China created a unicorn every 3.8 days in 2018

The valuation of China’s biggest unicorn, Ant Financial, has exceeded 1 trillion yuan

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The Chinese capital of Beijing has the largest concentration of fast-growing unicorns – start-ups valued at least US$1 billion – in the world’s second largest economy, with an estimated 79 such companies located in the city in 2018. Photo: Agence France-Presse

Published: 10:30am, 27 Jan 2019Updated: 7:21pm, 27 Jan 2019

China fostered 97 unicorns – start-ups valued at least US$1 billion – last year, despite an economic slowdown and a prolonged trade war with the United States, according to Shanghai-based research firm Hurun Report.

The world’s second largest economy had a total of 186 unicorn start-ups last year, with a combined valuation of more than 5 trillion yuan (US$736 billion).

Alipay operator Ant Financial Services, an affiliate of e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding, led all Chinese unicorns with a valuation of more than 1 trillion yuan, according to the Hurun Greater China Unicorn Index 2018. Alibaba is the parent company of the South China Morning Post.

Jinri Toutiao, the popular Chinese news aggregator owned by Beijing-based ByteDance, was the country’s second largest unicorn with an estimated value of 500 billion yuan. Didi Chuxing, operator of the country’s biggest ride-hailing services platform, followed with a valuation of 300 billion yuan.

The Hurun index said the valuation of 18 unicorns more than doubled last year. Jinri Toutiao, live-streaming app operator Kuaishou and Meicai, which sells agricultural products online, have seen the fastest growth of about four times more than their peers.

Electric car start-up Leap Motor, founded in January 2017, was the youngest to join China’s elite unicorn club with a valuation of more than 7 billion yuan.