By Yang Yang | chinadaily.com.cn | Updated: 2023-04-19 16:35

Chinese company ByteDance leads the global unicorn index 2023, according to a Hurun report on Tuesday.

Beijing-based ByteDance, which was founded in 2012, is officially the world's most valuable unicorn for the second year running with a value of $200 billion, according to the Global Unicorn Index 2023.

Five Chinese companies in total won positions on the top 10 list of Global Unicorn Index 2023. They include Ant Group, Shein, WeBank and Cainiao, which were on third, fourth, sixth and tenth place respectively.

China-based smartphone manufacturers Oppo and Vivo were included in the list for the first time this year.

China is the world's second largest country with 316 unicorns companies, up 15 in one year and 50 percent since pre-COVID days with 206.

China has more unicorns than the next 15 countries combined, following the United States with 666 unicorn companies.

According to Hurun report, there are 1361 unicorns in 48 countries and regions in the world, up 303 or 29 percent from the previous year and 867 or 175 percent since COVID began.

The Global Unicorn Index 2023 is a ranking of the world's start-ups founded in the 2000s, worth at least a billion dollars and not yet listed on a public exchange.