China’s satellite navigation industry continues to expand, with the total output value of the sector reaching $91.9 billion U.S. dollars in 2025—an increase of 9.24 percent year on year, according to a white paper released on Monday.
The white paper, authored by the Global Navigation Satellite System and Location-Based Services Association of China, said that nearly 1.4 billion smartphones in China were equipped with BeiDou positioning capabilities at the end of 2025, accounting for 98 percent of all mobile phones in the country. In addition, more than 100 million passenger car use BeiDou.
The overall market value of China’s satellite-enabled navigation and positioning services is projected to exceed $147 billion by 2030. The association’s president, Zhang Huifeng, in a China Daily article, said the next few years will be a crucial period for BeiDou.
BeiDou’s presence is also expanding globally, particularly within countries participating in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Chinese enterprises have exported BeiDou-related products to more than 140 nations and established more than 20 overseas service centers to build out its international network.
While GPS still leads internationally in installed base and ecosystem maturity, BeiDou has gained market share across Asia, Africa and parts of Latin America through Chinese infrastructure investment and lower-cost hardware integration, particularly in emerging markets where Chinese telecom and transportation projects are expanding.
