(Yicai Global) Aug. 4 -- Six of the world's top 10 unicorns, startups valued at more than USD1 billion, come from China,this year’s edition of theHurun Global Unicorn Indexshowed.

Alibaba fintech affiliate Ant Group ranked first at CNY1 trillion (USD143.2 billion) and Beijing ByteDance Technology, the owner of TikTok, ranked second at CNY560 billion (USD80.2 billion), according to the index published today.Their positions remained unchanged for a second year in a row.This year’s list is the second to be published.

The other Chinese unicorns in the top 10 were ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing (No. 3 at CNY370 billion),online financial marketplaceproviderShanghai Lujiazui International Financial Asset Exchange (No. 4 at CNY270 billion), video-sharing app operator Beijing Kuaishou Technology (No. 8 at CNY195 billion), and Alibaba logistics affiliate Cainiao Network Technology (No. 9 at CNY190 billion).

The US leads China in total number of unicorns with 233 to 227. As much as 80 percent of those on Hurun’s list come from the two countries.

Beijing is the world's unicorn capital with 93, ahead of San Francisco’s 68, with Shanghai ranking third at 47. Nine of the top 10 cities are in China or the US. London is the only city not in either country to make the premier league.

E-commerce is the sector with the most unicorns, with its 89 worth a combined USD196 billion and accounting for over 10 percent of all inclusions, followed by artificial intelligence and fintech, with 63 apiece. The AI sector is appraised at USD130.4 billion, 7.1 percent of the total value of the listees.

The fintech field is assessed at USD403 billion, far more than e-commerce and AI. The figure is 21.6 percent of that of all the businesses ranked.

Of the top five unicorns suffering the largest decline in valuations, US e-cigarette firm Juul Labs and shared workspace provider WeWork lost a respective CNY260 billion and CNY190 billion. China's Bitmain Technology Holding and Luckin Coffee co-founder Charles Lu's UCAR are also among the top five, shedding CNY50 billion and CNY20 billion, respectively.

This year’s rankings had586 unicorns, 92 more than last year. The list includes only non-public global firms set up after 2020 that were worth USD1 billion or more as of March 31.

Editor: Ben Armour