The output value of China's satellite navigation and location-based service industry grew 29.2 percent year on year in 2015, with the country's self-developed BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) making a big contribution, according to a white paper.

The output value reached 173.5 billion yuan (26 billion U.S. dollars), nearly 20 percent of it from the BeiDou application, showed the white paper released by the Global Navigation Satellite System and Location Based Service (GNSS & LBS) Association of China on Wednesday.

In 2015, 466 million navigation and positioning end products were sold across China, including 440 million smartphones, the association said.

As overseas manufacturers have begun large-scale production of chips compatible with the BeiDou system, BeiDou has been used more extensively in smartphones, tablet computers, wearable devices and other products.

Though China's satellite navigation and location-based service industry is still at an early stage of development, its output value will continue growing at an annual rate of 20-30 percent in the coming years, the white paper predicted.

Emerging markets such as drones and indoor positioning promise great potential for the industry, the paper said.

The BeiDou project was formally launched in 1994. The first BeiDou satellite was not launched until 2000.

China has formulated a three-step strategy for developing the BDS, aiming to complete the constellation deployment with 35 satellites around 2020 to provide services to global users.

(Xinhua News Agency July 20, 2016)