Year End Specials: The new herd of unicorns built in 2017

Here are all the new Asian unicorns from 2017, grouped by vertical and product category

Transportation

NIO

Following the collapse of Tesla wannabe Faraday Future – bankrolled by former billionaire Jia Yueting – NIO has taken over as China’s rising electric car company. Backed by Tencent, Baidu, and Sequoia Capital, NIO (previously known as NextEV) is also entering the self-driving space.
 
Real estate

UrWork

Co-working spaces are a dime a dozen in China’s major cities. Amid increasing competition, different spaces are upping the ante to attract more tenants, such as offering free-flowing beer and other perks.
 
Artificial intelligence and big data

SenseTime
 
As the demand for facial and image recognition surges in China, artificial intelligence companies like SenseTime are cashing in.

Education

Yuanfudao
 
In China, where education resources are disproportionately concentrated in major cities, parents are increasingly turning to online education as an alternative. That trend has been a boost to Yuanfudao’s business, an online education platform that matches online tutors with kids.

Media

Bytedance
 
In an ecosystem dominated by Alibaba and Tencent, Bytedance’s rise as an independent entity is extraordinary in and of itself.
 

E-commerce

Bukalapak
 
In a market swimming with deep-pocketed competitors like Lazada and Shopee, Indonesian e-commerce startup Bukalapak believes it has a local advantage. In particular, it has set its sights on the country’s second- and third-tier cities that “don’t even use Facebook,” said company CEO Achmad Zaky during a fireside chat at Tech in Asia Jakarta 2017.
Social media

Zhihu

Quora-like Zhihu is part of a growing trend in China, where users pay experts and thought leaders for knowledge. Unlike its Western counterpart, Zhihu is monetizing its network of industry experts by offering paid live streaming sessions, where users can attend live lectures and interact in real-time with different speakers.

This is an excerpt from the article published on Tech in Asia. You can read the full article here.