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Unicorn companies represent the vitality of the new economy, the general trend of the industry, and the competitiveness of the country. In 2018, the global capital market was surging, and the unicorns ranking shuffled. Some unicorns have difficulty financing, and the aura is no longer there. Some unicorns have been sought after by capital, and they have made a big splash. Some even have the potential to surpass old-fashioned Internet companies.
GLOBAL UNICORN TREND
Aileen Lee, the famous American Cowboy Ventures investor in 2013, has proposed the concept of “unicorn” for six years. The new eco-company with a short time (not more than 10 years) and rapid development (valued over US$1 billion) has been born. Accelerate and gradually become an indicator to measure the level of activity of a new economy in a country or region. As the world’s two largest economies, China and the United States are undoubtedly the best places to breed unicorns.
The proportion of China and the United States is rising and leading the way, but the growth rate of Chinese new unicorns is lower than that of the United States for the first time.
THE NUMBER OF GLOBAL UNICORNS HAS REACHED A NEW HIGH
According to IC Insight statistics, from 2013 to December 31, 2018, the total number of unicorns worldwide reached 313. By region, compared with the same period, the top five countries ranked unchanged, followed by the United States, China (including Hong Kong), the United Kingdom, India and South Korea, the number of 151, 88, 15, 14, and 7, respectively. From the perspective of the proportion, China and the United States still lead the global unicorn and its influence is strengthened.
China and the United States occupy the super unicorn list, accounting for more than 80%. By definition, start-ups with a valuation of more than $10 billion on a unicorn basis are called super unicorns. Based on this, a total of 22 companies from all over the world were listed in the camp in 2018. Among them, Ant Financial ranked first with a valuation of up to 150 billion US dollars. From the perspective of countries and regions, the United States and China have the largest number, with 12 and 7 respectively, accounting for 86.4%, and the rest are Britain, India and Singapore.
The growth rate of Chinese unicorn newbies is lower than that of the United States for the first time. In terms of the number of newbies, China and the United States together account for over 70% of the global total, maintaining the leading positions since 2013. In 2018, the number of new unicorns in the United States was 53 and ranked first, and China has 32 ranked second.
In terms of average valuation by countries, Chinese unicorn is the most expensive in the world, with an average valuation of 5.96 billion US dollars, about 2 times the average valuation of the rest of the country and region. South Korea’s unicorns grew fastest, with an average valuation rising from $2.95 billion to $3.93 billion, mainly due to the emergence of three high-valued unicorns, namely e-commerce company Coupang, takeaway delivery platform Woowa Brothers and game production company Bluehole. India is the country with the biggest average valuation drop in the top ten countries. The average valuation has dropped from US$3.94 billion to US$2.79 billion, mainly due to the acquisition of Flipkart, the largest unicorn and e-commerce industry in India, by Wal-Mart. $11.6 billion.
CHINESE UNICORN TREND
The generalized definition for unicorns are companies that needs no more than ten years to grow. As of December 31, 2018, 161 unicorns in China, with a total valuation of 713.49 billion US dollars, distributed in 14 industries in 15 cities, including 10 super unicorns, 54 newbies, 19 listed and exited, and 3 out of business. Compared with the previous issue, the characteristics of China’s unicorns are growing fast, covering wide-range, and strong outbreaks at the beginning. This is inseparable from the industry focus of technological innovation, building platform ecology, and national and having local government support.
From the perspective of geographical distribution, the characteristics of “North, Shanghai, Hangzhou and Shenzhen” in the unicorns remain unchanged. In 2018, the number of four cities accounted for 85.7%, and the valuation accounted for 94.5%. Among them, there were 74 Beijing unicorns, 16 more than the previous period, with a total valuation of 297.94 billion US dollars, accounting for 46% of the overall valuation, an increase of 1 percentage point over the previous period, and the proportion continued to increase. There are 34 in Shanghai with a total valuation of 132.51 billion US dollars. 16 unicorns are in Hangzhou, 2 more than the previous period, with a total valuation of 194.65 billion US dollars; 14 are in Shenzhen, 4 more than the previous period, with a total valuation of 49 billion US dollars. In addition, Beijing continues to lead the high valuation of unicorns, accounting for half of the top ten companies in Beijing.
NANJING AND THE NEW FIRST-LINE CITY WHERE UNICORNS ROSE
From the perspective of 54 new-born enterprises, the new cities of Hefei, Qingdao, Chengdu and Hong Kong have begun to produce unicorns this year. A number of new cities such as Nanjing, Wuhan and Chongqing increased last year. Nanjing has the most outstanding performance, with a total of 5 new companies.
BUSINESS MODEL: ATD REPLACES BAT
The giant has become another major factor in the birth of the unicorn, and the proportion of influence has increased. Under the current trend of enterprise ecologicalization, unicorn enterprises have become an important component of the enterprise ecological chain. Through self-incubation or strategic investment, many giant companies have begun to build an ecosystem and gradually improve it. As can be seen from the list, about 50% of enterprises are more or less associated with Alibaba, Baidu, Tencent, JD and so on. Among them, the higher the valuation of the company, the greater its influence on the giant. From the top ten companies in terms of valuation, the degree of association with the giants is as high as 100%, an increase of 10% over the same period last year.
From the perspective of investment, ATD (Alibaba, Tencent, JD) replaced BAT as the top three Internet giants in the investment of new economic sectors. Alibaba and related companies ranked first in the world with 124 investment events and over 180 billion RMB in investment. The top five industries in the investment industry were 19 enterprises, 17 e-commerce, 16 automobile traffic, 15 financial services, and 10 artificial intelligence. Tencent and related companies have over 132 global investments and total value of over RMB 90 billion. Compared with Ali’s focus on e-commerce and financial sectors, Tencent prefers cultural entertainment and games. JD is more diverse, focusing on heavy assets such as logistics. The annual investment exceeded 50 companies, involving an amount of over RMB 20 billion. Despite the different focuses and the return to the essence, all three are sticking to their own areas of strength and taking this as a starting point, taking data as the core and technology as a means to gradually improve the ecological layout.
From the results point of view, Alibaba and Tencent are more effective in driving the Unicorn. In 2018 Tencent captured a total of 30 Chinese unicorns, which was the same as last year. Alibaba quickly improved, from the seventh to the fourth, and covered 17 unicorns throughout the year.
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