China climbs to 14th place in global start-up ecosystem as Beijing focuses on tech development, says report
- Beijing, which came in as the top city for start-ups in Asia, climbed from 17th to No 6 globally while Shanghai jumped from 31st to 10th globally
- The US, UK and Israel were the top three start-up nations globally
China has climbed 14th place in the global start-up ecosystem from 27th last year as Beijing continues to make technology leadership a strategic goal amid an escalating tech war with the US, according to rankings published in a new report.
Beijing, which came in as the top city for start-ups in Asia, climbed from 17th to No 6 globally while Shanghai jumped from 31st to 10th globally. Hong Kong was the only Chinese city in the top 100 to see a drop, falling from 28th to 36th due to “geopolitical turmoil”, according to the report from StartupBlink, an Israel-Swiss start-up ecosystem map and research centre.
“In the long run, China is the only country other than the US that can directly contend for global entrepreneurial leadership,” the report said. However, it can only do that by “opening its internet and reducing geopolitical tensions”, the report said, adding that besides TikTok, the Chinese ecosystem was focused mainly on AI and big data related to the public sector.
The US, UK and Israel were the top three start-up nations globally. When ranked by metropolitan areas, four American cities including the San Francisco Bay area and New York made the top five rankings, with London in No 3 spot.
StartupBlink said the rankings were compiled by algorithms that looked at the quantity, quality, and business environment of start-ups.
This year’s report also ranked cities and countries considered the most innovative when it came to solving the Covid-19 crisis – China ranked 13th among countries and Beijing ranked 23rd among cities.