Shenzhen has most fast-growing companies in Greater Bay Area
December 17, 2019 Category Macro-economy, Weekly
Shenzhen, home to several Chinese technology giants, is also the birthplace of most of the fastest-growing companies in the Greater Bay Area (GBA), befitting the city’s reputation as China’s Silicon Valley. Shenzhen had 30, or nearly 38%, of the 80 fastest-growing companies in the GBA between 2015 and 2018, according to the inaugural SCMP-Statista Growth Champions of the Greater Bay Area 2020 survey. Hong Kong, the home base for the five fastest-growing companies including WeLab, DayDayCook.com and SenseTime, is second on the ranking, home to 21 of the 80 growth champions.
The survey, the first of its kind, sheds light on where investors and entrepreneurs are placing their bets in an area that is projected to become one of the biggest growth drivers of the Chinese economy. The GBA – a cluster comprising nine cities in Guangdong province plus Hong Kong and Macao – has a population of 70 million people and a combined economic output estimated at USD1.5 trillion, which would place it ahead of Spain as the world’s 13th-biggest economy if it were a stand-alone entity, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The survey, commissioned in May, was part of efforts by the South China Morning Post to shed light on the future economic powerhouse in southern China. Statista, a German online statistics portal, compiled a list of the fastest-growing companies in the GBA, ranked by revenue growth between the years 2015 and 2018.
The Chinese government unveiled a detailed blue print in February for creating a powerful economic and business hub to rival California’s Silicon Valley. The unveiling of the blue print has already created a flurry of investments into the GBA, with Hong Kong’s banks stepping up hiring talent to expand in the larger market. Real estate prices have risen in Zhuhai, Foshan and Zhongshan as investors – especially Hong Kong speculators – tried to get ahead of the market by securing footholds in the mainland Chinese cities in the area.
WeLab, a fintech company and one of the eight licensed virtual banks in Hong Kong, tops the list of the growth champions, with compound annual revenue growth surpassing 400% between 2015 and 2018. The company, founded in 2013, has 827 employees. Shenzhen, the test bed of China’s market economic reforms starting in 1978, boasts several hometown champions among the world’s technology giants: Huawei Technology, the largest maker of 5G telecommunications infrastructure; DJI, the biggest maker of recreational drones; and Tencent Holdings, the dominant Chinese games publisher and social media network operator. Guangzhou, the provincial capital of Guangdong, is home to 14 growth champions, while Dongguan – where many Hong Kong and Taiwanese electronic manufacturers have established factories over the past three decades – has five companies whose earnings have grown between 100% and up to 800% over three years.
Macao, which surpassed the Las Vegas Strip as the worlds casino hub a decade ago, has a single company among the growth champions: slot machine and gambling console assembler Asia Pioneer Entertainment (APE). Its revenue more than doubled between 2015 and 2018. Jiangmen, a city located the furthest from the GBA’s center, is the sole city that isn’t represented among the 80 fastest-growing companies. The growth champions are mainly engaged in technology, the manufacturing of components, and internet-related applications, the South China Morning Post reports.
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