China releases first BDS development index, sees thriving applications

The first report on the industrial development index in the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) field shows the number of terminal devices utilizing BDS in China reached about 23 million as of the first half of 2023, an increase of more than 7.27 million over the same period last year.

The China BDS Industry Development Index Report, which is designed on an annual basis and was released on Thursday, objectively and comprehensively displays all aspects of the country's development of BDS applications.

The new data was released by the global navigation satellite system (GNSS) and LBS Association of China (GLAC) at the first Chinese Geographic Information Conference for Geodesy, Photogrammetry and Cartography held in Deqing, east China's Zhejiang Province.

Yu Xiancheng, head of the GLAC, said that "over the past 10 years, the BDS industry has maintained high growth and rapid development and has made progress in marketization, industrialization, internationalization, and mass application."

"The scale of BDS applications is expanding. China's BDS industry is steadily stepping into a new stage of high-quality development," Yu added.

Surging applications

The report shows that BDS applications cover various industrial scopes in China.

The number of BDS terminals applied in transportation vehicles topped 8 million as of the first half of 2023.

There are more than 3.8 million in mobile communications, over 1.6 million in agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, and fisheries, and more than 2.3 million in public security.

The number of BDS terminals applied in broadcasting and television, meteorological monitoring, natural resources, urban management, and other fields has exceeded 100,000.

The report said BDS applications have become the standard configuration of mass consumption products, such as smartphones and wearable devices, integrating into people's daily lives.

In addition, it pointed out that the BDS industry is a strategic emerging industry that China vigorously promotes.

Especially in the big picture of developing the digital economy, BDS, which masters national space-time benchmarks, serves global users, and provides space-time data around the clock, has unlimited development of system construction and industrial applications.