Hangzhouruns on a handful of strong industries. If you’re job-hunting or weighing a move, here’s where the opportunities (and the big-name employers) are.
Top industries & employers
E-commerce & fintech
Alibaba, Ant Group, Taobao, Tmall, Ele.me
Alibaba's headquarters and Ant Group between them reorganised the city, pulling the economic centre of gravity west into Yuhang and creating a software labour market that did not exist here thirty years ago.
AI & robotics
DeepSeek, Unitree Robotics, Deep Robotics, BrainCo
A cluster of young AI and robotics companies based in Hangzhou came to national prominence together in 2025, which local government and media have leaned into heavily. It is genuinely the mainland's most concentrated AI startup scene outside Beijing.
Video & surveillance technology
Hikvision, Dahua Technology
Both headquartered in Binjiang, and between them a very large share of the world's video surveillance hardware and software. Note that both are subject to export restrictions in several jurisdictions, which is a real consideration for some foreign professionals.
Gaming & digital entertainment
NetEase, Game Science, Yuanqu studios
NetEase's games division is one of the largest in the world, and Game Science's Black Myth: Wukong was developed here — the studio's success in 2024 anchored a serious games development scene.
Automotive & manufacturing
Geely, Wahaha, Hangzhou Steam Turbine
Geely — owner of Volvo Cars and Lotus — is headquartered in Hangzhou, giving the city a substantial automotive engineering base alongside the software one.
Tea, tourism & hospitality
West Lake Longjing producers, Alibaba's Fliggy, major hotel groups
West Lake draws enormous domestic tourism and Longjing tea from the surrounding hills is a protected-origin product. Both support a large and genuinely skilled hospitality sector.
Some of this may be out of date. Spotted something inaccurate? Help us keep it right for the next newcomer.