A 5G-based remote driving system is one of the new experiences during this year's Light of the Internet Expo. [Photo by Gao Erqiang/China Daily]

Country to become world's largest 5G market by 2025 with 460 million users

The World Internet Conference will offer a platform for showcasing China's willingness to deepen international cooperation, especially in the 5G era when almost everything will be connected to the internet, company executives said.

Ericsson China President Zhao Juntao said the annual internet event, to be held in Wuzhen, Zhejiang province, from Oct 20 to 22, is an "excellent" platform for China to demonstrate its willingness to seek win-win results and strengthen global collaboration with a more open mind.

"The mobile communication industry calls for collaboration across the industry chain. From the perspective of the formulation of 5G standards and the development of 5G networks and applications, the flourishing of the mobile communication industry is impossible without the open mind and win-win attitude of industry players worldwide," Zhao said.

In the 5G era, the Ericsson executive said more efforts are needed to further collaborate with each other in planning and operations. The influence of 5G will go beyond consumption to enter various industries and 5G has become the key pillar in the development of the digital economy.

"As a world leader in 5G, we believe that, only by deepening understanding across all industries and working together with each other, we can make significant progress in China's digital transformation and industry upgrading," Zhao said.

China officially granted licenses for commercial use of 5G on June 6. The nation is set to become the world's largest 5G market by 2025, with 460 million 5G users, a forecast by industry group the Global System for Mobile Communications Association said.

This year's Light of the Internet Expo, an exhibition that kicked off on Friday ahead of the sixth World Internet Conference, also focuses on enhancing the experiences of visitors and users by introducing technologies and products that integrate 5G, AI and VR with the daily lives of people.

More than 100 overseas internet enterprises have attended the expo, marking a steady rise from last year's 81 overseas participants, signifying the growing international influence of the event.

Microsoft China Chairman and CEO Alain Crozier said Chinese companies are enhancing their global competitiveness through technological innovation. There is huge potential in both domestic and international markets.

"We will continue to innovate with China, with Chinese companies and partners, with our cloud platform, innovation ecosystem of more than 17,000 partners, big data, internet of things and artificial intelligence technologies－providing seamless connectivity in a cooperative, collaborative way to help people and organizations in China achieve more," Crozier said.

Zhao Ming, president of Honor, a key smartphone brand of Huawei Technologies, said China has been pioneering the world in developing 5G smartphones and commercializing the superfast technology.

China is getting increasingly intertwined with the rest of the world in deepening international cooperation, Zhao added.