China's satnav industry grows 22% in 2016

BEIJING - The output value of China's satellite navigation and location-based service industry reached 211.8 billion yuan ($30.8 billion) in 2016, up 22.1 percent year on year, according to an industry white paper.

The industry's core output value totaled 80.8 billion yuan, 70 percent of which came from the country's self-developed BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS), said the white paper released by the Global Navigation Satellite System and Location Based Service (GNSS & LBS) Association of China.

The BeiDou application has been widely used in wearable devices, mobile healthcare, express deliveries, bike sharing services, disaster prevention and relief, and other fields, according to the paper.

China has formulated a three-step strategy for developing the BDS, aiming to complete the deployment of the 35-satellite constellation around 2020 to provide services to global users.

It plans to launch six to eight BeiDou-3 satellites this year, with the launches featuring two satellites on a single carrier rocket.