Companies come out stronger amid pandemic

Zhongguancun in Beijing fostering some of the country's most innovative operations

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a disastrous impact on many businesses but not many of those based in Beijing's Zhongguancun, also known as China's Silicon Valley.

Home to new and innovative businesses emerging from the pandemic, Zhongguancun has experienced soaring growth in the first half of this year, and is considered an important force in Beijing's economic recovery.

Local officials said Zhongguancun has turned the crisis into an opportunity and is bustling with active and eye-catching innovation and entrepreneurship.

Official data show that in the first six months of this year, total revenue of high-tech enterprises above a designated size in Zhongguancun reached 2.9 trillion yuan ($418 billion), up 5.9 percent on the same period year-on-year.

In the period spanning from January to June, high-grade, precision and advanced industries in Zhongguancun bounced back from the pandemic and maintained stable growth.

The six high-tech sectors－electronic information, renewable energy, biopharmaceuticals, environmental protection, manufacturing and new materials－generated revenue of 2.4 trillion yuan, accounting for 82 percent of Zhongguancun's total revenue.

Companies in these sectors have seen their total business revenues increase by 8.12 percent compared with the same six-month period of 2019.

Among them, Leyard Optoelectronic has shown positive momentum in terms of development, recently winning the bid for the world's largest micro LED project. Its production line in Daxing district is now running at full capacity.

On July 15, the company launched four new commercial micro LED display products for mass production, leading the industry toward large-scale industrialization.

In the electronic information sector, whose revenue from January to June increased by 15.5 percent year-on-year, e-commerce brands have been helping the local economy to recover.

To help stimulate consumption, JD has partnered with video-sharing app Kwai to advertise goods and Meituan has added a livestreaming mini program to its food delivery platform.

Delivery service providers have also come up with new delivery options for people placed on lockdown.

With online learning becoming a major solution for educators and students amid the pandemic, online tutoring companies in Zhongguancun have been stepping up to the plate.

Zuoyebang, a startup running online learning apps, provided online courses for the college entrance examination, which were viewed over 21 million times and served 8.05 million students. The company said nearly 70 percent of high school seniors across the country benefited from its classes.

Not only a technology hub, Zhongguancun is also a place where cutting-edge ideas and academics from universities and research institutes gather.

In the first half of this year, enterprises in Zhongguancun above a designated size spent 126.89 billion yuan on research and development, a 16.8 percent year-on-year increase. As a result, they have achieved revenue of 565.59 billion yuan, an increase of 18.4 percent year-on-year.

Glodon, located in the park, is a construction engineering software provider. In 2019, it poured as much as one-third of its operating income into R&D. Its newly created scenario using artificial intelligence technology to count reinforcing bars has been well received by more than 1,000 construction companies and sites across the country so far.

Being aware of patent protection, enterprises in Zhongguancun have applied for 51,729 patents from January to June, a jump of 10.4 percent year-on-year. Applications took up 61.4 percent of the total number of patent applications filed by enterprises in Beijing. Of the filings, 31,790 were for invention patents, a year-on-year increase of 11.3 percent.