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​Take a global lead in one area - An exploration of Unicorns in Shanghai
By:Luyukun  |  2018-04-19 09:50

“Unicorns”– startup companies valued at over $1bn - serve as a mirror reflecting the economic development of a region and provide a perspective on the economic outlook. Shanghai has fostered a bunch of internet companies, including Hujiang, Zhaogang, Ymatou, Yiguo, Ximalaya FM, NextEV and TouchPal, specializing in areas such as e-commerce, internet finance, medical health, vehicle transportation and software and hardware.

Behind the success of these firms lie three fundamental elements, which are the spirit of innovation, cutting-edge technologies and a young mind-set to lead the trend of internet changes.

To many, the first impression of Shanghai might be delicacy, as demonstrated by the delicate way elderly gentlemen and ladies in Shanghai in bygone times ate a small steamed bun. Based on the same quest for delicacy and amid the trend of upgraded consumption in our times, a large number of innovation projects related to lifestyles have emerged in Shanghai. Some of them are among the best unicorn firms, including Ele.me, Xiaohongshu and Ymatou.

However, apart from the quest for delicacy, there are more traits, like diligence, studiousness and ingeniousness that have contributed to the birth of a batch of tech innovation Unicorns in this city. Among them are Yitu Technology - an international leader in facial recognition technology - and TouchPal (Chubao in Chinese)- a firm boasting more than 170 patents and an AI lab in Silicon Valley, and Shanghai United Imaging Healthcare – which has surpassed many international competitors in the high-end medical imaging equipment market. They have been a major force in this city’s innovation efforts.

(Photo by Yitu Technology)

>>Yitu Technology

R&D teams account for more than 70% of overall staff

According to a report issued by the well-known think-tank Center for a New American Security, China is no longer inferior to the U.S in terms of AI technology and has become a real rival, even surpassing the U.S. in some aspects.

Yitu is akin to a galloping unicorn in this wave of technological revolution. Founded just 6 years ago, Yitu has optimally combined innovative research in artificial intelligence with industrial applications in such areas as public safety, medical health, financial innovation, and facial recognition technology where it has an industry leading position.

The accuracy of Yitu’s facial recognition has astonishingly exceeded 90%. This technology allowed them to win two consecutive global competitions last year. In the prestigious benchmark test Face Recognition Vendor Tests organized by the National Institute of Standards and Technology in the U.S, Yitu’s facial recognition accuracy reached 95.5%, which is currently the highest score across the globe under the 1 millionth false-match rate benchmark. Two months later, Yitu beat its rivals in algorithms retrieval accuracy in the Face Recognition Prize Challenge. Its billion-scale face comparison system is capable of picking out a suspect in large crowds of people “at one glimpse”. Yitu’s technology has been widely applied in various industries. For instance, its Intelligent Medical Diagnostic Aided System has been used in clinical cases in dozens of tertiary referral hospitals in Shanghai and Zhejiang to help detect lesions in a more precise and intelligent way.


Patent wall of TouchPal (Chubao)

>>TouchPal

Lead the market with innovation

In 2008, Apple Inc. removed physical keyboards from cellphones and implemented touch screens instead, bringing a sweeping change to the smart phone industry. Following this sea change, requirements for language input methods and keying error correction functions grew significantly. Anticipating these requirements, TouchPal (Chubao) was founded in Shanghai in the same year that Apple did away with cellphone keyboards.

As one of the first “Go global” firms, the input method tool (TouchPal Keyboard), word prediction and error correction functions developed by TouchPal allow the phone to have an earlier understanding of what you want to input than your fingers indicate, thus creating a better input experience for users. Currently, TouchPal, as a third-party input method provider boasting the largest number of overseas users, has gobbled up a very high market share in European and U.S markets. It supports more than 120 languages and covers more than 240 countries and regions, with over 100 million daily active users. TouchPal was the first Chinese firm to win the GSMA's Global Mobile Awards. Moreover, Chubao Dial, a dialer app developed by TouchPal, can intercept harassment and fraud calls. As of today, TouchPal has obtained more than 170 domestic and foreign patents.

>>United Imaging Healthcare (UIH)

Combined effort of higher education institutes and enterprise

According to a statistical report issued at the end of last year, Shanghai is home to 3 unicorn firms specializing in medical care and the health industry, among a total of 8 in China, making Shanghai the leader in bioscience and medical care and health industry nationwide. Shanghai United Imaging Healthcare is one of those local unicorns.

In September last year, UIH and the top US molecular imaging team Explorer Alliance jointly built the EXPLORER (EXtreme Performance LOng REsearch scanneR). This is the world's first total-body PET scanner that allows all tissues and organs to be imaged simultaneously with 40 times more sensitivity than current clinical PET/CT scanners. This scanner, dubbed the Hubble Space Telescope of the human body, will revolutionize the way in which PET is used in research and, ultimately, in the clinic. Total-body PET will create the opportunity to study multi-system diseases at the molecular level for the first time.

This is not the first time that United Imaging has surprised the world. The 112-Crystal-Ring Light-Guide PET-CT developed by UIH has broken the monopoly of foreign firms in this area. In March of last year, UIH collaborated with Shanghai Jiaotong University to establish the SJTU-UIH Institute for Medical Imaging Technology, with a view to building a world-class platform for cutting-edge research, innovation and technologies application in medical equipment.

Medical imaging equipment requires a high level of scientific technologies and involves knowledge in such disciplines as biomedical engineering, electronic and electrical engineering as well as computer science. Therefore higher education institutes can capitalize on their cross-disciplinary advantages to contribute to R&D, said Du Yiping, head of the Institute.

The same cooperative mode has also been seen between Yitu Technology and Shanghai Jiaotong University. Last year, Yitu Technology established a joint laboratory on “Visual Computation and Application” with SJTU and artificial intelligence chip maker ThinkForce, while Yitu Medical and School of Biomedical Engineering built a joint AI laboratory.

According to the 2017 China Unicorn Enterprise Development Report, Shanghai currently has a total of 36 unicorn firms, ranking second in number nationwide, and is expected to experience rapid growth over the next few years. Together they are forming a majestic and potent herd.


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