BeiDou applications continue to grow

Farm machinery operators drive harvesters equipped with the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) to harvest early-season rice in Zhushan village, Wanhe town, Taihe county, Ji'an, east China's Jiangxi Province. (Photo/Deng Heping)

From finding a store and parking a shared bike to locating a tourist attraction, many people have noticed that navigation is becoming increasingly precise. This is made possible by the growing large-scale application of the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS).

Shi Huikang, deputy director of the Department of Electronic Information, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said that in recent years, the large-scale application of the BDS has continued to expand in areas such as consumption, industrial manufacturing and integrated innovation.

By the end of 2025, cumulative shipments of domestically produced BDS-compatible chips and modules had approached 2.6 billion units, while the total number of BDS-enabled terminal products in use had exceeded 2.2 billion units (sets). BDS positioning has become a standard feature in consumer electronics such as smartphones, smart wearables and in-vehicle terminals, with more than 98 percent of smartphones in China supporting BDS positioning.

Indoor positioning has long been a challenge. He Chang, chief economist of the Zhuzhou Municipal Bureau of Industry and Information Technology in central China's Hunan Province, said relevant parties worked together to develop a demonstration project for integrated indoor-outdoor BDS positioning at a clothing market in Zhuzhou, Hunan, which is the first of its kind in a clothing market nationwide.

Covering seven floors of commercial space, the project has deployed more than 1,000 positioning beacons, enabling seamless, high-precision positioning with sub-meter accuracy outdoors and accuracy within 3 meters indoors.

Photo shows a vehicle passing through an intersection in Handan, north China's Hebei Province. The BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) is widely used in automobiles. (Photo/Hao Qunying)

Now, users can enter the name of a store, restroom, elevator or parking lot in a mini program, and the system will automatically plan the optimal route. With voice prompts, route guidance and augmented reality (AR) navigation, customers can easily reach their destinations without getting lost.

Xie Lilong, head of the market's operations department, said the navigation service has effectively improved the market's operational efficiency. In the first half of this year, visitor traffic increased 8.02 percent year on year at the market.

When using shared bikes, users also rely on BeiDou navigation to find nearby available bikes, locate designated parking areas and report malfunctions.

According to Zhang Peng, general manager of the Cycling Industry Development Center of Meituan, China's leading online lifestyle platform, with BeiDou high-precision positioning and AI-powered detection, the app can accurately locate vehicles, parking areas and no-parking zones, while reporting vehicle location, status and order data in real time.

During a ride, the system uses the BDS to accurately track the rider's route and determine the riding area in real time. Combined with AI-powered anomaly detection and alerts, this enables users to find and use bikes more accurately and conveniently.

Zhang Bingxin, a member of the leading Party members group at the Wuhan Municipal Bureau of Economic and Information Technology, said that Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province, is now home to more than 300 BeiDou-related companies, covering the entire industrial chain from satellites, chips and terminals to data and applications.

The industry's output value exceeded 80 billion yuan (about $11.92 billion) in 2025 and reached 44.7 billion yuan in the first half of 2026. At present, roughly 520,000 shared bikes across the city have been equipped with BDS positioning systems, effectively easing the long-standing problem of disorderly parking.

Automakers are widely adopting the BDS to improve vehicles' ability to assess the road environment.

The BDS is mainly used in automobiles in three ways: in-vehicle navigation, remote vehicle positioning, and providing positioning data for intelligent driving assistance. Combined with sensing data from cameras, millimeter-wave radars and other equipment, it enhances vehicles' ability to determine their own position and perceive the road environment.

According to the person in charge of the intelligent cockpit product line at Chinese automaker GAC Group, more than 2 million GAC-branded vehicles equipped with BDS positioning technology are currently in operation.

Beyond cities, the BDS is also meeting growing demand for spatiotemporal information across rural areas.

In Hubei and Jiangxi provinces, among other places, Wuda Geoinformatics Co., Ltd. has deeply integrated BDS high-precision positioning with digital twins, spatiotemporal big data and artificial intelligence. It provides a unified spatiotemporal foundation and intelligent support for agricultural operations including sprinkler irrigation, crop protection, pest control and harvesting.