The World's Largest iBeacon Network Emerges

The world's largest network of iBeacon devices has emerged in China, consisting of 110,000 units run and managed by Sensoro. The network spans 25 movie theatres, sixteen airports, 39 high-end retail stores, 40 major tourist destinations, 200 universities, 260 high speed trains, 1,500 Pizza Hut restaurants, and 2,100 Chow Tai Fook (CTF) jewelry retail stores among other locations.

During Chinese holidays, traffic at these beacon outfitted locations reached hundreds of millions. An estimated 12 million visitors visited the 40 Class 5A tourist attractions (the highest level of tourist attraction rating category rated by by the China National Tourism Administration (CNTA), while more than 300 million passengers rode on the 260 CRH trains to their holiday destinations. Chow Tai Fook, the largest jewelry stores by market share in Mainland China with annual sales of over 11 billion dollars, owns more than 2,100 stores. Key co-operations in digital marketing have significantly expanded public exposure to beacon devices around the world, building momentum for further innovations in the applications for iBeacon and the results seems to be unexpectedly positive.

During the 2015 Chinese New Year, Chow Tai Fook's use of iBeacon brought in 11 million dollars in revenue with a conversion rate up to 63%, far surpassing expectations (Source: CTF 2015 annual earnings). The success of the case persuaded CTF to deploy beacons in all 2,100 of their Mainland China retail stores over the next three months, and provided an excellent model of digital marketing for other companies including Real Madrid, Sony Pictures Television, and Yum Brands to adopt.

In May 2015, in cooperation with China's largest traditional television media outlet, CCTV News Channel, and the China National Tourism Administration, Sensoro deployed more than 4,200 beacons at 40 5A-class scenic attractions. The use of iBeacon technology created the first instance of cooperation between traditional television media and offline tourist destinations. Due to CCTV's high-density live broadcasting, reaching over 12 million tourists and uploading more than 60,000 high-value real-time news clues. The large number of obtained real news clues led to crack down on chaotic tour guide market.