China's Number of Value-added Telecom Service Enterprises Exceeds 84,000
CAICT, 6/16/20
As of the end of May 2020, China's total number of enterprises holding a value-added telecommunications service license reached 84,042, up 2.02% month-on-month, reports the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT), a department of China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT). Of this total, 20,391 were cross-regional enterprises licensed by the MIIT, up 1.68% MoM, and 63,651 were local enterprises licensed by provincial (regional, municipal) communications administrations, up 2.02% MoM.
Regionally, China's value-added telecommunications industry is currently characterized by uneven development. Among the 20,391 cross-regional enterprises, 4,953 are registered in Beijing, 4,182 in Guangdong, and 2,039 in Shanghai, for a combined total of 54.8%.
Among the 63,651 local enterprises, 12,828 are registered in Beijing, 7,817 in Guangdong, and 6,710 in Zhejiang, comprising a combined 43.0% of the nation's total local value-added telecom service enterprises. The next largest concentrations are in Jiangsu, Shanghai, Henan, and Sichuan, which, combined, comprise another 23.2% of the total, meaning that 66.2% of China's local value-added telecommunications companies are concentrated in these 7 provinces; in contrast, the combined number of local value-added telecommunications enterprises spread out across China's 12 western provinces accounted for only 12.3% of the country's total.
According to the value-added telecommunications service classification in the 2015 edition of China's Telecommunication Service Catalogue, China's 84,042 value-added telecommunications companies have a total of 106,339 licensed projects. Among them, 49,388 (or 46.45% of the total) are Internet information service projects, 16,277 (15.31%) are non-Internet information service projects, 16,074 (15.12%) are online data processing and transaction processing services, 9,917 (9.33%) are domestic call center services, 6,276 (5.90%) are Internet access provision ("ISP") services, 3,638 (3.42%) are Internet data center ("IDC") services, and 4,769 (4.48%) are other businesses.
In terms of the main service categories provided by China's 20,391 cross-regional value-added telecommunications service enterprises, the top three were non-Internet information services (11,883 operators), domestic call center services (7,723 operators), and Internet access services (4,173 operators).
The range in the amount of registered capital across China's 20,391 cross-regional value-added telecommunications service enterprises is substantial, but with the majority (69.7%) clustered at RMB 10 mln. Those with registered capital greater than RMB 10 mln but less than RMB 50 mln comprised 17.1%, those with RMB 50 mln to RMB 100 mln comprised 7.1%, and those with RMB 100 mln or more comprised 5.7%. A small percentage (0.4%) had registered capital of less than RMB 10 mln.
Currently, the sources of investment and financing in China's value-added telecommunications field have become increasingly diversified, and private capital has developed into a major force. As of the end of May 2020, among China's 20,391 cross-regional value-added telecommunications service enterprises, 799 (3.9%) were state-owned, 19,394 (95.1%) were privately held, and 198 (1.0%) were foreign-invested enterprises.
Editor's Note: China's 12 western provinces include Inner Mongolia, Guangxi, Chongqing, Sichuan, Guizhou, Yunnan, Tibet, Shaanxi, Ganxu, Qinghai, Ningxia, and Xinjiang.
Keywords: wireless Internet telecom MIIT call center Internet access Internet data center value-added data processing ISP CAICT private investment national statistics