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Internet on China’s High-Speed Trains gets Huge Boost

(20 Jun 2018, BWCS Staff)

Chinese Internet giant Tencent and domestic car maker Geely have won the bidding for a 49% stake in EMU Network Technology Co, a spin off from China Railways providing WiFi on trains. According to XinhuaNet news service the pair’s joint bid puts them in the driving seat to start growing and garnering advertising revenues on the trackside network. 

No financial terms were revealed by XinhuaNet. However, according to a filing on the China Beijing Equity Exchange, reported by Reuters, the winning bid submitted for the stake was 4.3 billion yuan (US$672.52 million). Back in April of this year, it was reported that Tencent and its partner would pay around US$500 million for the stake, though this amount was expected to rise due to interest from rival Internet group Alibaba.

The pair hope to cash in on the future development of high speed rail which the Chinese government has repeatedly said is a priority for it. Earlier this year, the Beijing administration said it had ear-marked some US$112 billion to spend on rail infrastructure, with the vast majority of that going on China’s high-speed network. At the beginning of 2018 there were some 25,000km of high-speed track in China. The country is expected to have 38,000 km of high-speed rail tracks by 2025.

WiFi access is already available on China's new-generation Fuxing bullet trains on the Shanghai-Beijing line. Geely and Tencent (China’s largest ISP) said they will increase the number of WiFi hotspots throughout the high-speed rail network and develop an online platform that offers ticketing, shopping, tourism and catering services.

EMU Network Technology Co was set up in 2017 with the express purpose of providing internet services to train passengers. Tencent appears to have based its valuation of the EMU stake on the prospect of increasing its advertising network to the throngs of Chinese rail passengers. It also has plans to use the data it will be able to harvest to better direct online sales. For example, it plans to capitalise on users' music listening habits, the phone brand they use and track their purchasing habits on Taobao.

In 2017, a total of 3.04 billion passenger trips were made on railways in China, and more than 56% of those trips were made on high-speed trains.  

The problems of intermittent mobile coverage, proposed trackside solutions and improving WiFi on Trains services were discussed at this month’s WiFi on Trains Conference in London on June 6^th and 7^th.

For more information on this year’s event and the 2019 Conference, please see www.Traincomms2018.com or contact Ross.Parsons@BWCS.com .

This year's Train Communications System Conference 2018 was sponsored by Icomera, Nomad Digital, Fluidmesh, 21Net, RADWIN and BAI Communications.

 

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