Zhong Shanshan, founder and chairman of Nongfu Spring Co Ltd. [Photo provided to China Daily]

The list of China's top 500 private enterprises in 2020 was released by the Hurun Research Institute on Nov 25.

Privately owned companies were ranked according to their market valuation.

Seventy Zhejiang-based companies made this year's list, nine more than last year. The 70 companies were based in Hangzhou (35), Ningbo (9), Jiaxing (7), Wenzhou (6), Shaoxing (5), Taizhou (4), Huzhou (2), and Jinhua (2).

Their combined market valuation stood at 10.28 trillion yuan ($1.56 trillion). Tech conglomerate Alibaba Group's market valuation surged 25 percent year-on-year to 4.78 trillion yuan, ranking first among Zhejiang enterprises and second nationwide, while Alibaba’s fintech affiliate Ant Group ranked second among Zhejiang enterprises and fifth nationwide in terms of market valuation.

Internet giant NetEase and China's leading beverage company Nongfu Spring were valued at 412 billion and 356 billion yuan, respectively, and were the third and fourth highest among Zhejiang enterprises on the list.

Twenty-five Zhejiang companies on the list exceeded 50 billion yuan in market valuation, while 11 exceeded 100 billion yuan.

The total operating revenue among China's top 500 private enterprises was around 22 trillion yuan in 2019, surpassing the UK's annual GDP and accounting for one-fifth of China's GDP. The 500 companies have a total of 9.7 million employees.