Laravel only seems to be for small stuff like - the backends of Apples Webapps - spiegel.de, the biggest German news site - the New York Times website - backend services at Disney - About You (large online retailer)

Seriously, though, I myself work for an enterprise that runs big parts of the European energy grid and we use Laravel for all sorts of stuff. At a previous job Laravel powered a whole ISP.

Notice when people say Laravel is good for small stuff and early prototypes, they never explain why.