LIVE FROM MOBILE ASIA EXPO 2014: China has established itself as the world’s largest M2M market by racking up over 50 million M2M connections – equivalent to 27 per cent of the global total – by the end of 2013, according to a new survey by the GSMA.

The performance is attributed to a close co-ordination between the country’s leading operators – China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom – alongside state-owned enterprises and its government.

Energy and transport are the sectors driving M2M take-up, although automotive, smart city, health, education and retail are gaining ground.

Unsurprisingly, Asia is the world’s largest regional M2M market. It accounted for 40 per cent of the world’s 189 million connections at the end of last year.

Between 2010 and 2013, the region added 55 million M2M connections on a net basis, although this was largely due to the heavy lifting by China which contributed nearly 39 million connections.

“Proactive government support has benefited China and its mobile operators, whereas in many global markets, regulatory uncertainty has held back the deployment of M2M solutions,” said Alex Sinclair, the GSMA’s chief technology officer.

The survey also said the country’s operators have gone beyond basic connectivity in how they offer M2M services. Instead, they have developed hybrid models which combine generic horizontal platforms – designed to work across industries – with dedicated systems for specific vertical sectors.