On September 12, 2023 China Top 500 Private Enterprises Summit was held in Jinan, Shandong. At the meeting, the "2023 China's Top 500 Private Enterprises Research And Analysis Report" was released.
The report shows that a total of 8961 enterprises with revenue of more than CNY 500 million participated in the selection this year, and the threshold of the top 500 private enterprises reached CNY 27.578 billion, an increase of CNY 1.211 billion over the previous year.
In 2022, China's top 500 private enterprises had a total business revenue of CNY 39.83 trillion, total assets of CNY 46.31 trillion, and net profit after tax of CNY 1.64 trillion. Among them, Jingdong, with an operating income of CNY 1.05 trillion, held the top position on the list of the top 500 private enterprises for the second consecutive year, followed closely by Alibaba and Hengli with operating incomes of CNY 864.5 billion and CNY 611.8 billion, respectively.
Due to the intensified efforts to reduce taxes and fees, the total tax payment of the top 500 private enterprises in 2022 amounted to CNY 1.25 trillion, a decrease of 8.4% compared to the previous year. However, the total employment generated increased slightly compared to the previous year, with a total of 10.97 million people employed, representing a marginal increase of 0.28%. The top five industries in terms of employment were the internet and related services, computer, communication, and other electronic equipment manufacturing, electrical machinery and equipment manufacturing, automobile manufacturing, and black metal smelting and rolling processing.
In terms of research and development (R&D) expenditure rankings, the top ten companies among the Fortune China 500 are from four industries: internet and related services, automobile manufacturing, computer, communication, and other electronic equipment manufacturing, and electrical machinery and equipment manufacturing. Among these, the internet industry stands out with remarkable R&D investment. The top three companies in R&D investment rankings on the list are all from the internet industry, namely Tencent, Alibaba, and Baidu. Tencent's R&D expenditure reached CNY 61.4 billion in 2022, while Alibaba and Baidu spent CNY 53.8 billion and CNY 23.3 billion on R&D, respectively.
In 2022, private enterprises have been increasing their R&D investments. For example, Tencent's R&D expenditure in 2022 amounted to CNY 61.4 billion, accounting for approximately 50% of the total after-tax net profit for the year, with a year-on-year growth rate of 18.3%. From 2018 to 2022, Tencent's accumulated R&D investment exceeded CNY 220 billion over the course of five years.