Asia News: Deficiencies exposed in China’s GPS operations market
According to China-based CCID Consulting, the deficiencies in China’s GPS operation industry are hampering the healthy development of the market.
Statistics show that there are currently more than 1,000 GPS operators in China with more than one million vehicles in the network. However, with further expansion of the market, the deficiencies in China's GPS operation industry are gradually being exposed, which is hampering the healthy development of the market.
Compared to foreign GPS operation systems, China’s GPS operation services are still in an introductory period. The division of work between various links of the industry chain is fairly ambiguous, while the market pattern is rather chaotic.
Currently, GPS operators in China mainly include GPS terminal makers which integrate the development, production, sales and operations of terminal products and system software into one body; software developers, who mainly develop system software, also engage in operations, while third parties operate independently. As entities with different backgrounds enter the market, overlapping investment and resources cause inevitable waste.
The entry threshold for GPS operations is rather low: with one operation platform, 300,000-500,000 Yuan in capital and several workers, enterprises can engage in GPS operations. Competition is aggressive, with some operators adopting unfair practices such as making false commitments to users and adjusting services fee rates at will.
Furthermore, operators have yet to develop a mature understanding about automobile and personal services. The result is unsatisfactory service levels. Hardware performance is not high, map software cannot be upgraded, and pirated software is low precision. Inadequate survey and research of the target market and older GPS terminal software and hardware technologies mean that GPS operators can only provide basic services. None of this entices new subscribers, and existing users are leaving the network.
China has no relevant legal articles or industry guidelines to respectively constrain and protect GPS operators and users. GPS operators need to establish close contact with the transportation administration department and the government decision-making department to get transport information and policy support.
As for the exploration of service models and the improvement of service quality, operators in China can use international operators' successful experiences as a reference and carry out localised reconstruction.
[Source: CCID Consulting]
