Shenzhen has taken the lead in entrepreneurship density and ranked first for six straight years in the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Comprehensive Index, according to the 2021 Mass Entrepreneurship and Innovation Research Report released recently.
Data showed that the city now owns 570 incubators for science and technology enterprises and has hatched 8,333 enterprises, while the other 6,996 are still underway. The enterprises has provided employment for 202,700 people.
Zhang Zhi, who graduated from the Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech) in 2016, started a company engaged in manometer and polymer materials research and commercialization. The 27-year-old man got seven licensed patents and was selected to represent graduates to report about entrepreneurship to Premier Li Keqiang at the 2020 National Mass Entrepreneurship and Innovation Week in October 2020.
Huang Dinglong and Matt Scott participated in the city’s entrepreneurship contest in 2014 one year after they had founded Malong Technologies. The company won first prize in the finals and received favors from investors. Over the years, the company has gradually expanded into AI education.
The Shenzhen entrepreneurship contest has attracted over 40,000 projects for competition since its inception 14 years ago. It has become one of the city’s major incubation platforms, incubating 13 listed enterprises and 50 national “little giants” enterprises that specialize in niche markets.
The Chaihuo Makers in Nanshan District, a service platform where makers started their dreams, now has over 10,000 registered members. Shenzhen Dorabot Technologies Co. was among the first batch of maker teams that started their dreams in Chaihuo in 2015. Over the last six years, the company has engaged in warehouse robot services and now owns 300 patents, with 70% of which being inventions. Their businesses have been expanded to over 10 cities in Japan, Australia and the U.S. and their orders have grown by over 100% a year on average.
As the city's high-tech hub, Nanshan District was accredited as one of the country’s demonstration bases for entrepreneurship and innovation in 2016. The district now accommodates 4,300 national high-level high-tech enterprises and 196 listed companies.
In the first half of the year, Nanshan’s GDP reached 389.5 billion yuan (US$57.52 billion), up by 3.1% year on year, with the added value of the high-tech industry accounting for 37.1% of the GDP.