WASHINGTON, April 25 (UPI) -- China is on its way to becoming one of the largest markets for radio-frequency identification tags.
Demand is being propelled in part by U.S. importers that want the technology to be used for tracking assets, market analysts told National Journal's Technology Daily.
The Chinese government is implementing an unprecedented program to give its citizens RFID tags to verify their identities. China bought more than 100 million resident tags in 2005 and is expected to buy about 2.9 billion by 2009, according to In-Stat, a market research and consulting firm. RFID uses radio-frequency waves to transfer data between a tag and a reader, Technology Daily reported Monday.
"With a population of over 1.3 billion, the issuance of RFID-tag-inlaid resident ID cards by the (Chinese) Ministry of Public Security is one of the biggest RFID projects in the world," In-Stat concluded in a recent study.
Although China's primary market for RFID is currently resident ID tags, the country is expected to also become a leading user of RFID technology for product exports to the United States, In-Stat analyst Anty Zheng told Technology Daily.
Zheng said Chinese vendors would comply with requirements of U.S. companies. Wal-Mart wants 600 of its suppliers to be RFID-compliant by the end of 2007.
Spending on RFID worldwide totaled $504 million in 2005, up 39 percent from 2004, according to Gartner, a provider of research and analysis on the global information technology industry.
"RFID will begin to experience broader industry adoption with business value-focused implementations toward the end of 2006 when new license revenue totals $751 million," Gartner said. By 2010, Gartner forecasts worldwide RFID spending will surpass $3 billion.
