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A STUDY ON GEOSPATIAL INDUSTRY SIZE IN CHINA 
Ershun Zhong, Li Liu 
Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 11 A, Datun Road,Chaoyang 
District, Beijing, 100101, RR. China 
KEY WORDS: Geospatial Industry, China, Industry Survey, Industry Size 
ABSTRACT: With the development of its economy in China, the demand for geospatial applications in various fields has been 
greatly increased in recent years. And the geospatial Industry has been emerged as new and active factor in information service sector. 
During the past ten years, thousands of companies and institutes have involved in the business for technology development and 
provide services. It is important both for the government and business managers to understand the general situation of the industry, 
such as its size and work population, etc. A research was carried out for the geospatial industry with the support of the State Bureau of 
Mapping and Surveying (SBMS) of China recently. Within the research, we have conducted an industrial survey with the assistant of 
SBMS, and interviewed key players in the industry, and through documentary study and analysis, and finally we obtain some basic 
data of the China’s geospatial industry. In 2006, the geospatial industry of China, including the disciplines of surveying, mapping, 
remote sensing, photogrammetry, geographic information systems and car navigation, was over 40 billion Yuan (about $5.3 billion). 
And there were over 10,000 companies and institutes with at least of 300,000 people working in this industry. The study analyzes the 
geospatial industry of China in a wide range based on the study. 
1. BACKGROUND 
With the development of its economy in China, the demand for 
geospatial applications in various fields has been greatly 
increased in recent years. The market of geospatial technology, 
including the disciplines of surveying, mapping, remote sensing, 
photogrammetry, geographic information systems and car 
navigation, has been greatly increased during past ten years. 
And now, the geospatial technology is rapidly becoming an 
indispensable part of information industry in the country. As the 
technology affects to many business sectors and is involved in 
many departments, and also as it will be an even greater surge 
for the industry, it has been attracting attention from both 
government policy makers and business people in the country. 
There is a series of questions related to the industry need to be 
addressed. How big is the industry? How many people working 
in the industry? And what is the industry structure? While it is 
quite difficult to answer these questions since there are no 
unified and authoritative definition and no statistical indictor 
system of geospatial industry in the country. 
Some organizations and companies have made researches on 
global or regional geospatial industry size or its branches. For 
example, NO A A & ACCRES & NASA made a survey on 
American spatial industry in 2000(Charles Mondello,2004).The 
Department of Labor (DOL) of the United States published an 
estimate value of American spatial industry size in 2004. 
Canada GIAC made a survey on Canada spatial industry size in 
2004. These practices provide reference to our study and survey 
in China’s geospatial industry. 
In China, a number of studies on geospatial industry had been 
carried out both by organizations and individuals. In 2005, the 
State Bureau of Mapping and Surveying (SBMS) of China, a 
policymaker and management body for mapping related 
business in the country, conducted a statistic on mapping and 
surveying industry and obtained the value (12 billion Yuan) 
which is the only authoritative data of geospatial related 
industry in China. The National Remote Sensing Center 
(NRSCC), GIS Software Testing Qualifications Board of the 
Ministry of Science and Technology, and the GIS Association of 
China had conducted surveys on GIS related industry in 2003. 
Cao Chong (2001), Zhou Ruxin (2004) and other scholars also 
have estimated and forecasted the GNSS industry size. Chinese 
Center of Information Industry Development (CCID) releases 
the Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) market size 
yearly. But up to now, there is no authoritative and overall 
statistical data for geospatial industry in the country. 
Much of the above study on geospatial industry size refers to 
one branch of industry and mainly uses questionnaire survey 
method. The questionnaire survey method reflects the 
approximate output value of the entire industrial through a 
certain number of samples, therefore it exists inevitable 
sampling error. If the sampling number is certain, the broader 
the survey scope, the greater the error. If the survey scope is 
certain, the fewer the selected samples, the greater the error 
(suppose the obtained value from questionnaire survey is true). 
Therefore, the study tries to narrow the scope of survey down 
by dividing the industry into small parts, and at the same time, 
selecting more samples to reduce error. Furthermore, the study 
also uses other research methods such as on-the-spot 
investigation, comparison, analysis and verification, etc. After 
obtaining the output value of the industry, the study estimates 
the working population and companies and institutes number of 
China’s geospatial industry. 
2. RESEARCH SCOPE AND METHOD 
The geospatial industry acquires, integrates, manages, analyzes 
maps, distributes, and uses geographic, temporal and spatial 
information and knowledge. The industry includes basic and 
applied research, technology development, education, and 
applications to address the planning, decision-making, and 
operational needs of people and organizations of all types 
(AAG&GITA, 2006). According to SBMS, geospatial industry 
is a kind of high-technology industry which is an integration of 
modem surveying technology and information technology. It 
uses geospatial technology to produce and develop geospatial 
information resource, provides geoinformation service, and 
operates geoinformation products. Geospatial industry includes 
all the companies and institutes which refer to the related 
hardware, technology, service and products (SBMS, 2006).