Recently, Startup Genome, a globally renowned organization mapping and analyzing innovation ecosystems worldwide, released The Global Startup Ecosystem Report 2025, which announced 40 world-leading startup ecosystems. According to the report, Beijing moved up three positions compared with the previous year, and is now tied with Boston for the fifth place, making it the only Chinese city included in the global top five.

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Since its inception in 2012, the report has been updated annually. In 2025, it introduced a new evaluation framework for leading startup ecosystems based on six factors: performance, funding, talent and experience, market reach, AI-native transition, and knowledge. Beijing ranked third globally in performance and fourth in talent and experience as well as knowledge.

Meanwhile, the city outperformed the global average in various other aspects. During the 2022–2024 period, Beijing's ecosystem value reached USD 533 billion, while the global average was USD 20.4 billion; the number of active unicorns in Beijing was 61, compared with a global average of 4. The average software engineer salary in Beijing was USD 53,500 in 2024, whereas the global average stood at USD 52,000. The total amount of venture capital investment from 2020 to 2024 in Beijing registered USD 64 billion, compared with the global average of USD 5.2 billion.

The report concludes that robust government support, intellectual endorsement from prestigious universities, and a thriving capital market are powerful drivers of innovation within Beijing's startup ecosystem, continuously injecting momentum to the cultivation of China's next generation of globally leading entrepreneurs. With a solid foundation for innovation, Beijing, as a prominent hub for technologies and innovation, has garnered international acclaim for its rapid advancement in artificial intelligence-driven data analytics, life sciences, and fintech.

(Source: The Beijing News)