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Over 80 percent of 'unicorn' firms from US and China: Report

A recent report by Deloitte and China Venture Group indicated that over 80 percent of startups valued more than $1 billion worldwide as of the end of June were from the US and China.
Written by Cyrus Lee, Contributor

Among the 252 non-listed startups with a valuation more of $1 billion or above -- commonly referred as unicorns -- 106 are US firms and 98 are from China, accounting for 42.1 percent and 38.9 percent, respectively, according to a China News report citing joint research by Deloitte and China Venture.

As of the end of June this year, the 252 unicorns owned a cumulative valuation of $879.5 billion, spreading across 22 countries globally, the report said.

However, the development of unicorn companies in the other 20 countries aside from the US and China is relatively lagging. India, which ranked third with 10 unicorns, had only 4 percent of the entire unicorn firms globally, the report added.

The research summarised four factors that are crucial to the development of unicorn firms: Size of the internet market, infrastructure development in the market, the completion of industrial structure, and number of internet talent in the country.

The report also indicated that unicorns in the US are spreading over 20 sectors, with enterprise services sectors taking 27 percent of the overall 106 unicorns, far ahead of any other sectors.

In China, the top three sectors were ecommerce, finance, and culture and entertainment, encompassing 46 percent of the 98 unicorns distributed over 16 sectors.

China's culture and entertainment-related unicorns far outstripped its US counterparts, as the former's cumulative valuation of $3.66 billion was more than four times the US' $820 million, said the report.

Deloitte estimates more Chinese unicorns will be seen in several areas in the future, such as enterprise services, health care, automobile and transportation, consumer upgrades, and the Internet of Things.

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