The Chinese government initiatives under the 14th Five-Year Plan and Vision 2025, coupled with robust 5G infrastructure and accelerated digital transformation in key sectors, will drive the total enterprise information and communication technology (ICT) market revenue in the country to grow at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10.2% during 2023-28, according to GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.
GlobalData’s ICT Customer Insight Survey 2024 results corroborate these findings and indicate an optimistic outlook for enterprises ICT spending in China, with 81.6% of respondents who are key ICT decision makers in their organizations claiming that their enterprises have increased ICT budget allocation in 2024 compared to the previous year.
GlobalData’s “China Enterprise ICT Country Intelligence Report” reveals that enterprise networking IT solutions is the largest revenue contributor in China’s ICT market. Artificial intelligence (AI), on the other hand, is set to be the fastest growing area, with its revenue set to increase at a CAGR of 37.2% during 2023-28, driven by continued advancements in machine learning and natural language processing and growing end-use applications among business and government organizations.
Pragyan Tarasia, Technology Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “Networking revenue accounted for more than 17% of total ICT revenue in the country in 2023. Enterprises in China are increasingly investing in networking solutions to optimize private networks for cloud and application access. This shift is driven by the need for hybrid networking, public cloud connections, mobile offices, remote SaaS access, and dedicated lines.”
The expansion of the 5G network in China and an acceleration in the commercial rollout of 5G-A technology to improve 5G capabilities and coverage will support AI applications across sectors. AI applications like personalized recommendations and customer insights in e-commerce; predictive maintenance and robotics in manufacturing; fraud detection and credit scoring in BFSI; autonomous vehicles and traffic optimization in transportation; and smart grid management in energy are set to drive the ICT market in the country.
GlobalData forecasts the manufacturing sector to be the largest end-use vertical segment for the ICT market in China in terms of revenue contributions and will remain so over the forecast period. The ICT revenue opportunity from the manufacturing sector is expected to reach $116.3 billion in 2028 at a CAGR of 9.2%.
Tarasia continues: “Government initiatives and widespread technology adoption make the manufacturing sector the most attractive market for ICT in China. Initiatives like ‘Made in China 2025’ and the Five-year Smart Manufacturing Plan, which aim to promote smart manufacturing, digitalization of over 70% of manufacturing enterprises, and the use of AI, ML, IoT, and Industry 4.0 technologies, will drive strong demand for ICT solutions in the sector.”
Tarasia concludes: “With advancements in 5G, growing adoption of emerging technologies, and government support for SMEs, the ICT market in China is expected to expand substantially. As SMEs embrace emerging technologies like AI, IoT, and smart networking, they are unlocking new growth opportunities that will further accelerate the expansion of China’s ICT market.”
