TSMC'S MARKET CAP UP US$122BN TO US$512BN, TO BECOME MOST VALUABLE PRIVATE COMPANY IN CHINA FOR THIRD YEAR RUNNING

TENCENT AND ALIBABA MAINTAIN 2^ND AND 3^RD PLACES WITH US$394BN AND US$217BN

PINDUODUO BREAKS INTO TOP 5, WITH US$152BN

49% OF COMPANIES ARE NEW TO THE LIST COMPARED WITH FIVE YEARS AGO

LED BY MEITUAN, SOFTWARE SERVICES GREW FASTEST THIS YEAR, HITTING SIXTH PLACE BY NUMBER OF COMPANIES. HEALTHCARE COMPANIES TOPPED THE LIST, FOLLOWED BY CONSUMER GOODS. SEMICONDUCTORS AND INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTS ALSO HAD A GOOD YEAR, WHILST ENERGY, CHEMICALS AND INDUSTRIAL SOFTWARE HAD A CHALLENGING YEAR.

BY VALUE, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT, SEMICONDUCTORS, CONSUMER GOODS AND RETAIL LED.

BEIJING REMAINS THE CITY WITH THE MOST COMPANIES ON THE LIST, WITH 67, FOLLOWED BY SHANGHAI WITH 57, SHENZHEN WITH 46 AND TAIPEI WITH 38. TOP 4 CITIES UNCHANGED.

79 COMPANIES (15%) NEW TO HURUN CHINA 500

84% ARE LISTED COMPANIES, LED BY COMPANIES ON THE SHANGHAI STOCK EXCHANGE (128 COMPANIES) AND SHENZHEN STOCK EXCHANGE (124 COMPANIES), FOLLOWED BY THE HONG KONG STOCK EXCHANGE (108 COMPANIES). 16% ARE UNLISTED COMPANIES.

33 COMPANIES, DOWN 4, FROM THE HURUN CHINA 500 MADE THE HURUN GLOBAL 500.

THE HURUN RESEARCH INSTITUTE TODAY RELEASED THE HURUN CHINA 500 MOST VALUABLE PRIVATE COMPANIES 2023

(13 August 2024, Shanghai) The Hurun Research Institute today released the Hurun China 500 Most Valuable Private Companies 2023, a list of the Top 500 China non-state-controlled enterprises ranked according to their value. The cut-off used for listed companies was 15 November 2023. Non-listed companies were valued with reference to similar-sized listed companies from the same industry. This is the fifth year of the Hurun China 500.

As of 15 November 2023, Nasdaq was up 24% year-on-year, whilst the Shenzhen Component Index was down 11%, the Shanghai Composite Index down 2%, and the Hang Seng Index down 1.4%.

The cutoff for the Hurun China 500 Most Valuable Private Companies 2023 decreased by US$207mn or 5% to US$3.7bn. The total value of the list decreased by US$138bn or 2% to US$6.9tn. The average value decreased by US$276mn to US$13.8bn, despite sales rising on average by US$1bn to US$8.4bn. They had 25,000 employees on average. 230 companies saw their value increase, of which 79 were ‘new faces’. 250 companies decreased in value and 22 maintained the same value. 55% were B2B businesses and 45% consumer-focused. 71% offered physical products and 29% software or services.

The Chairman and Chief Researcher of Hurun, Rupert Hoogewerf, said:

“The companies from the Hurun China 500 make up the ‘backbone’ of China's private sector, wielding significant economic influence. Between them, they have annual revenues of US$4tn, equivalent to a quarter of China's annual GDP and employ 13 million people. If you want to understand how the Chinese economy is developing, understanding the stories behind the Hurun China 500, China's most valuable companies, is a great place to start.”

“The Hurun China 500 show how China’s economy has gone through a massive change in just three years. Half of the Hurun 500 are new faces. Another way of looking at it is that half the companies from three years ago have dropped off. Analysing these new faces and dropoffs provides an insight into the shift in the economy. The industries with the most new entrants were semiconductors, healthcare and consumer goods, while the industries with the most drop-offs were real estate, industrial products and energy.”

“The total value of the Hurun China 500 Most Valuable Private Companies this year was US$6.9tn, down 2% from last year and down 10% from three years ago, reflecting investors’ attitude to these companies’ profit-making ability.”

“Only 33 of the Hurun China 500 made the Hurun Global 500, 4 fewer than the previous year. One reason is that these Chinese companies are relatively-speaking very young. The average age of the Hurun China 500 is only 28 years, 40 years younger than the average age of the Hurun Global 500.”

“Only half of the Hurun China 500, which is ranked by value, make the Fortune China 500, which is ranked by revenue. The Hurun 500 series is about value creation, ie future profit-making ability, rather than just sales.”

“Our list does not include state-owned enterprises, so China's most valuable state-owned listed company, Kweichow Moutai, worth about US$300bn, is not on the list. Well over 300 Chinese state-owned companies could have made our list, both listed companies and non-listed companies, such as State Grid and China National Tobacco.”

“Hurun has been promoting entrepreneurship through its lists and research since 1999. Hurun started out by telling the story of the Chinese economy through the China Rich List, the stories of China’s most successful entrepreneurs, and then expanding these stories to India and the rest of the world. Since then, Hurun has gone on to tell the story of the world’s start-up ecosystems, by ranking unicorns and future unicorns, before moving on to telling the story of the world economy by the 500 most valuable companies.”  

This is a brief English language 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.

Top 10

Pinduoduo is new to the Top 10.

Ant Group dropped out of the Top 10, ranked 12^th.

The Top 10 accounted for 28% of the total value of the list, with US$1.98tn. Shenzhen has the most with 3, followed by Beijing with 2.

Geographical Distribution

In terms of cities, Beijing topped the list with 67, followed by Shanghai with 57 and Shenzhen with 46.

In terms of provinces, Guangdong was first with 81, followed by Taiwan with 74. Beijing and Shanghai surpassed Zhejiang, which dropped down to 5^th with 52. No companies from Guangxi, Heilongjiang and Macau made the list.

The Yangtze River Delta region was top with 148 or 29% of the total, followed by the GBA with 108 or 22%.

Industry Distribution

Software & Services has grown the most this year, becoming the sixth largest industry on the list, while Healthcare remains No.1 and Consumer Goods ranked 2^nd. In terms of value, Media & Entertainment, Semiconductors, Retail and Consumer Goods have the highest total value.

Biggest increases

New to the List Top 10

Biggest drops

Dropped out

So, How much Revenues do they have?

The revenue of the Hurun China 500 totalled US$4.2tn in 2022, US$483bn more than last year, with an average of US$8.4bn, US$1bn more than last year.

And how many staff do they employ?

Cumulatively, the companies on the Hurun China 500 employ 12.9 million staff, or 25,000 per company. 229 of the Top 500 companies have fewer than 10,000 employees. 31 have more than 100,000 employees.

How old are they?