Shandong has been surrounded by a "unicorn problem". In the list of unicorns published by institutions over the years, as the top three provinces in the national economic aggregate, why are Shandong enterprises always absent collectively?

Recently, the Great Wall Enterprise Strategy Research Institute released the 20 18 report on the development of China unicorn enterprises, and four Shandong enterprises, namely Jiehua Bio, Gude, Juhaokan and Weidong Yun Education, were selected as the "unicorn map of China". On May 29th, Shandong Provincial Department of Industry and Information Technology released the list of unicorn and quasi-unicorn enterprises in Shandong Province in 20 18. Gooday and Huaxi Bio were selected, and another 17 quasi-unicorns were ready to go.

From obscurity to being famous on the list, the number of unicorn enterprises in Shandong has achieved a historic breakthrough, which means that Shandong has achieved initial results in promoting the transformation of old and new kinetic energy. Resolutely abandon "rough, black and heavy" and embrace "innovation" and "capital" in an all-round way. Shandong people's ideas are undergoing great changes.

Why does Shandong attach importance to "unicorns"

In 20 13 years, American investor Aileen Lee put forward two criteria when defining "unicorn": first, the establishment time was short (usually not more than 10 year), and second, the valuation reached 10 billion US dollars (with private equity investment), which has been used ever since. From these two simple criteria, it can be inferred that the two genes "innovation" and "capital" are the most remarkable characteristics of unicorn enterprises.

Innovation and capital are exactly the shortcomings and weaknesses of Shandong. Liu Jiayi, secretary of Shandong Provincial Party Committee, compared Guangdong, Jiangsu and Zhejiang with "the pacesetter is drifting away, and the pursuers are getting closer" at the mobilization meeting of major projects of transforming old and new kinetic energy in Shandong Province in early October-August, and pointedly pointed out that the weak ability of scientific and technological innovation led Shandong to miss the opportunity of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation.

Several sets of data given by Secretary Liu Jiayi are worth pondering: in 20 16 years, the output value of high-tech industries in the province accounted for 33.8% of the industrial output value above designated size, which was 7.7 and 6.3 percentage points lower than that of Jiangsu and Zhejiang respectively, and 1. 1 percentage point lower than that of Henan; The expenditure on scientific and technological research and development in the whole society accounted for 2.30%, which was 0.22, 0.32 and 0.09 percentage points lower than that in Guangdong, Jiangsu and Zhejiang respectively. There are 24,000 international patent applications for PCT (Patent Cooperation Treaty) in Guangdong, accounting for 1.399 of the whole province, only 5.8% of Guangdong.

Shandong is a big manufacturing province with a solid industrial base and a complete industrial system. After the financial crisis in 2008, many provinces carried out structural adjustment. The financial contribution rate of unit GDP in Shandong in 20 17 is only 8.39%, which is lower than that in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Guangdong by 1. 12, 2.82 and 4.20 percentage points respectively. In 20 18, the tax revenue of Shandong Province was 489.8 billion yuan, and the tax revenue paid by Zhejiang Ali Group and its unicorn enterprise Ant Financial Group reached 51600 million yuan, which is the power of Internet innovation.

Another set of data: Shandong registered private fund managers only account for 2.8% of the country, equivalent to14 in Zhejiang and 2/3 in Jiangsu; The scale of management funds only accounts for 1.4% of the whole country, which is equivalent to 1/5 in Zhejiang and 1/3 in Jiangsu. The number of domestic listed companies and companies listed on the New Third Board is only equivalent to 1/2 in Jiangsu and 1/3 in Guangdong.

The financial industry involves all aspects, generally taking bank deposits and loans as the main indicators. Shandong's high-level officials only compare the capital market with developed provinces, and the technology-based enterprises are behind them. Because only high-tech start-ups can get the favor of private equity funds; Only mature enterprises with high technical level and in line with the national industrial direction can board the capital market.

Shandong executives have realized that innovative enterprises represented by unicorns represent the future development direction of Shandong.

"Unicorn" has become a guiding light for governments at all levels.

Now governments at all levels in Shandong attach great importance to unicorn enterprises.

At the mobilization meeting of the province's "take responsibility and pay close attention to implementation" at the beginning of this year, Secretary Liu Jiayi specifically said that all cities and counties should "queue up" existing enterprises and technologies, put enough energy and countermeasures into "Gazelle", "Unicorn" enterprises, innovative enterprises and platforms, make good use of steel, and concentrate on resource cultivation. Governor Gong is clearly stating in the government work report that in 20 19 years, Shandong Province will cultivate 100 "gazelle enterprises" and actively cultivate "unicorn enterprises".

The competent departments at all levels are also "fighting". On February 19, the first day after the provincial "two sessions", the Shandong Provincial Department of Industry and Information Technology held a forum for the heads of Gazelle enterprises. From February 26th to March 3rd, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology organized a research group of gazelle enterprises and visited more than 10 gazelle enterprises in four cities.

Shandong Province put forward a trilogy of cultivating small and medium-sized enterprises, namely "gazelle enterprise → quasi-unicorn → unicorn" industrial chain. For the identified national unicorn enterprises, the provincial finance will reward 3 million yuan at a time, and the policy and finance will also support it. At the municipal level, almost all cities such as Jinan, Zibo, Weifang, Tai 'an and Weihai have introduced supporting policies and measures to support gazelle (unicorn) enterprises, and some cities with better financial conditions can also offer 300,000-500,000 yuan as rewards.

From 2065438 to September 2008, Jiehua Bio was recognized as the first "unicorn" enterprise in Shandong with a valuation of nearly $3 billion. Chairman Liu Longbin returned to China to start a business, and many places extended an "olive branch". It is said that in order to win this order, the main leaders of Qingdao led a team to Beijing for many times to negotiate with Liu Longbin, and the demonstration negotiation was conducted for 18 rounds. Liu Longbin commented on the Laoshan district government: responsive, never procrastinating, never shirking.

The point is that all parts of the country are competing. Will most unicorn companies choose Shandong? It's hard to say. For enterprises with a valuation of more than 654.38 billion yuan, millions of rewards can be described as a drop in the bucket. Many people say that the business environment is very important, indeed, but it is an ecosystem, and the key point is to spell "visible and tangible".

Qingdao has grasped the key: venture capital. When Qingdao went south to Shenzhen, the biggest experience I learned was that more than half of the top 20 venture capital institutions in China were in Shenzhen, and venture capital attracted talents and technology to Shenzhen. Recently, Qingdao also hosted the most important international conference after the SCO Qingdao Summit-Global (Qingdao) Venture Capital Conference. Wang Qingxian, secretary of Qingdao Municipal Party Committee, put forward the goal of building a world venture capital center.

"What Shenzhen can do, Qingdao must do" reflects Shandong's desire for unicorn enterprises. Shandong, once dismissive of the private economy, is completing its transformation.

How does Shandong unicorn sharpen this "horn"?

After two years of hard work, Shandong's desire for "unicorn enterprise" has been rewarded. From 20 18, Shandong enterprises gradually appeared in the list of "unicorn enterprises". Shandong Provincial Department of Industry and Information Technology released the list of officially certified unicorns for the first time, indicating that the government has enough confidence in unicorn enterprises. In addition to surprises, it is necessary to carefully analyze and compare whether cultivating unicorns is the right choice for Shandong.

If we compare the list of unicorn enterprises, it is easy to draw a conclusion: Beijing is far ahead, with 82 companies, which is equivalent to the sum of Shanghai (38 companies), Guangdong (24 companies) and Zhejiang (20 companies) ranked second, third and fourth.

This data is not consistent with the GDP data of various provinces and cities. The reason is that most unicorn companies were born in the digital economy and the Internet. Most of the founders came from Ali, Tencent and Baidu, and BAT itself hatched a large number of unicorns. As the political, cultural, educational, scientific and economic center of China, Beijing is also the earliest Internet center in China. There are a large number of Internet companies around Wangjing, which can provide the most needed talents, policies, funds, information and other elements of the digital economy, which is unmatched by other cities.

Compared with other industries, unicorns distributed in sub-sectors such as e-commerce and artificial intelligence can grow from the industrial base and need Internet platform thinking. The lack of unicorns in Shandong is one of the main reasons, except for the neglect of the private economy.

Then the question is, should Shandong give up its industrial base and pursue the Internet economy? This problem should be treated dialectically.

Internet economy exists not only in the service industry, but also in the industrial field. Gooday, the home appliance logistics originally from Haier, has achieved explosive growth by transforming the ecological logistics of the Internet of Things scene. This is the revelation! This is the model! Shandong has the largest number of invisible champions in China, and has the strength and opportunity to connect with the Internet economy in some fields, such as industry.

On the other hand, Shandong has fallen behind in the first round of unicorn competition, and there is no advantage in introducing unicorns, especially in cities other than Qingdao and Jinan. Looking at the global economy now, although the internet economic dividend still exists, the voice of returning to industry and the secondary industry is getting higher and higher. In the future, hard technology represented by artificial intelligence, new technologies and new materials will be popular and can stand the test of capital.

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Anyway, owning a unicorn is always a good thing. It is always a blessing that Shandong can treat regional competition with long-distance running thinking, improve the scientific and technological innovation ability of Shandong enterprises and actively provide better business environment for enterprises.