The THero International Innovation and Entrepreneurship Service Platform ("THero Platform") in Tianhe district was selected as a typical case in a blue book for Guangzhou's international development that was recently published by the Guangzhou Academy of Social Sciences and Social Sciences Academic Press.

The blue book is the only one that focuses on the internationalization of cities among more than 400 blue books nationwide. It ranked 4th in China in terms of media influence in 2019, as well as 3rd in the local economy category and 17th in China in terms of overall media influence in 2021.

Song Aiping, director of the Tianhe bureau of industry and information technology, said that the inclusion of the THero Platform in the blue book is due to its innovation and also fully illustrates its important role in the international development of Guangzhou.

Tianhe district. [Photo/WeChat account: tianhefabu]

In 2015, the Guangzhou THero Global Startup Competition was launched by Tianhe district. It was upgraded to a global event in 2017, and formed the THero Platform by combining it with the Guangzhou International Innovation Festival.

The International Guangzhou Science and Technology Achievement Transformation Tianhe Base was established in 2020, when the core brand of "one competition, one festival, and one base" of the THero Platform was officially formed. Along with other sub-brands like THero Business Startup Directories, the THero Platform forms a multi-level brand matrix that explores a feasible path of branding, specialization, as well as marketization.

The Guangzhou THero Global Startup Competition has been held in 37 cities around the world, attracting more than 12,000 high-quality projects from all over the globe, with more than two million online and offline participants. It has helped cultivated 12 unicorn and future unicorn enterprises, witha unicorn enterprise referring to a startup valued at more than $1 billion within 10 years of its establishment.

The THero Platform will be committed to building a benchmark for innovation and entrepreneurship service platforms, said Song, helping Guangzhou's development as a high-level innovation city and the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area as a hub for high-level talents.