More than 5 million shared bikes on the
Chinese mainland are using positioning and navigation services enabled by the
country's Beidou Navigation Satellite System, according to an industry insider.
Sun Zhongliang, deputy president of the
Global Navigation Satellite System and Location-Based Services Association of
China, said on Wednesday in Beijing that these shared bikes have been equipped
with domestically developed Beidou-based positioning chips. They belong to
three major Chinese operators Meituan, Hellobike and
Didi Qingju-and are deployed in more than 450 cities on
the mainland, he added.
The chips feature high accuracy and
sensitivity, and low power consumption. They allow for a better user experience
and easier management for city authorities, Sun noted.
"Currently, several new models of
shared electric bikes with Beidou-based chips have also started to be
manufactured and put into the market. In addition to positioning and
navigation, the chips will help users and bike companies monitor user speed, battery
condition and attempted crimes involving the vehicle," he said.
An industry observer who wished to be
identified as Zhao said shared bike operators began to use positioning chips
compatible with both GPS and Beidou services several years ago.
"After the Beidou system became fully
operational in the summer of 2020, shared bike companies started installing
Beidou-based chips on their bikes on a larger scale," he said, noting that
the latest generation of chips is smaller and more advanced than previous types
and is popular among bike operators.
Beidou is currently China's largest
civilian satellite system and one of four global navigation networks, along
with the United States' GPS, Russia's GLONASS and the European Union's Galileo.
Since 2000, a total of 59 Beidou
satellites, including the first four experimental ones, have been lifted on 44
Long March 3-series rockets from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan
province, with some of them having since been retired.
In June 2020, the final satellite to
complete Beidou's third-generation network was lifted by a Long March 3B rocket
at the Xichang center. The next month, President Xi Jinping announced that the
system had been completed and had started providing full-scale global services.
According to the 2022 White Paper on the
Development of China's Satellite Navigation and Positioning Industries,
compiled by Sun's association and published on Wednesday, by the end of 2021,
the overall value of satellite-enabled navigation and positioning services in
China was 469 billion yuan ($69.5 billion), a 16.3-percent increase
year-on-year.
More than 500,000 Chinese people now work
at around 14,000 domestic institutes and companies doing business related to
Beidou and other satellite navigation and positioning services, according to
the white paper.