Beidou navigation satellite system has helped bring billions of revenue to China's online companies. (Photo : www.tommytoy.typepad.com)

China’s Beidou satellite has created $31.5 billion revenue for major companies in the country, 15 years since the satellite system was launched, China Daily reported.



The report said that the GPS-like navigational system is helping to generate revenue for online clients that include China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp., AutoNavi Holdings Ltd., and China North Industries Group Corp., among others.




This also includes 70 percent of China's population of nearly 1.4 billion who use smartphones in various ways, such as to search for popular locations, call taxis, book travel arrangements and even plan jogging routes.



According to the report, those were all made possible through Beidou, which has literally touched the lives of hundreds of millions of people every day as it hovers more than 20,000 kilometers above the Earth.



"The system will help create 200 billion yuan ($31.5 billion) in turnover for its customers this year," Miao Qianjun, secretary-general of the Global Navigation Satellite System and Location-based Services Association of China (GLAC), said.



"It will be a good start for Beidou, which only launched commercial operations two years ago."



Through an initial funding from the Ministry of Science and Technology, work started on Beidou in 2000 as a network of satellites was introduced in the following decade, which laid the ground work for China's online expansion and e-commerce growth.



Three years ago, a regional system was formed with the Beidou grid providing real-time navigational information in China and several other Asian countries, such as Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia.



The report said that a network of 35 navigational satellites will be operational by 2020.



"Beidou will be able to provide global coverage with positioning accuracy of less than 10 meters and a timing accuracy of 20 nanoseconds," a government report said.



GLAC has estimated that by 2020, the annual turnover for China's satellite navigational market will reach 400 billion yuan.



A report released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) showed that up to 20 percent of the 1 million commercial vehicles in China already have access to Beidou's technology through GPS products.



Major logistics companies also track the movements of goods across the country with real-time sensors by tapping into the network's system.



The report, however, said that the home-grown commercial satellite chain is faced with challenges ahead, as an MIIT report revealed that Beidou still lags in global positioning networks behind U.S. GPS systems in privately owned vehicles.



According to the Ministry of Land and Resources, revenues generated by the geographical information industry, including mapping and hardware equipment, also registered a 20-percent annual increase during the past few years.



The report added that probably the biggest growth sector is the smartphone, which has been getting "location requests."



In September, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. set up a 2 billion yuan joint venture with China North Industries Group Corp., which helped develop Beidou. The online giant also launched QianxunLocation Networks Co. Ltd., an Internet company that uses the satellite system platform for location and data analysis services.



The report said that Beidou's rapid expansion may be attributed to the vibrant online-to-offline market (O2O) as well as the booking services of taxi-hailing mobile apps.

