In the B2B category, companies were measured by their valuations and transaction volumes. Ranked high on the list were Jingdong Industrials, a JD subsidiary that trades industrial goods ranging from machinery to manufacturing components, and Shanghai Ganglian, which operates e-commerce platforms with a focus on steel and other raw materials such as minerals.

The customised operations management category evaluated companies based on their valuations and patents obtained in the last three years. Top scorers included artificial intelligence provider CloudWalk Technology, known for facial recognition, and Alibaba-backed Shiji Information Technology, which provides digital backbone services for the hospitality, food and retail sectors.

Among the 30 companies on the overall list, 11 were based in Beijing, seven in Shanghai, and four each in Hangzhou, Guangzhou and Shenzhen.

While China imposed in the past three years a regulatory crackdown on consumer internet companies over concerns such as data practices and market monopolies, authorities have introduced a series of policies to shore up the industrial internet, according to Hoogewerf.

Those include a joint proposal by the National Development and Reform Commission and the Cyberspace Administration of China to develop industrial internet platforms that catered to small and medium-sized enterprises.

Under another plan devised last year by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, larger Chinese firms are encouraged to set up digital platforms for use by smaller companies and provide related digital services.