HURUN RESEARCH INSTITUTE TODAY RELEASED

HURUN CHINA METAVERSE COMPANIES WITH THE GREATEST POTENTIAL 2024

HUAWEI TOPS LIST FOR FIRST TIME

ALIBABA, BAIDU, CHINA TELECOM, CHINA MOBILE TOP 5

TENCENT, NETEASE, JD, IFLYTEK AND ZTE ROUND OUT TOP 10

58 NEW FACES, LED BY ICBC, JINGWEI HIRAIN, PINDUODUO

BY INDUSTRY: SOFTWARE & DATA AND MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT LED WITH 36 AND 35, FOLLOWED BY CONSUMER ELECTRONICS WITH 32 AND ELECTRONIC COMPONENTS WITH 25

BEIJING, SHANGHAI AND SHENZHEN ACCOUNTED FOR MORE THAN HALF OF TOTAL. BEIJING LED WITH 57 OF HURUN CHINA METAVERSE 200, FOLLOWED BY SHANGHAI WITH 35, SHENZHEN 29, GUANGZHOU 15 (OF WHICH 3 IN NANSHA DISTRICT) AND HANGZHOU 12. 54 IN THE GBA

22% STATE-OWNED ENTERPRISES, UP 4%, AND 78% PRIVATE ENTERPRISES

HURUN CHINA METAVERSE FUTURE STARS INCLUDED: XUEZHAO CULTURE, GROWLIB, HANHOU TECHNOLOGY, PETTING NETWORK, UNIVERSAL GRAVITY, CHICHENG DIGITAL, WEIXIANG SPACE TIME, THUNDERBIRD INNOVATION, ROULING TECHNOLOGY, LINGXI AR, YAOYU VISION, CHENJING TECHNOLOGY, COEUS DIGITAL, SEQUOIADB, YTMETA, ZHONGKE ZHICHENG, NIKA OPTICS, LIANGSHENG DIGITAL, DANGHONG QITIAN, MOJIE TECHNOLOGY, LAYABOX, XIANSHUN TECHNOLOGY, DAXIZHOU, XINGHE ZHILIAN, FRONTOP DIGITAL CREATIVE, ZHUOYUAN VIRTUAL REALITY, IPLOOK NETWORKS, INCEPTION, LONGJIANG NETWORK AND AUTOARK

(29 August 2024, Guangzhou city Nansha district) The Hurun Research Institute today released the Hurun China Metaverse Companies with the Greatest Potential 2024, a ranking of 200 Chinese companies with the greatest potential in the metaverse. The report includes a list of Hurun China Metaverse Future Stars 2024. This is the third year of the list.

The list refers to companies based in the Chinese Mainland, HK, Macao and Taiwan. For the main list, Hurun Research only considered companies with a value of US$1bn or more. For the Hurun China Metaverse Future Stars, this included companies with a value of less than US$1bn.

Today, Hurun Report is hosting the third Hurun China Metaverse Conference & the Hurun China Metaverse Companies with the Greatest Potential 2024 press release in the district of Nansha of Guangzhou city.

Nansha boasts a superior geographical location. Positioned at the geographical center of the GBA and at the intersection of four cities with GDPs over 1 trillion yuan each, Nansha has become the top destination for businesses seeking to enter and capitalize on the Chinese market.

Nansha boasts a robust foundation for economic development, with a well-established industrial layout centered around key sectors. “Our primary focus is on the automobile industry, led by GAC Toyota, and the port-centered equipment industry, exemplified by the CSSC Longxue Shipbuilding Base. We are also actively developing industries such as biomedicine, new energy, semiconductors and integrated circuits, artificial intelligence, aerospace, shipping trade, and financial commerce. In 2023, our economic output exceeded 230 billion yuan, earning Nansha recognition as a magnet for new investment. The output value of our automobile manufacturing industry alone reached nearly 200 billion yuan last year. Nansha is a crucial hub for shipping trade, home to the largest and most comprehensive hub port in South China. Nansha Port ranks ninth among the top 10 ports globally, with container throughput reaching nearly 20 million TEUs last year. Additionally, Nansha leads the country in the import and export value of cross-border e-commerce. The port is connected to more than 120 countries and over 310 ports worldwide through 156 international liner routes. In addition, Global industry leaders such as Louis Dreyfus of France and Cargill of the United States have established their China trade headquarters in Nansha. Renowned consumer goods companies like P&G, Mead Johnson, and Vitasoy have also set up their trading operations here. More than 270 of the Fortune Global 500, including Toyota, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, and BASF, have settled in Nansha.”

Nansha is committed to promoting innovation-driven industrial development. “Our sci-tech innovation platform system is starting to take shape. We are dedicated to building Nansha into a main support area of a comprehensive national science center in the GBA. We have established major platforms such as Nansha Science City and the Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Guangzhou), and have introduced large-scale scientific facilities, including cold-seep ecosystem research and ocean drilling technologies. A number of research institutes and academies have also been established in Nansha. Nansha is advancing the integration of financial markets. As one of the few regions in China that benefits from both QDLP and QFLP pilot policies, Nansha is home to the Guangzhou Futures Exchange, Guangzhou Data Exchange, and Guangzhou Shipping Exchange. It is also among the first locations in China to pilot climate investment and financing initiatives. Three FOFs with a total scale of 400 billion yuan, focused on industrial investment, venture capital, and infrastructure development, have been established in Nansha. Nansha is tapping into significant potential in industrial development, aiming to become a leading area for future industries. Frontier sectors such as deep-sea exploration, aerospace, and unmanned systems are rapidly advancing while emerging industries like the low-altitude economy and combustible ice exploration are gaining momentum.”

Nansha has become a hot spot for innovation and entrepreneurship. Metaverse, deemed as next-generation internet, is going to change production and human life in a profound way and advance the development of future industry. For the purpose of ramping up the innovative application of metaverse technology in Nansha and promoting in-depth development and cross-sector integration of metaverse technology, in August this year, Nansha officially released the declaration guide for demonstration projects of metaverse technology applications, in a bid to publicly collect relevant projects and encourage scenario-based applications. Of the Hurun China Metaverse Companies with the Greatest Potential 2024 released today, CloudWalk Technology, Aofei Data and Pony.ai from Nansha are on the main list. Deepmirror, Coeux, SequoiaDB, Yongtai Tech, Syncore Autotech and other enterprises are on the list of “Future Star”. In the future, more metaverse enterprises will gravitate toward Nansha for development.

Hurun Report Chairman and Chief Researcher Rupert Hoogewerf said: “I am delighted to launch with Guangzhou’s Nansha – for the third year running – the Hurun China Metaverse Companies with the Greatest Potential. Nansha has continued to see an increase in investment in strategic emerging industries, especially on the back of inclusive science and technology innovation policies. The metaverse is considered a strategic emerging industry and will accelerate the promotion of Nansha to become an innovation highland and emerging industry incubation highland in the GBA.”

“There has been a clear trend of metaverse-related businesses these past three years, especially in the fields of education, finance, tourism and healthcare.”

“2024 is the year that the big banks in China have started making inroads into the metaverse, led by the likes of ICBC and Bank of China.”

“Incredibly, almost two thirds of the companies on the Hurun Metaverse list were not on our first list just two years ago. I cannot think of another industry with as much change in just two years.”

“Our biggest challenge in the first year of the Hurun Metaverse list was how to define which companies were active in the metaverse. Since then, there has been significant progress, with VR headsets hitting the market, and a raft of official legislation, helping to define the future of the metaverse.”

“Over the next three years expect China's metaverse-related businesses to grow fast. First comes the continuing maturity and application of key technologies including 5G, AI, blockchain, cloud computing, VR and AR. Secondly, whether it's entertainment, social media, online education, telecommuting, or digital marketing, the metaverse can offer entirely new experiences and models.”

“Almost every company in the world is going to be in the metaverse, in much the same way as almost every company in the world is linked to IT. It is a question of when rather than if. There is much talk of the construction of the metaverse as being not a sprint, but an endurance race. The metaverse involves the formulation of technical standards, the construction of platforms, the optimization of user experience and the improvement of laws and regulations. These are not achieved overnight, but need to be achieved through continuous progress. The development of the metaverse is not the single fight of a certain technology, but the co-evolution of technology clusters.”

This is a brief English summary of the full Chinese press release which can be found at www.hurun.net. For media enquiries please contact our public relations team whose contact details can be found at the end of this report.

Metaverse Industry Distribution

Geographical Distribution

Industry Distribution

New to Top 100

How many State-Owned Companies?

22% are state-owned enterprises, represented by the likes of China Mobile, CSN and Shanghai Electric, whilst the rest are non-state-owned companies, such as Xiaomi, Alibaba and NetEase.

Years since Establishment

The average age of the Hurun Metaverse companies was 22 years, with 6 founded since 2020.

Future Stars

For companies with a value of less than US$1bn, Hurun Research found several companies that have already made a considerable impact or investment in the metaverse, the Hurun Metaverse Future Stars. These enterprises: Xuezhao Culture, Growlib, Hanhou Technology, Petting Network, Universal Gravity, Chicheng Digital, Weixiang Space Time, Thunderbird Innovation, Rouling Technology, Lingxi AR, Yaoyu Vision, Chenjing Technology, Coeus Digital, Sequoiadb, Ytmeta, Zhongke Zhicheng, Nika Optics, Liangsheng Digital, Danghong Qitian, Mojie Technology, Layabox, Xianshun Technology, Daxizhou, Xinghe Zhilian, Frontop Digital Creative, Zhuoyuan Virtual Reality, IPLOOK Networks, Inception, Longjiang Network and AutoArk.

Methodology

The Hurun China Metaverse Companies with the Greatest Potential 2024 is a list of the Top 200 Chinese companies with the most potential in the metaverse.

The scope of this list covers companies set up in China with a value of over US$1bn. The information sources are public information of enterprises and industries.

Firstly, the research team defined the metaverse, with the help of white papers and reports, such as Beijing Information Industry Association ‘China Metaverse White Paper’, Tsinghua University ‘Metaverse Development Research Report’, etc., to understand the related industries of the metaverse.

Then we began to narrow down those companies from the metaverse-related industries. The sectors of these companies included but are not limited to finance, chips, display technologies, sensors, holographic technologies, games, online community, digital currencies, virtual digital people, live broadcasts, online education, tele medicine, film and television media, Internet of Things, machine vision, artificial intelligence, blockchain, cloud computing, digital twin, virtual reality, augmented reality, smart wear, brain-computer interface, memory, smart car, Web3.0, industrial metaverse etc.

Thirdly, we refer to the enterprise valuation, and the enterprises that enter the Top 200 must be worth more than US$1bn.

Finally, we pay special attention to corporate initiatives in the metaverse, especially the quantity and quality of initiatives in the metaverse over the past year ending 30 June 2024.

Hurun China Metaverse Companies with the Greatest Potential 2024

About Nansha

Located at the geographical center of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, Nansha New Area of Guangzhou is 38 nautical miles away from Hong Kong and 41 nautical miles away from Macao. A half-hour transportation circle with Nansha as its core is taking shape. Covering an area of 803 square kilometers, Nansha has a population of over 1.2 million.

Nansha enjoys multiple strategic designations: it is the only state-level new area in Guangdong province, the largest area of Guangdong Pilot Free Trade Zone, the Demonstration Zone for Comprehensive Cooperation among Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao. In June 2022, the State Council issued the Overall Plan for Promoting Comprehensive Cooperation among Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao by Further Deepening Opening-up in Nansha District of Guangzhou, which envisioned Nansha as a major strategic platform with global perspective that is based on the Greater Bay Area and in collaboration with Hong Kong and Macao. Nansha has scored notable achievements in cooperation with Hong Kong and Macao. In recent years, major projects have been implemented here, including the Consultative Committee on Guangdong-Hong Kong Cooperation (Guangzhou Nansha), the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou), the Hong Kong-style International Community and the Nansha Incubation Base of Hong Kong Science Park. Nansha boasts the largest container hub port in South China, and the largest international cruise home port in China. Railways from Nansha port are accessible to Europe, Central Asia, and Southeast Asia. With the new position of National Demonstration Zone for Creative Promotion of Import Trade, Nansha has outstood in pursuing a more robust development by fully leveraging domestic and international markets. As a main support area for comprehensive national science center of the Greater Bay Area, Nansha is building a batch of scientific and technological innovation platforms such as Nansha Science City, cold-seep scientific facilities, International Special Zone for Talents, and the permanent site of the Greater Bay Area Science Forum. It is also home to an over 200-billion-yuan automotive cluster. The development of the strategic emerging industries in Nansha including artificial intelligence, life science, marine science, aerospace, and aviation is in full swing. Financial platforms such as the Guangzhou Futures Exchange and Guangzhou Data Exchange are being constructed in Nansha. More than 270 projects invested by Global Fortune 500 companies have been introduced here.

Nansha’s charm of Lingnan culture, water town culture, and ocean culture are unique and lingering. Nansha boasts distinctive attractions: the “Nansha Man” Relics, dated back to 4,000 years ago and known as the earliest one found in Guangzhou; Humen Fort Former Site; Former Residence of the People’s Musician Xian Xinghai. Besides, Nansha’s kylin dance, salt-water songs, and gambiered canton gauze have been included as intangible cultural heritages. Nansha enjoys an outstanding ecological environment, featuring a perfect integration of mountains, farmlands, rivers, sea, towns. With hundreds of hectares of wetlands, it is also crowned as a most livable community by the United Nations, a national law-based government demonstration district, and one of the happiest cities (district-level) in China.

About Hurun Inc.

Promoting Entrepreneurship Through Lists and Research

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Established in the United Kingdom in 1999, Hurun is a research, media and investments group, promoting entrepreneurship through its lists and research. Widely regarded as an opinion-leader in the world of business, Hurun generated 8 billion views on the Hurun brand in 2023, mainly in China and India.

Best-known today for the Hurun Rich List series, telling the stories of the economy through the stories of the most successful entrepreneurs in China, India and the world, Hurun’s other key series is the Hurun Start-up series, ranking the world’s unicorns and future unicorns, as well as giving recognition to young start-up founders.

Hurun has grown to become the world’s largest researcher and list compiler of start-ups, ranking 4000 start-ups across the world through its annual unicorns list (US$1bn+), and two future unicorn lists (Gazelles from US$500m, and Cheetahs from US$300m).

For the young start-up founders, Hurun has created the Under30s, Under35s and Under40s awards, representing the cream of young entrepreneurs who have founded businesses with a social impact and worth around US$10m, US$50m and US$100m respectively.

Other lists include the Hurun Global High Schools List, ranking the world’s best independent high schools, the Hurun Philanthropy List, ranking the biggest philanthropists, the Hurun Art List, ranking the world’s most successful artists alive today.

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