Shanghai rose two places to break into the top 10 amongst worldwide cities for the first time in terms of overall strengths, according to the 2021 Global Cities Report released by management and consulting firm Kearney.

This year, three Chinese cities were ranked among the Top 10, including Beijing (ranked sixth), Hong Kong (ranked seventh) and Shanghai (ranked tenth).

The Global Cities Report incorporates the Global Cities Index (GCI) and Global Cities Outlook (GCO). Kearney’s Global Cities Index has, since 2008, served as an important reference for urban development by systematic evaluation of each city’s international competitiveness and development potential.

The report also shows that under the pandemic since 2020, the average scores of all regions except China have increased by less than 1%, even with some negative growth. On the contrary, Shanghai and Chinese cities rose against the trend and gained positive growth in scores.

Rise of unicorn companies

Actually in 2020, the GCI rating of Shanghai went up significantly due to the rising number of unicorn companies.

According to the Hurun Research Institute, the countries with the largest number of unicorn companies in the world are the United States and China, accounting for 40% and 39% respectively. Amongst the top 10 cities with the largest number of unicorn companies, Beijing, San Francisco and Shanghai rank the top three, surpassing cities such as New York and London.

Vitality in digital economy

Over the past two years, the digital economy and advanced technology have achieved faster development and market application, in which context, cities like Shanghai and San Francisco will be more prominent in their advantages, said the 2021 Global Cities Report. In 2019, Shanghai became a top 5 Chinese city in terms of competitiveness of the digital economy, taking second place behind Beijing.

World-leading shipping strength

Shipping has been a traditional advantage of Shanghai. The 2021 Global Cities Report calculates and measures the development potential and global connectivity of major cities around the world, based on different dimensions and indicators.

As statistics show, the container throughput of Shanghai Port has ranked 1st in the world for 11 consecutive years. In 2020, it was 1.2 times that of Singapore Port, the world’s second largest port.

(Images by Shanghai Observer)