China's satellite navigation industry output value hits $79 billion as Beidou expands globally

China's satellite navigation and location-based service industry continues its strong growth momentum, with its total output reaching 575.8 billion yuan (about $79.9 billion) in 2024, a year-on-year growth of 7.39 percent, according to an industry white paper released on Sunday in Beijing.

The white paper also reports that China has filed over 129,000 patents related to satellite navigation, making it a global leader in the sector.

A cornerstone of this expansion is the widespread application of China's homegrown BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS). By the end of 2024, around 288 million smartphones in China were equipped with BeiDou-enabled positioning capabilities, the paper said. 

High-precision, lane-level BeiDou navigation services now cover over 99 percent of urban and rural roads nationwide, processing over one trillion location-based service requests daily and facilitating over 4 billion kilometers of journeys on average each day.

BeiDou's applications also extend to intelligent transportation. More than 50 cities across China are conducting road tests for smart connected vehicles powered by BeiDou's high-accuracy positioning.

The paper further disclosed that the BDS has been integrated into the technical standards of 11 major international organizations, including those in civil aviation, maritime affairs, and mobile telecommunications. Relative products and services have now been exported to more than 140 countries and regions.