According to Statista, the market and business intelligence platform CB Insights says that Chinese AI (artificial intelligence) company Bytedance is the highest-valued startup in the world. The Top 10 startups in the world are given in the Statista graphic. Here is my take on how these companies will get affected due to COVID-19, at least in the near-term.
As per CB Insights, there more than 400 unicorn startups (companies valued at US$1 billion or more) in the world as of May 2020. As many as 24 of these companies were valued at US$10 billion, making them decacorns.
Bytedance, which is valued at US$75 billion, is running content platform Toutiao in China, which uses machine learning to tailor a newsfeed for each individual viewer out of traditional and new media sources. This company will likely gain from more people wanting to do away with physical print publications. However, it will grow less (or may even have a negative growth) outside China as consumers worldwide shun Chinese products and services.
The second highest-valued startup as per CB Insights is also from China – ride-hailing service Didi (China’s Uber equivalent) valued at US$56 billion. This company is likely to get hurt from people wanting to avoid cars which have transported several strangers. It will also grow less (or may even have a negative growth) outside China as consumers worldwide shun Chinese products and services.
American online payment platform Stripe is likely to gain as more people do online shopping and other transactions.
Elon Musk‘s American space exploration company Space X will continue to grow and is not likely to get affected by COVID-19 in any way.
Temporary lodging and vacation rentals company Airbnb (also based in USA) will most likely lose as many property owners will like to stay away from taking the risk of strangers staying at their home and not maintaining hygiene standards, as well as renters avoiding places which may infect them.
Chinese video-sharing app developer Kuaishou will have some gains from more people staying at home, but will lose an opportunity to grow internationally as less people now trust Chinese apps.
Indian E-commerce platform PayTM will continue to grow as more and more of India’s 1.379 billion population opt for online payments, transfers, and e-wallets.
Video game and software developer and publisher Epic Games is likely to gain with more people choosing to stay more at home and even work-from-home.
Chinese drone company DJI (Dà-Jiāng Innovations) is most likely to lose market share outside China as less businesses and consumers trust Chinese products and in this case, products that are capable of spying and sending data collected by it (including private images, etc.) possibly to the Chinese government.
Just like China’s Didi, Singaporean ride-hailing service Grab is likely to get hurt from people wanting to avoid cars which have transported several strangers.
Do leave a comment if you agree or disagree with my analysis.