Machine-to-Machine (M2M) will play a key role in supporting the development of China’s public services over the next few years as the country undergoes rapid levels of urbanisation. The Chinese government has forecast that by 2020, around 60 percent of the population to live in cities, up from 26 percent in 1990, and as such, there will be a huge increase in the need for public services and provisions.
The Chinese Central government has taken steps to address these needs, in part, by making use of the Internet of Things (IoT), which is one of the priority projects of China’s 12th Five-Year Development Plan (2011- 2015). As part of this plan, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has outlined the objectives, investment and roadmap required to develop China’s IoT market. China’s government plans to invest CNY3860 billion (US$603 billion) in the M2M ecosystem in the decade to 2020, according to China’s R&D Centre for Internet of Things (CIT-China).
The Chinese Government has already embarked upon several cooperative agreements with China’s operators that embrace M2M centred solutions/products/services, across a range of different verticals. For example, an initiative between the Beijing Municipal Health Bureau and China Unicom will support online appointment and health information services for 114 hospitals in Beijing. Moreover, Unicom is working with 112 emergency medical centres and hospitals to develop smart ambulances equipped with an ECG monitor with embedded 3G connectivity and video surveillance. Data collected from the ECG monitor can be sent to the hospital through Unicom’s 3G network in real time, enabling staff to prepare for the patient’s arrival.
It has been well established that China has the world’s largest Machine-to-Machine (M2M) market with over 50 million connections, and according to a new report by market research firm, TechNavio, the IoT market will continue to grow strongly at a CAGR of 32.15 per cent over the period 2014-2019.
This large and increasingly valuable market is unsurprising given China’s status as the world’s fastest growing major economy, which also contains 1.36bn people, more than any other country. As of February 2013, 213 Chinese Cities had announced that they will roll out smart city services and technologies, which is a huge opportunity for players in the M2M ecosystem to generate revenue. Operators are already capitalising on this and according to Deloitte’s 2014 report on Asia Pacific’s 500 fastest growing tech companies, telecommunications and networking companies had grown from 31 to 58, representing one of the fastest growing sectors in the region.
View the June 2014 report, ‘GSMA Connected Living: How China is set for global M2M leadership’