Will there ever be a technology hub bigger than Silicon Valley? originally appeared on Quora, the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world. You can follow Quora on Twitter, Facebook, and Google Plus.

China definitely has the potential to host a technology hub bigger than Silicon Valley in the near future.

The Chinese venture capital market surpassed the US market this year [1]. Though some say it’s a bubble, the growth has been staggering.

The only thing that’s stopping China from having the world’s largest tech hub right now is that they have several big ones.

Beijing, home to tech giants like Baidu and Weibo, is probably the main one at the moment. Some have ranked it the top tech hub in the world, from a qualitative perspective [2].

Shenzhen and the greater bay area surrounding it is home to more than 60 million people and has a GDP that’s higher than South Korea’s. Among other things, Shenzhen houses Tencent, one of the two most valuable companies in the world, as well as telecom giant Huawei. It’s also really big on hardware.

Other prominent tech hubs in China are Shanghai (the traditional powerhouse), Hangzhou (home to Alibaba) and Nanjing (mobility tech).

Shenzhen and the Pearl River Delta probably has the greatest potential to rival Silicon Valley. It’s the largest urban area in the world and has a booming economy.

Though it’s hard to measure the size of a tech hub in numbers, it’s safe to say that Silicon Valley still has a lead on the Chinese hubs, but it’s not insurmountable.

Footnotes

[1] China's Venture Capital Market Tops World As $15.6B Deployed In April Alone – China Money Network

[2] Top Tech Cities in the World 2018

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