system to the U.S. B-Cycle made its debut on Earth Day 2010, bringing 400 bikes to 40 docking stations in Denver.

06Daimler

For launching a flexible, eco-friendly option in car sharing.

07Streetline

For smart-parking and traffic-control technology.

08Boeing

For its cutting-edge U.S. military drone planes.

09A123 Systems

For running the largest lithium-ion manufacturing plant in the U.S., paving the way for American electric cars.

10Stratasys

For making the Urbee, a car manufactured by a 3-D printer.

Video

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01YouTube

For transforming itself from Google's folly into a global network.

02Twitter

For shaping the future of interactive TV.

03Netflix

For leading the charge for cable cord-cutters (read: people who drop cable service in favor of streaming digital content to their TV) with its smart and aggressive dealmaking.

04FX Networks

For a great run of high-quality, low-cost laffers.

05Funny or Die

For building a multi-platform comedy brand.

06Ustream

For developing the leading home for live-streaming video on the Internet.

07Brightcove

For powering web video almost everywhere you look.

08Blip.TV

For courting the original web series community with attractive revenue splits, and working with an impressive roster of advertisers.

09Xtranormal

For letting anyone become a web video creator.

10GetGlue

For leading the way in entertainment-based check-ins.

Web

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01Twitter

For ballooning into a global phenomenon that, finally, has a business model.

02Google

For launching the most radical upgrade to search in years with Google Instant—and still boasting a 98% adoption rate.

03Zynga

For turning what most social media companies can't: a ($400 million) profit.

04Netflix

For boldly cannibalizing its own DVD-by-mail business.

05Foursquare

For fending off copycats, goosing growth, and making check-ins a must-use marketing tool for major brands.

06Tumblr

For turning stray thoughts into big business.

07Crimson Hexagon

For developing a revolutionary way to monitor and measure Twitter chatter.

08StockTwits

For creating the CNBC of the digital age.

09Microsoft

For reinvigorating search market competition with Bing, the only formidable Google challenger left.

10Conaco Productions

For harnessing the power of social media to keep Conan relevant long after he was yanked off the air.

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