China's Number of Value-added Telecom Service Enterprises Nears 81,100
CAICT, 4/14/20
As of the end of March 2020, China's total number of enterprises holding a value-added telecommunications service license reached 81,071, up 1.27% 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, 19,832 were cross-regional enterprises licensed by the MIIT, up 0.90% MoM, and 61,239 were local enterprises licensed by provincial (regional, municipal) communications administrations, up 1.39% MoM.
Regionally, China's value-added telecommunications industry is currently characterized by uneven development. Among the 19,832 cross-regional enterprises, 4,855 are registered in Beijing, 4,083 in Guangdong, and 1,966 in Shanghai, for a combined total of 55.0%.
Among the 61,239 local enterprises, 12,457 are registered in Beijing, 7,594 in Guangdong, and 6,475 in Zhejiang, comprising a combined 43.3% of the nation's total local value-added telecom service enterprises. The next largest concentrations are in Jiangsu, Shanghai, and Sichuan, which, combined, comprise another 17.9% of the total, meaning that 61.2% 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 12.4% 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 81,071 value-added telecommunications companies have a total of 102,170 licensed projects. Among them, 47,540 (or 46.53% of the total) are Internet information service projects, 15,904 (15.57%) are non-Internet information service projects, 14,898 (14.58%) are online data processing and transaction processing services, 9,973 (9.76%) are domestic call center services, 6,006 (5.88%) are Internet access provision ("ISP") services, 3,418 (3.34%) are Internet data center ("IDC") services, and 4,431 (4.34%) are other businesses.
In terms of the main service categories provided by China's 19,832 cross-regional value-added telecommunications service enterprises, the top three were non-Internet information services (11,574 operators), domestic call center services (7,756 operators), and Internet access services (3,939 operators).
The range in the amount of registered capital across China's 19,832 cross-regional value-added telecommunications service enterprises is substantial, but with the majority (69.6%) clustered at RMB 10 mln. Those with registered capital greater than RMB 10 mln but less than RMB 50 mln comprised 17.3%, those with RMB 50 mln to RMB 100 mln comprised 7.1%, and those with RMB 100 mln or more comprised 5.6%. 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 March 2020, among China's 19,832 cross-regional value-added telecommunications service enterprises, 777 (3.9%) were state-owned, 18,873 (95.2%) were privately held, and 182 (0.9%) 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