China ICT Market - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2023-2028)

The Chinese ICT Market is anticipated to register a 7.5% CAGR growth over the studied time period. China's information and communication technology (ICT) market is one of the economy's most dynamic areas. Future development will be powered by integrating ICT technology into and transforming conventional businesses as China's ICT market matures and specific sub-sectors driving growth (for example, smartphones) are projected to become saturated.

Key Highlights

• Significant obstacles balance substantial prospects for foreign businesses in China's ICT market. Due to fast-developing domestic competition, foreign corporations no longer hold a disproportionately large market share in several of China's ICT subsectors. Chinese companies have a knack for mastering technologies and upending markets, frequently by providing low costs. American businesses are collaborating more to stay competitive. Few people purchase ICT for the first time as the market matures. Due to the shifting of production, the country's cost advantages have also decreased.
• China's rapid expansion of the ICT industry has been fueled by the country's expanding internet and mobile phone user bases. Over 1.68 billion mobile phone subscriptions were registered in China as of August 2022, according to the National Bureau of Statistics of China. Since 2011, the number of mobile phone users in China has increased dramatically, reaching a new high of more than 1.6 billion users in March 2021. One of the main drivers of expanding the region's studied market is the steadily growing mobile phone sector.
• China has the most significant number of internet users in the world, surpassing countries like India and the United States. According to World Population reviews, China had 1.02 billion internet users compared to its population of 1.45 billion in January 2022. As the internet is an essential tool for communication, education, and business worldwide, having a large internet user base directly compliments the ICT Market in any region.
• However, the continuing supply chain disruptions, raw material price fluctuation, and shortage in chips and semiconductors are impacting the growth of the Chinese ICT Market; moreover, it is expected that these disruptions will continue in the coming years. This will further hamper the market as production and sales of ICT are impacted by this, especially in the consumer electronics, PC, laptop, and smartphone industries.
• Theonset of COVID-19 significantly impacted the market; lockdowns in a number of areas and major cities like Shenzhen and Shanghai affected industry and the supply chain. These have been largely eased, but a rising pandemic wave and new limitations that follow continue to pose a risk to local sales as well as to domestic and foreign supply chains, hurting the Chinese ICT sector as a whole.

China ICT Market Trends

Increasing Internet Penetration and High Speed Internet will drive the Market

• The internet has had a profound impact on China. Internet-based technologies boost research and development while advancing China's economy and connecting the country's enormous population. Beijing, however, also makes use of the complex communications infrastructure of the nation to stifle political dissent and the right to free speech.
• The internet connection in China is relatively cheaper. The cost of the internet in China decreased significantly over the past few years. According to Numbeo, a basic connection with 60Mbps speed and unlimited data costs no more than USD 12.79 per month. In contrast, customers in the United States can expect to pay USD 68.51 for a similar connection.
• The increasing internet penetration is also a significant factor influencing the ICT market in China. For instance, in December 2021, 93% of internet users in China had access to a broadband connection with a speed of 100Mbps and above, according to the CNNIC (China Internet Network Information Center) and MIIT (Ministry of Industry and Information Technology), China.
• When users visit non-Chinese websites, however, because of the filters and the blocking system, browsing becomes tiresome because of the poor pace. Still, for Chinese websites, most internet connections function relatively well.
• Although there has been a steady progression in rural China's internet infrastructures throughout the past few years, it still lacks behind the National Average. According to CNNIC, the country's rural areas have internet penetration, up to 57.6%, but it is still lower than the national average. The Chinese government has committed more than CNY 140 billion (USD 22.05 billion) to several rural broadband expansion projects since internet penetration in rural China continues to be low.

Government Regulations and Plans to Drive the Market

• China has been focused on growing and expanding its ICT market early. The 10th and 11th Five Year Plans (2001-2010), the central government's blueprint for the country's development, strongly emphasized the ICT sector's importance.
• China's 12th Five Year Plan (2011-2015) emphasized seven major emerging strategic industries, including energy-saving and environmental protection, new-generation information technology, biology, high-end equipment manufacturing, new energy, new materials, and new-energy vehicles, to achieve quality and sustainable growth.
• The focus of the new-generation information technology industry will be on next-generation telecommunication networks, next-generation internet technologies, the internet of things, triple network convergence (telecom, computer, and cable TV networks), cloud computing, integrated circuits, new-generation displays, high-end software, high-end servers, and information services.
• China's national development strategy has made the digital economy a key component. The 14th Five-Year Plan for the Development of the Digital Economy (the '14th FYP') offers a thorough road map and incentives to support the industry. According to the plan, China would advance 'important fields' like sensors, quantum information, communications, integrated circuits, and blockchain technology while promoting older ones like 6G. Additionally, it will make it easier to digitally alter the supply chain so that data resources can be used more effectively and the governance of the digital economy can be strengthened.
• Despite much government support, the rising potential labor disruption, hike in wages, privacy infringement, emerging oligopolies, and other financial risks are the major setbacks for government policies to become an actual success. According to the Blue Collar Employment and Compensation Management Report 2021 from China International Intellectech, a human resources firm, nearly 70% of Chinese enterprises experience a labor shortage, and 55% of organizations struggle to locate blue-collar personnel.

China ICT Market Competitor Analysis

Competition from Chinese firms is strong, as the quality of domestic hardware, software, and services has continued to improve. As a result, the market is highly fragmented, with both large and small enterprises with International and local players. Some of the leading market players in the country are Tencent Holdings Ltd, Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd, Xiaomi Corporation, ByteDance Ltd, and Alibaba Group Holding Limited.

• April 2022 - The China Academy of Information and Communication Technology (CAICT) and the World Economic Forum collaborated to hasten the creation and uptake of urban digital twin applications. According to recent research by the World Economic Forum and China Academy of Information and Communication Technology, digital twin technologies hold the key to enhancing urban living and enabling more resilient communities (CAICT). The collaboration would also help address unforeseen problems with data security and quality that are connected to the digital representation of the real world.

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• The market estimate (ME) sheet in Excel format
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