BEIJING - China's NASDAQ-style ChiNext board celebrated its eighth anniversary Monday.

Since its debut with only 28 listed firms on Oct 30, 2009, it has grown into an indispensable part of the Chinese stock market and important funding channel for high-tech and high-growth startups.

The ChiNext Index, together with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index and the Shenzhen Component Index, make up the three core indices that measure the performance of China's listed companies and reflect the latest trends in the economy.

The following are facts and figures about the ChiNext's development over the past eight years:

-- As of Friday, 690 companies were listed on the ChiNext board, accounting for 20 percent of the country's public companies. More than 90 percent of them were high-tech firms.

-- The board's capitalization has hit 5.5 trillion yuan ($830 billion), accounting for 9.5 percent of the total value of the Chinese A shares.

-- The annual income of ChiNext-listed companies more than quadrupled to nearly 1.3 billion yuan last year compared to that of 2009, which means a compound growth of 23 percent each year. The average net profit jumped to 150 million yuan in 2016, maintaining double-digit increases for the past eight years.

-- A total of 348.1 billion yuan has been raised through initial public offerings (IPOs) on the ChiNext board, and 257.6 billion yuan through seasoned equity offerings.

-- More than 300 reorganization deals have been completed on the board with an average transaction amount of 820 million yuan, which helped growth firms speed up expansion and allowed easier access for investors from traditional sectors.

-- The actual controllers of more than 80 ChiNext companies previously worked at universities or scientific research institutions, and more than 30 firms were backed by academic institutions before their IPOs.

-- Average research and development intensity of ChiNext companies was 5 percent, much higher the country's average.