Beidou navigation services boom as applications rise

The Beidou navigation services industry in China has grown stupendously over the past decade, an industry report said.

With a comprehensive development index of 1,312 points as of the first half of this year, the industry has grown by over 424 percent compared to 2013, the report said.

The Beidou system has become a key technology in various industries, particularly in transportation, the report said.

Beidou is currently China's largest civilian satellite system and one of the four global navigation networks, along with the United States' GPS, Russia's GLONASS and the European Union's Galileo.

The Global Navigation Satellite System & Location Based Services Association of China, which released the report on Thursday, said Beidou now finds a wide range of applications and commands robust demand, led by transportation.

Satellite experts urged better cooperation among various industries related to Beidou, so as to leverage Beidou's capabilities to empower traditional industries and drive their digital transformation.

The Beidou development index was calculated in terms of marketization, industrialization and internationalization. The year 2013 was chosen for comparison because Beidou began to provide services to the Asia-Pacific region at the end of 2012.

Yu Xiancheng, head of the association, said the Beidou spatiotemporal information service is advancing in two directions. "It supports emerging industries like driverless vehicles, unmanned drones and ships. It's also transforming traditional industries, enabling them to upgrade and adapt to the digital era."

The total market scale of Beidou has increased from 59 billion yuan ($8 billion) in the first half of 2022 to 82.1 billion yuan in the first half of this year, a growth of over 39 percent.

Beidou terminal applications in the transportation industry are rated as the largest sector, the report said.

The Beidou application market has shown growth in various areas. Sectors like emergency services, public security, agriculture, healthcare, urban management, environment and electric power are gradually using Beidou in their operations, the report said.

Yu, however, said challenges still remain. There is a lack of coordination among regions and industries, hindering the wider application of the Beidou system.

The potential of Beidou in empowering other industries is still not fully exploited. To promote Beidou applications, more application demands and new scenarios of use should be created.

To internationalize the system, the government departments concerned should create favorable conditions for companies to facilitate the global expansion of Beidou, Yu said.

lihongyang@chinadaily.com.cn