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Innovation potential in Zhongguancun core area surges
By Xu Lili ( chinadaily.com.cn )
Updated: 2015-01-30

Zhongguancun, Beijing's technology hub, which is also often referred to as "China's Silicon Valley", has been accelerating its pace of innovation and entrepreneurship.

At present, Zhongguancun has 12,000 high-tech companies including some famous brands such as Xiaomi, Lenovo and Baidu, according to Meng Jingwei, the deputy head of Haidian district, the core area of Zhongguancun.

Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi, as one of the leading high-tech enterprises in Zhongguancun, sold a total of 61.12 million smartphones in 2014, up 227 percent from the previous year.

The company acquired $1.1 billion in a new round of financing and was valued at $45 billion with newly acquired late December, 2014.

Sales of the brand expanded to six countries over the past year, including Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines.

"Xiaomi has become the most valuable unlisted technology company in the world," said the company founder and CEO Lei Jun.

Xiaomi, being in the forefront of product innovation, has initiated revolutionary steps in the intelligent hardware industry; Qunar.com, a good example in operation innovation, has changed the operation mode of traditional tourism; and 58.com as a business model innovation, has changed online service industry.

Meng stressed that innovation has become an important driving force for the development of Haidian district.

New technologies such as mobile Internet and big data have become the new engine of the economic transformation and advancement of the district.