(Yicai Global) May 16 -- Chinese firm Didi Chuxing Technology has come in second on the 2019 Disruptor 50 List from US outlet CNBC while social e-commerce platform Xiaohongshu and artificial intelligence unicorn Yitu Technology ranked 10th and 20th, respectively. 

CNBC described Didi as "China's Uber-disruptor," while referring to Xiaohongshu, known as Red on western social media platforms, as "China's trendspotting app."

Boston-based farmtech firm Indigo Ag topped the list released yesterday. Among the entrants, 36 of use machine learning as a core technology while 29 see AI as key to their business.

Some 14 of them view cloud computing as being at the heart of their business. The 50 entrants have raised more than USD46 billion in venture capital, with total potential market valuations in excess of USD266 billion, CNBC said.

Beijing-based Didi is China's first company to develop an online intelligent ride-hailing system based on mobile internet technology and provides services to nearly 300 million users in over 400 Chinese cities.

Shanghai's Xiaohongshu adopts an independent business-to-consumer model, directly with overseas brands and large traders to deliver goods to users through bonded warehouses and overseas direct mail. 

Yitu Technology, also based in Shanghai, completed a USD200 million C+ round of financing last June bringing its valuation to CNY15 billion (USD2.2 billion).

Editor: William Clegg