China is catching up as a hub to the world’s biggest internet companies.
Mary Meeker: China now has nine of the world’s biggest internet companies — almost as many as the U.S.
Five years ago, China had just two of the world’s biggest public tech companies by market value while the U.S. had nine.
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Rani Molla was a senior correspondent at Vox and has been focusing her reporting on the future of work. She has covered business and technology for more than a decade — often in charts — including at Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal.
Five years ago, China had just two of the world’s biggest public tech companies by market value while the U.S. had nine. Currently, China is home to nine — Alibaba, Tencent, Ant Financial, Baidu, Xiaomi, Didi Chuxing, JD.com, Meituan-Dianping and Toutiao — while the U.S. has 11.
The growth in China’s tech behemoths makes sense given how huge the Chinese market is. But it also has to do with the quirks of the Chinese market.
China far outpaces the U.S. in the number of science and engineering degrees it awards, providing its tech companies with an ample supply of trained labor.
The Chinese also seem to be more amenable to sharing data, which can be a boon for tech companies looking to customize digital experiences. Some 38 percent of internet users in China are very willing to share their data in exchange for benefits like lower costs and personalization. Just 25 percent of internet users in the U.S. feel the same.
China’s tech company growth has caused it to be the world’s No. 1 smartphone manufacturer by shipments. It has 40 percent of the world’s smartphone shipment market share, compared with 15 percent in the U.S.
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This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
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