Research shows Apple's Wikipedia page to be most effective of Fortune Global 500 companies

The research conducted by Italian consultancy Lundquist looked at Wikipedia pages of the Fortune Global 500 and ranked them according to information ranging from the number of employees and location of headquarters to corporate governance, branding and financial data.

Apple came out top with a score of 22 out of 25 followed by BT, while Nokia and Royal Dutch Shell were equal third.

The research states that Wikipedia is the sixth most visited site on the web and has become a primary source for people looking for corporate information.

Reports of companies changing their Wikipedia pages to make them more favourable to the corporate image have resulted in negative publicity and convinced many to back away from the site. The research calls this approach ‘potentially dangerous', noting that Wikipedia consistently appears second or third in search engine rankings right below a company's official site.

While 489 of the 500 companies surveyed had a Wikipedia page, the amount of information contained was generally scarce with the average score 11 out of 25.

British firms had the highest average with 14.6 points, while China's and South Korea's companies had the lowest overall average (7.9 and 7.8 points respectively).

The computer and IT sector saw the best performance, while banking and financial services rated the worst.