We can define a company as a group of people that come together to offer goods or services for sale, usually with the purpose of making a profit.
In this sense, every business is a company.
A joint stock company is a type of public corporation that offers stock shares, with ownership transferred through the purchase of these stocks. It may also be referred to as a “publicly held” company.
Some examples are Apple Inc. (Apple), Google Inc. (Google), and McDonald’s Corporation (McDonald’s).
The main difference between a joint stock company and a regular corporation is the inability to transfer shares in the latter until they become publicly traded, whereas the former shares are sold on the open market.