China
Shanghai
Multinationals, Pudong, and a science park that is not the Bund.
Startup EcosystemsChinaShanghai
Commercial capital
Role
Shanghai is where foreign companies already have China headquarters, where Lujiazui is the financial centre, and where Zhangjiang is the science and semiconductor-related park people mean when they are not talking about the Bund. Those are three locations.
The city’s startup market is pulled toward enterprise customers and toward the China arms of multinationals. That is a different motion from a Beijing policy bet or a Shenzhen prototype.
Customers and capital
A pilot free-trade zone and a financial centre make this the city where cross-border treasury and regional management are discussed. They do not repeal the negative list or the data rules. A regional headquarters can be fully lawful and still unable to export a dataset.
Talent is deep in commercial functions and in some laboratory fields, and expensive relative to inland cities. The cost is the price of the customers.
Also in China
Across GRIP
Elsewhere in the research
The same place, read from another desk.
- Startup EcosystemsCities in this systemThe country file lists the cities in the order they are discussed.
- Real EstateHow a building is readUse, tenure and the building itself.
- EconomyEconomy deskCountry notes where they exist. No forecast is attached.
- InfrastructureInfrastructure deskA physical system plus a way of charging for it. Announced projects are not operating assets.
- Startup EcosystemsChina startup ecosystemCompany formation, capital, and scale. Property is a separate file.
- RelocationRelocation deskThe right to remain and the right to own are not the same permission.
Continue with GRIP
Read the country rulebook next.
A city can hire. It cannot invent a different companies act, a different sanctions regime, or a different exchange control.