Reimagining growth: Space economy becomes new economic driver

The 2025 Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum will take place from January 20 to 24 in Davos, Switzerland, with a focus on reimagining growth. The space economy is one of the new sources of growth for the global economy.

The Space Economy is defined by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development as the full range of activities and the use of resources that create value and benefits for human beings in exploring, researching, understanding, managing and utilizing space.

The Space Economy is growing and is expected to be worth around $1.8 trillion by 2035, up from $630 billion in 2023, growing at an average of 9 percent per annum, well above the global GDP growth rate.

The number of satellites launched per year has grown at a cumulative annual rate of over 50 percent from 2019 to 2023, while launch costs have fallen tenfold over the last 20 years. Data prices are expected to drop by 10 percent between 2023 and 2035, as demand increases by 60 percent.

From 2015 to 2020, the output value of China's commercial space sector increased from 376.42 billion yuan ($51.45 billion) to over 1 trillion yuan, with an average annual growth rate of 22 percent. It is estimated that the size of China's commercial space market will exceed 2.3 trillion yuan in 2024.

In 2023, China conducted 67 space launch missions, ranking second globally. A total of 221 spacecraft were launched, setting a national record. The number of new enterprises in China's commercial space sector reached 113,272, a year-on-year increase of 28.95 percent.

In 2024, the term "commercial spaceflight" was included in the Chinese government's work report for the first time. China's "ten-thousand-star" satellite groups, including the Spacesail Constellation and the GW Constellation, were launched into space. The country's first commercial spacecraft launch site, the Wenchang Commercial Space Launch Site in south China's Hainan Province, completed its inaugural mission.