Almost 100 tech companies reached a valuation of more than $1bn in China last year, led by ecommerce and video-streaming services, according to an annual ranking of the country’s top tech businesses by Hurun.
Hurun, which is best known for compiling an annual rich list, said China now had 186 tech start-ups worth more than $1bn, led by the fintech Ant Financial, which is worth Rmb1,000bn ($148bn).
The fastest growing start-ups include ByteDance, whose offerings include the Toutiao news feed and short video-streaming Douyin; Tencent-backed short-video app Kuaishou; and Meicai, an online platform for farmers selling vegetables. All three saw their valuations rise by 400 per cent in the past year.