China's Number of Value-added Telecom Service Enterprises Nears 141,900
CAICT, 1/10/23
As of the end of December 2022, China's total number of enterprises holding a value-added telecommunications service license reached 141,880, up 0.27% month-on-month and 19.94% year-on-year, 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, 30,856 were cross-regional enterprises licensed by the MIIT, up 1.15% MoM and 15.08% YoY, and 116,756 were local enterprises licensed by provincial (regional, municipal) communications administrations, down 0.13% MoM, but up 20.86% YoY. Note that the 116,756 figure includes 5,732 cross-regional enterprises licensed by the MIIT which also possess local licenses issued by provincial (regional, municipal) communications administrations.
Regionally, China's value-added telecommunications industry is currently characterized by uneven development. Among the 30,856 cross-regional enterprises, 6,326 are registered in Beijing, 6,323 in Guangdong, and 3,071 in Shanghai, for a combined total of 50.9%.
Among the 116,756 local enterprises, 20,778 are registered in Beijing, 9,573 in Guangdong, and 8,987 in Henan, comprising a combined 33.7% of the nation's total local value-added telecom service enterprises. The next largest concentrations are in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shanghai, which, combined, comprise another 18.5% of the total, meaning that 52.2% of China's local value-added telecommunications companies are concentrated in these 6 provinces; in contrast, the combined number of local value-added telecommunications enterprises spread out across China's 12 western provinces accounted for only 16.4% 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 141,880 value-added telecommunications companies have a total of 203,517 licensed projects. Among them, 96,192 (or 47.26% of the total) are Internet information service projects, 48,461 (23.81%) are online data processing and transaction processing services, 18,750 (9.21%) are non-Internet information service projects, 11,144 (5.48%) are Internet access provision ("ISP") services, 8,060 (3.96%) are Internet data center ("IDC") services, 7,183 (3.53%) are domestic call center services, and 13,727 (6.74%) are other businesses.
In terms of the main service categories provided by China's 30,856 cross-regional value-added telecommunications service enterprises, the top three were non-Internet information services (16,058 operators), Internet access services (9,069 operators), and Internet data center ("IDC") services (6,928 operators).
The range in the amount of registered capital across China's 30,856 cross-regional value-added telecommunications service enterprises is substantial, but with the majority (71.2%) clustered at RMB 10 mln. Those with registered capital greater than RMB 10 mln but less than RMB 50 mln comprised 14.9%, those with RMB 50 mln to RMB 100 mln comprised 7.0%, and those with RMB 100 mln or more comprised 5.9%. A small percentage (1.0%) 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 December 2022, among China's 30,856 cross-regional value-added telecommunications service enterprises, 1,450 (4.7%) were state-owned, 28,160 (91.3%) were privately held, and 1,246 (4.0%) were foreign-invested enterprises.
Keywords: Internet license telecom MIIT call center Internet access Internet data center value-added data processing ISP CAICT online information service national statistics