China now has 131 unicorn companies – startups valued at over $1 billion (6.87 billion yuan), according to a list released by the Great Wall Enterprise Institute at Beijing International Convention Center on March 1.

The unicorn companies have all started up by public or private market investors since 2006, growing in number by 61 from 2015 and carrying an aggregate value of $487.6 billion.

There are seven super-unicorns worth more than $10 billion each that are included on the list. They are Alibaba's financial arm Ant Financial (worth $75 billion); Smartphone maker Xiaomi ($46 billion); Alibaba's cloud-computing arm Aliyun ($39 billion); ride-hailing app Didi ($33.8 billion); peer-to-peer lender and broker Lufax ($18.5 billion); group purchase app Meituan-Dianping ($18 billion); and drone manufacturer DJI ($10 billion).

These companies have seen dramatic growth, with more than one third of them formed after 2014 and undergoing vigorous initial development.

Most unicorn companies operate in e-commerce, internet finance, intelligent hardware and transportation, with the newest ones specializing in big data, artificial intelligence, cloud computing and new media.

The companies come from 16 cities across China. Beijing ranked first with the most at 65, followed by Shanghai with 26, Hangzhou with 12 and Shenzhen with 12.

Zhang Zhihong, director of the Torch High Technology Industry Development Center of Ministry of Science and Technology, summarizes the achievements of unicorn companies at Beijing International Convention Center on March 1. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Zhang Zhihong, director of the Torch High Technology Industry Development Center of Ministry of Science and Technology, summarizes the achievements of unicorn companies at Beijing International Convention Center on March 1. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]