China takes gold in race to develop billion dollar start-up ‘unicorns’
China’s start-ups can catapult to billion dollar valuations in far less time than their US counterparts, new research shows
China’s vast population of internet users have helped to foster a unique environment where start-ups can enjoy huge success in an unusually short period of time, according to new research.
Unicorns, or companies that have a market value of US$1 billion or more, are being nurtured in China at a rate that eclipses their US counterparts, according to a joint report by Boston Consulting Group, Alibaba Group, Baidu and Didi Chuxing.
The report, released Wednesday in Beijing, examined the development cycles of 175 unicorns from the US and China during the past decade.
The average unicorn in China took four years to develop from scratch, whereas the average unicorn cycle in the US was seven years, according to Boston Consulting.
In many cases unicorns in China were thrust into the big leagues at an ultra-short span of time, with 46 per cent reaching the US$1 billion valuation in as little as two years from launch.
In the US, only 9 per cent of unicorns were fashioned in the same time frame.