On April 26, at the 2021 China (Tianjin) High-Growth Enterprise Press Conference, Great Wall Enterprise Institute released a new List of Chinese Unicorn Companies. In 2020, there were 251 Chinese unicorn companies, with a total valuation of more than one trillion U.S. dollars for the first time. As of March 31, 2021, there were 23 new unicorn companies. Qingdao has gathered “8+1” unicorn companies. There are five new unicorn companies (four companies in 2020 and one in 2021) compared to those of 2019. Qingdao is in a leading position in the unicorn companies and has become a veritable “city of unicorn companies”.

Qingdao gains fame because of the rapid increase in the number of unicorn companies

As of March 31, 2021, Qingdao has a total of nine unicorn companies. There are five new unicorn companies compared to those of 2019. Eight companies rank in the 2020 List of Chinese Unicorn Companies, including Goodaymart Logistics, Weidong Cloud Education, Juhaokan, Newlink Group, TGood, COSMOPlat, Missfresh, and AInnovation. Goertek Microelectronics is newly rank in the list in 2021. In terms of valuation, the overall valuation of the nine unicorn companies is 17.54 billion U.S. dollars. Missfresh takes the lead with a valuation of 5 billion U.S. dollars, followed by Goertek, with a valuation of 3.175 billion U.S. dollars. From the perspective of districts and counties, Laoshan District has six unicorn companies, which is the most; there are two unicorn companies in Jimo District; By introducing Missfresh, Chengyang District has a unicorn company for the first time.

Get rid of the path dependence and speed up the emergence of new tracks in Qingdao

The unicorn companies in Qingdao started from scratch and later ranked among the top eight in the country, basically forming a two-generation unicorn group. The first generation of unicorn companies, represented by Goodaymart Logistics and Juhaokan, has advanced new technologies to empower traditional industrial genes and achieve fission by leveraging the industrial resources of the large enterprise ecosystem. The second generation of unicorn companies, represented by COSMOPlat, Newlink Group, AInnovation, Goertek Microelectronics, breaks this inertia and have strong platform attributes and hard technology attributes. On the one hand, these companies integrate resources through platform thinking and methods to seize the development opportunities of the industrial Internet; on the other hand, they focus on cutting-edge technology fields such as artificial intelligence and microelectronics, highlighting science and technology to lead industrial transformation. On the whole, the track where unicorn companies are located reflects Qingdao’s important exploration in the conversion of new and old kinetic energy. It not only injects new technologies into traditional industries but also incubates new tracks through the application of new technologies, showing that Qingdao’s ambition to build a city of unicorn companies in an all-round way.

Typical model of unicorn company breeding in Qingdao: Traditional kinetic energy nurturing new kinetic energy

Traditional large companies, represented by Haier and Hisense, have nurtured many unicorn companies through platform transformation, which has achieved remarkable results in driving and spillover effect of the innovation and entrepreneurship ecology in Qingdao and has formed three incubation modes: The first mode is cross-border innovation, which promotes the reorganization, penetration, and integration of new and old industrial elements and resources, and creates new business forms and new modes. The second is a business spin-off, which speeds up the independent operation of innovative business and team of traditional enterprises, and creates new business growth points. The third is to graft the new economy. Traditional enterprises introduce new technologies and new resources through strategic cooperation, investment and shareholding, resource sharing, and other ways to establish new tracks.

Qingdao has achieved remarkable results in gathering unicorn companies through “attracting investment and talents”

Qingdao has deeply promoted the implementation of “attracting investment and talents”, and the one-stop investment support mode of “capital + space” has become the highlight of the introduction of unicorn companies. The capital chain and service chain are arranged around the industrial chain and innovation chain. Qingdao has changed the appropriation-style policy support of in the past and has created three investment methods: The first method is equity investment through state-owned platform companies; the second is to introduce constant innovation through private funds; the third is to invest through government guidance.