China is currently the world leader of the Internet of Things

China accounts for more than a quarter of global machine-to-machine connections, according to a report by the GSMA association of mobile operators. With more than 50 million connections, the country’s at the head of the pack when it comes to Internet of Things adoption. China’s lead is thanks to strong government support – the country plans to invest more than $600 billion in IoT through the year 2020. The fact that China’s top mobile operators are cooperating with the government to deploy M2M solutions across several fields doesn’t hurt, either.

China is in the forefront of the development of an “Internet of Things”, leading the way with the number of machine-to-machine connections and opening a new market for operators, a study showed Monday. In the past four years the number of machine-to-machine connections via mobile networks has grown by 35 percent annually and now accounts for more than 3 percent of total mobile connections, according to the GSMA association of mobile operators. China has lead the way and accounts for 40 percent of the total mobile machine-to-machine connections, ahead of the United States and Japan combined. Hooking up machines via mobile networks has already allowed for deployment of systems which allow for real-time monitoring of the location of buses, systems which direct drivers to free parking spots, and energy meters which report consumption automatically.