Times Weekly reporter Chen Zexiu from Guangzhou
Five years after the birth of the unicorn concept, it became the focus of the capital market. First, the China Securities Regulatory Commission established the Unicorn IPO green channel, followed by the Torch Center of the Ministry of Science and Technology and other institutions jointly issued the “2017 China Unicorn Enterprise Development Report”. It is a battle for unicorn enterprises. Local governments have not missed this wave, and they frequently show unicorns at the policy level.
On June 6th, the opening ceremony of the Unicorn Business Incubator Park was held in Yuhang District, Hangzhou. The “Unicorn Ten Article” New Deal was released at the same time, with a maximum reward of 100 million yuan. It is intended to create a national unicorn enterprise with 'combination punches'. Grow up the park. Two days later, Xihu District of Hangzhou officially launched the unicorn cultivation project. It supported unicorn enterprises in terms of operating costs, R&D investment, financing self-sustaining, and listing incentives. Similarly, Unicorn was planned in Xihu District. Industrial Park.
'We believe that unicorn companies represent the development direction of emerging industries. The future economic growth will be generated in this part of the company.'' Xu Bing, deputy director of the Hangzhou West Lake District Bureau of Commerce, told the Times Weekly reporter.
There are many cities like Hangzhou that attach great importance to unicorns. On May 18, Chengdu Hi-tech Zone proposed the establishment of a unicorn investment fund of 10 billion yuan to establish a corporate gradient cultivation system to create a new cradle for Chinese unicorns. Previously, Chengdu's Tianfu New District proposed the construction of Unicorn Island. Tianjin also announced in March this year that it would build the Unicorn Tower. Nanjing, Xi'an, Chongqing and other places have all offered cash awards to unicorn enterprises.
The government took 'provide nutrition'
According to Xu Ben, Xihu District's support for unicorn enterprises 'has made a great effort'.
Taking Unicorn Industrial Park as an example, with an area of approximately 5 million square meters, it is located in the Yungu section of the Zijingang Science and Technology City in the east of the West Branch of Hangzhou Science and Technology Co., Ltd. It enjoys a strategic location. 'The surrounding commercial land, high land prices, basic To 10 million yuan and 1 acre (Note: 1 acre is equal to 666.67 square meters). But the price of the land used by the industrial park for the company is only about 3 million yuan a mu. There is a big difference in the middle. 'Xu Ben said that the company got the land. Afterwards, an office building or property can be built as required, but each site does not exceed 15 acres.
Different companies have different development periods, and their needs are also inconsistent. According to Xu Ben, the size of quasi-unicorn enterprises is relatively small. From the perspective of government, subsidies are generally based on rent, and policy services for science and technology are the mainstay. Real unicorns. When enterprises and employees reach a certain scale, the need for office space may be highlighted. Industrial land is mainly targeted at such enterprises.
In the policy issued by the Xihu District, the unicorn enterprises on the list were also given a one-off award of 2 million yuan, and the unicorn enterprises were given a one-off reward of 500,000 yuan, and the rent subsidies of the employees of these enterprises were also Children's schooling and other aspects provide relevant support. The Times Weekly reporter learned that currently, Xihu District is preparing agencies that have multiple departments and agencies to conduct special review and management of unicorn enterprises. To support the implementation of unicorn enterprise policies. The rules will also be gradually introduced.
On the other side, Yuhang District of Hangzhou is also actively laying out. The newly planned Unicorn Park is located in Hangzhou Future Technology City. Li Jie, Director of Investment Promotion Bureau of Hangzhou Future Technology City Management Committee, told the Times Weekly that the situation in the industrial space is tense. , Futian Science and Technology City selected 3 parks as homes of unicorn enterprises. Among them, 2 were used for hatching and breeding, with a total area of more than 750 mu, 1 for the construction of a Unicorn Enterprise Park, with a planned area of 170 acres.
According to Li Jie, the Unicorn Park will implement a one-on-one service commissioner system to strengthen government service guarantees and meet the needs of the capital, talents, and technology in the enterprise development process and various problems encountered. , Providing accurate peer-to-peer services. In addition, a review committee was established in Yuhang District. The deputy director of the jury was appointed as the director of the judging committee. Unicorns, quasi-unicorns, quasi-unicorns, and quasi-unicorns were recruited on a quarterly basis. .
It is worth mentioning that Yuhang District has great support for research and development of unicorns and quasi-unicorn enterprises. According to the New Deal, Yuhang District has R&D personnel for unicorns or quasi-unicorns, equipment purchases, and recognized R&D services. For subcontracted R&D expenditures of 100 million yuan or less, subsidies will be granted at 20%; for investments of 100 million yuan or more, subsidies will be granted at 25%, with a maximum grant of 100 million yuan. For high-quality companies with a large investment in R&D, the Li Jie explained that many R&D projects are risky and low-yield for companies, which can easily lead to insufficient R&D investment. However, with the spillover effects of these R&D projects, it is worthwhile for companies to start these high-risk projects. The government should take action at the right time to make up for market failures. According to the company's life cycle, unicorn enterprises are in the growth period, which is equal to people's adolescence. At this stage, we must first provide adequate nutrition, so our unicorn policy efforts Unprecedented. ' Li Jie said.
In the second half of 2017, Guangzhou Science and Technology Commission organized and organized the selection of “Unicorn” enterprises. Zeng Bin, deputy secretary-general and chief of staff of Guangzhou Science and Technology Innovation Enterprise Association, was one of the major responsible persons. When the company communicated, he found that most companies actually did not value how much incentive or subsidy they could get from the government. 'They prefer to receive government follow-up services' because it will allow companies to feel that the government is in the process of development. Its escort. For example, the unicorn selection list released by the government will, to a certain extent, boost the rise of corporate valuations and help enterprises win more social resources. This effect cannot be measured by value. On the other hand, The government can provide limited incentives or subsidies, which may be far less than the company's own financing scale.
'Unicorns are wild, not reared, and unicorns who have not experienced the brutal baptism of market competition are just the bubbles that are destructive.' Executive director of the Chanson Capital, Shen Meng, said that judging from the successful experience of Israel, The government can't do everything for unicorns. For companies that really have innovative technologies, they can provide some start-up funding, but then they must let themselves find themselves in the vast ocean of competition. The only way to survive is the true gold.
A number of industry insiders told the Times Weekly reporter that the rise and fall of a company is not determined by the government. It is mainly market behavior. The main task of the government is to maintain a good ecology, improve the business environment for optimization, and avoid 'override' alternatives. market.
'The ecology is well maintained, the company will naturally come in.' said Xu Ben.
Introduce and nurture two legs to walk
The unicorn enterprises in Hangzhou are more or less armed with Ali genes. For example, ants gold suits, Aliyun, Cainiao network and word of mouth are unicorn enterprises hatched by Ali. There are also many Ali employees who resigned their jobs. "The founder of a large part of the Unicorn enterprise in Xihu District came from Ali." Xu Ben said. He believes that Alibaba is a major factor in the production of unicorn enterprises in Hangzhou. In addition, good Innovative ecology, business environment, coupled with amassed talent and a more developed capital market, have added momentum to the emergence and development of Hangzhou Unicorn.
As early as July 2014, the Hangzhou Municipal Committee reviewed and approved the "Several Opinions on Accelerating the Information Economy", and promoted the development of information economy as a "Number One Project" in Hangzhou. The goal is to focus on the wisdom of industrialization and industrial intelligence. To create a trillion-level information economy industrial cluster by 2020. In addition, Hangzhou is also a national independent innovation demonstration area and national small and micro enterprise entrepreneurship and innovation base.
In April this year, according to the instructions of the chief of the Hangzhou Municipal Party Committee, the Hangzhou Science and Technology Commission prepared the “Opinions on the Implementation of the Cultivation Project of Unicorn Enterprises in Hangzhou (2018-2020)” (Consultation Draft), and proposed that by 2020, Hangzhou City Strive to accumulate a total of more than 20 unicorn enterprises and 150 quasi-unicorn enterprises (valued at more than US$100 million), and basically establish a unicorn enterprise cultivation and support system with classified stratification.
Li Jie said that in the wave of popular entrepreneurship and innovation, unicorn enterprises have become one of the important engines to promote high-speed economic growth and move toward high-end levels. The emergence of a large number of unicorn enterprises, the emergence of new and innovative industries Cultivating, the subversive transformation of traditional industries and the innovation and development of regional economy are of great significance.
'The policy support from the city to the district is related to the entire environment.' Xu Ben believes that, overall, the atmosphere of Hangzhou's cultivation of unicorn enterprises is 'very good'. 'Unicorns stand out from each other. , Excellent companies. The original local government supports IPO. The new three-plate companies now support the unicorns. It is only changing the argument. The fundamental logic is not changed. It is support and robs excellent enterprises. According to a reporter from the Times Weekly, the person in charge of the Shenzhen and Shenzhen Times stated that the unicorn company will bring real tax revenue to many places.
Is the local unicorn enterprise mainly introduced or cultivated? Yuhang District hopes to cultivate a group and attract a group. “We walk on two legs and use a combination of cultivation and introduction.” said Li Jie. Xihu District They are more inclined to nurture themselves. “Unicorns are generally larger in size, and it is still more difficult to move them as a whole.” Xu Ben believes that, on the other hand, if a place can grow a unicorn, there is Some of the necessary factors, such as local talents, supporting services, etc., also determine that unicorn companies will not be able to move freely.
Discreetly identify unicorns
About ten years after its founding, the company’s valuation of more than one billion U.S. dollars is the two major standards for unicorn enterprises. Zeng Bin told the reporter of the Times Weekly that the ten-year restrictions determine which industries can become unicorns and which cannot. For example, the cycle of biomedical and equipment manufacturing is relatively long, and the life cycle of electronic information companies is relatively short, easy to operate through capital, and generate a flash point in a short period of time, which is determined by industry attributes.
On March 23, the "2017 China Unicorn Enterprise Development Report" issued jointly by the Torch Center of the Ministry of Science and Technology showed that as of December 31, 2017, there were 164 companies with an average valuation of 3.83 billion U.S. dollars. There are more than 84% of Unicorn enterprises in Beijing, Shenzhen, and Shenzhen. From the industry point of view, the proportion of e-commerce companies is the highest, with 33 companies accounting for about 20% of the total list. The number of Internet finance companies is second, total 21 companies accounted for 13%. According to the "U.S.-U.S. Unicorn Research Report" issued by Deloitte, as of June 30, 2017, there were 252 unicorn enterprises in the world and 106 in the United States, accounting for 42.1% of the total. , ranked first in the world; China has 98, accounting for 38.9%, ranked second in the world.
"Although the number of Chinese unicorns is large, almost all model innovations are superimposed on China's huge population base. Unlike other countries, unicorns are mainly based on technological innovation, so the bubble is more likely." According to the Times Weekly Reporter, from the current valuation level, China's unicorn enterprises are basically already over-valued, because Chinese investors are highly speculative, sometimes the lack of authenticity of the value analysis, ' Like hype to earn the difference'.
How do local governments identify bubbles and screen out excellent unicorn enterprises? On the one hand, local governments must be clear about their positioning. Local governments generally have corresponding development plans and industries that focus on development. They can't see anything good. , what to do; On the other hand, the development of unicorn enterprises still needs to match the local resources and capabilities. 'Otherwise, unicorn enterprises may be 'starved to death'.
Zeng Bin believes that the local government distinguishes unicorn enterprises and cannot only look at the creation time and valuation. 'If you only press these two indicators, many Internet P2P companies are unicorns, but these companies promote the development of innovation. Limited effect. ' He said that we should pay attention to the advanced nature of enterprise technology, the position in the industry, shareholders' background, income, growth value and a series of indicators.
Zeng Bin suggested that local governments should adopt the principle of prudence, and determine the enterprises supported by them through the cross-cutting comparison between vertical and horizontal directions. Specifically, from a horizontal perspective, it is necessary to make use of the ministries and commissions of industry and commerce, development and reform, science and technology, etc. Collaboration, observation of the past and present of the company; vertical view, to put the company in the industry cycle, through the experts to demonstrate the future prospects. In addition, we must also carry out dynamic tracking and long-term tracking of the company to accompany the company to grow together.