36Kr East Forward 2025 Global Expansion and Innovation Series Roster | Grand Release

Chinese enterprises are actively engaged in the long - term proposition of becoming "global enterprises".

The market scale for going global continues to expand. Data released by the General Administration of Customs shows that in the first half of 2025, China's total export value reached 13 trillion yuan, hitting a record high for the same period and increasing by 7.2% year - on - year. According to the Ministry of Commerce, in the first quarter of 2025, China's total foreign direct investment reached 40.9 billion US dollars, a year - on - year increase of 6.2%.

The revenue contribution from going global continues to rise. According to statistics from the Securities Times, in 2024, the overseas business revenue of A - share companies exceeded 10 trillion yuan, a 2.8 - fold increase compared with a decade ago. In 2024, the proportion of overseas business revenue to total revenue of A - share companies reached 14.28%, a record high, and an increase of 4.65 percentage points compared with a decade ago.

Chinese enterprises going global are at a crucial juncture for breaking through. On the one hand, it is generally believed in the market that the overseas market is overcrowded and the traditional models are gradually declining. On the other hand, compared with mature global enterprises, Chinese enterprises still contain infinite potential.

In addition, the world is also changing. Geopolitics, technological iterations, economic cycles... Under the influence of multiple factors, no one can be sure whether the past methodologies can continue to bring success in the current situation.

In this context, 36Kr launched the East Forward 2025 Globalization Innovation Series List Selection, aiming to explore the valuable experiences of pioneers and the business wisdom of innovators, and provide new ideas and directions for more enterprises going global.

The global layout strategies of the selected individuals and enterprises are outlining the common characteristics and deep - seated logic of Chinese enterprises in the next stage of globalization. During the selection process, we observed that the core of Chinese enterprises' globalization is no longer just "going out", but more about whether they can "stay" and "integrate".

The driving force for this transformation is no longer the dividend of a single factor, but the systematic evolution of technology, organization, and market strategy. Moving from "exporting goods" to "exporting value", Chinese enterprises are continuously integrating into the global industrial and consumption systems through product innovation, local reconstruction, and capability output.

A notable trend is that Chinese enterprises going global are gradually shifting from "manufacturing" to "intelligent manufacturing". Many selected enterprises are concentrated in technological fields such as intelligent manufacturing, autonomous driving, and AI, demonstrating a shift from "scale advantage" to "technological advantage". Different from relying on domestic traffic dividends or supply - chain cost advantages, these enterprises focus more on leveraging their core R & D capabilities to enter key links in the global industrial chain.

It is worth noting that the "global starting point" of such enterprises is not always in China. Some technology - based enterprises going global initially choose to set up R & D institutions overseas. By leveraging international teams, they can quickly verify model capabilities close to end - users and create a high - tolerance testing environment within the compliance framework. They follow a typical "native globalization path" rather than the traditional expansion model of "first domestic, then global".

Meanwhile, profound changes are also taking place in the "localization" adaptation of enterprises going global. In the past, when enterprises talked about "localization", they often only focused on channel construction, customer - service translation, and marketing copywriting. Now, the localization of innovators has extended from the "market level" to the "organizational level".

Among the selected enterprises, more than two - thirds choose to set up local operation teams and decision - making front - end centers overseas. Some enterprises set up supply - chain, customer - service, sales, and product - management teams in local cities, while others directly include overseas market leaders in the core management team to enhance their decision - making power.

This trend is not only reflected in technology - based enterprises but also in the consumer field, showing a similar development logic. They no longer simply rely on cost advantages or single - channel expansion for globalization. Instead, they are truly opening up the entire chain from "manufacturing" to "consumption" with a combination of "brand power + supply chain + local adaptation".

Meanwhile, content - based enterprises are also accelerating the exploration of sustainable global layouts. More and more enterprises are gradually abandoning the "traffic export" model and focusing on building a long - term sustainable local content ecosystem. Some enterprises have even set up "content outposts" to participate in the construction of cultural narrative structures in a locally original way.

It can be said that Chinese enterprises going global have entered an era that requires the reconstruction of capabilities. The triple - drive of "product output, investment output, and value (technology + content) output" constitutes the structural support for this round of Chinese enterprises' globalization process.

As an entry point to observe these changes, the East Forward 2025 Globalization Innovation Series List launched by 36Kr is a highly representative observation sample. It does not attempt to directly provide answers but offers direction guidance: What kind of paths are replicable? What kind of innovations can find certainty in the face of changes?

  Leading Figures:

From Crossing Markets to Reconstructing Systems

"Leading Figures" represent the group of decision - makers with the most systematic governance capabilities in the current globalization process of Chinese enterprises. Their going global does not rely on single - point advantages. Instead, they build samples of Chinese enterprises with true global operation capabilities through structural optimization at the organizational, governance, and product levels.

In terms of business models, more and more enterprises going global have established overseas management systems from strategic planning, brand building to ESG responsibility fulfillment. They no longer rely on a single revenue source or product advantage but tend to establish a business portfolio of "multi - polar markets + diversified business forms". Many enterprises have become strong global competitors in their respective fields and have taken the initiative in rule - making and industrial - chain cooperation.

  Innovative Figures:

Parallel of Demand - Orientation and Rapid Iteration

Innovative figures focus on the "opportunity structure", that is, exploring unmet user needs, information gaps, or distribution gaps in the global market. They usually emphasize speed, product power, and cross - context iteration capabilities more.

The focus of this kind of overseas practice lies not only in scale but also in the replicability of the model. Products are designed for global users from the start, with a flat organizational structure and decision - making closer to the market front line. After successful verification in one country, they quickly expand horizontally and then expand the service scope through platforms or content ecosystems, showing distinct "native globalization" characteristics.

  Innovative Enterprises:

The New Engine in China's Overseas Expansion Map

Nowadays, the characteristics of enterprises going global show industry - specific concentration. The first type is technology - driven enterprises, focusing on the global application of key technological modules such as AI algorithms, intelligent hardware, robot control, and software services, and starting to play an important "technological cornerstone" role in the global industrial chain.

The second type is brand - oriented enterprises going global in the consumer and flexible manufacturing fields. Relying on China's supply - chain advantages, they build a closed - loop of "front - end brand + back - end manufacturing" overseas, becoming a new business card for China's intelligent manufacturing.

The third type is cultural and content industry enterprises, which export content - creation capabilities globally in the forms of games, IPs, short dramas, and AI video - generation tools. Different from the early "Chinese - content copying" strategy, these enterprises have begun to deeply participate in the construction of local narrative logics to adapt to the content preferences of local users.

Regardless of the field, these enterprises share a common characteristic: they are no longer satisfied with traditional paths such as foreign - trade OEM and cross - border e - commerce. Instead, they give full play to their advantages in their respective fields, actively embrace the overseas market, and finally achieve local rooting.

This article is from the WeChat official account "36Kr", and 36Kr published it with authorization.