Indicators of Ranking of Cities' Business Attractiveness

The indicator system of the Ranking of Cities' Business Attractiveness includes five primary dimensions: concentration of commercial resources index, city as a hub index, urban residents' activity index, lifestyle diversity index, and future potential index. The weight of the first and second dimensions on the list is determined by the scoring of the expert committee of the New First-tier City Research Institute, while the data below the second dimension is analyzed using principal component analysis.

The concentration of commercial resources index focuses on the big brands' affection index, commercial core index, and basic commerce index. Unlike the previous view that focused on a city's economy and administrative status, current mainstream consumer brands take into account factors such as the quality of the consumer's consumption concept, the atmosphere of urban commercial consumption, and the popularity of the city itself. For example, those outward-facing second-tier cities such as Haikou, Xiamen, and Wuxi are more favored by brands. In terms of space, the physical boundaries of new first-tier city commercial districts are still expanding.

The city as a hub index is composed of the intercity transport facilities index, traffic connectivity index, logistics accessibility index, and business resource regional primacy index. Over the past year, the hub index of southwestern China, especially remote cities, has risen significantly, with Yunnan, Sichuan, and Guizhou highways ranking second, third, and fourth in the country. Due to the instability of logistics stations during the 2022 epidemic, the logistics timeliness of the Suzhou-Wuxi-Changzhou region and Shanghai has decreased significantly.

The urban residents' activity index measures consumption activity index, online social networking activity index and night life index. It is highly dependent on the tourism industry, and the overall ranking of border cities is most affected. The vitality of take-out orders has returned in Hubei cities such as Huanggang, Yichang, and Ezhou. At the same time, online social activity is least affected, and Taobao Live and Douyin short videos are still in an upward trend of interaction. Against the overall decline in nightlife activity, Guangzhou is the only city where the number of nighttime travelers increased last year.

Pedestrian overpass in Kunming. Photo by Canlanrensheng 

The lifestyle diversity index mainly measures public space diversity index, consumption diversity index, and recreation diversity index. The number of coffee shops in cities has increased by nearly 10,000 compared to the same period last year, with over half of the growth occurring in second- and third-tier cities. Despite the reduction in performance venues, theaters are seen as carrying more emotional release and therapeutic value in terms of performance style and mainstream IP. Short videos have helped boost the popularity of second-tier and below cities among more Generation Z.

Future potential index evaluates the innovation index, talent attractiveness index, consumption potential index, and urban scale and growth index. Among new first-tier cities, only Qingdao has moved up three places, while the rankings of other cities have changed by no more than one place. From the perspectives of investment and financing, specialized and innovative cultivation, and industrial chain concentration, cities such as Zhuhai, Ningbo, and Changzhou have shown more prominent data performance. Against the backdrop of the accelerating integration of Guangzhou-Foshan and Shenzhen-Dongguan, the population attraction indexes of four cities in the Pearl River Delta urban cluster rank among the top 10 in the country.

What makes Kunming qualified as a new first-tier city?