China has made continuous efforts to refine the products supporting its BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) industry, expand its application fields, improve its industry ecosystem, and promote its large-scale applications according to a white paper, reported Yicai Global on November 4.

China's State Council Information Office released on November 4 the white paper, titled "China's BeiDou Navigation Satellite System in the New Era."

The country has established a set of platforms featuring BDS services including international search and rescue, short message communication, satellite-based augmentation, and ground-based augmentation. It has also developed a series of basic products such as chips, modules and antennas, and realized 100-million-scale manufacturing of BDS products.

By developing standards and norms, intellectual property rights, testing and certification, and industrial assessment in a systematic manner, China has created a sound industrial ecosystem for BDS applications with all necessary factors and a strong innovation capacity, said the white paper.

The BDS has been widely used in various industries and fields in China's socioeconomic development. It has been deeply integrated with emerging technologies such as big data, the internet of things, and artificial intelligence, fostering new business forms based on BDS. In 2021, the total output value of China's satellite navigation and location-based service industry reached RMB470 billion ($64 billion).

The BDS has been widely applied in daily life through applications such as smartphones, vehicle terminals, and wearable devices. In 2021, 324 million Chinese smartphones supporting BDS services were shipped, accounting for 94.5% of the country's total, according to the white paper.

China began developing its BDS in 1994. Its domestic services started in the end of 2000 and international services in 2020 after its 3rd system was completed. So far BDS has signed up with over 137 countries.