Coke's Global Sweetener

Like its rival PepsiCo, Coca-Cola is dealing with slack demand for beverages in the North American market. But much more so than Pepsi, Coke has massive overseas investments that are paying off handsomely, more than offsetting its losses at home. Coke posted a 14 percent increase in third-quarter profits on Wednesday, nearly all of it coming from foreign markets.

While revenue fell by 2 percent in North America, sales were up by 17 percent in "Eurasia," 10 percent in Africa, and a whopping 24 percent in Latin America.

North America "will continue to be challenging" this year and next, said CEO Muhtar Kent in a statement.

Pepsi has been trying to catch up, with huge investments in Russia, India and elsewhere. And those investments are paying off. But not nearly enough to offset sagging demand in North America. The worldwide credit crunch is likely to stymie Pepsi's efforts, at least in the near term. Pepsi on Tuesday reported that profits had fallen by 9.6 percent and that it would lay off 3,300 workers.

Bottom line: 80 percent of Coke's profits come from overseas. At Pepsi, that figure is just 40 percent.