Reshape the "Aerial Territory", with Beijing and Shenzhen Leading the Nation

The low-altitude economy is about to receive a significant boost from policies.

Recently, the China Securities Regulatory Commission released the "Opinions on Establishing a Growth Tier for Technological Innovation on the Science and Technology Innovation Board to Enhance the Inclusiveness and Adaptability of the System", specifically naming emerging industries representing new productive forces, such as the low-altitude economy, to be included. This further opens up the "growth" channels for low-altitude economy enterprises and sets a benchmark for industrial development.

Behind this, the low-altitude economy is on the verge of large-scale implementation. As the "airspace" becomes a "testing ground" for new productive forces, local governments are also making frequent efforts in the low-altitude field. This year marks the first year of large-scale implementation of the low-altitude economy. What changes have taken place in the low-altitude airspace of cities?

Data shows that by the end of last year, the number of low-altitude economy enterprises nationwide reached 14,700, and the annual increase (2,427) was equivalent to the sum of the previous three years, and the growth is continuing to explode.

01

Enterprise Distribution

Beijing and Shenzhen Lead the Way, with 10 Cities Accounting for One-Third of the Nation

According to the latest industrial chain map, the low-altitude economy mainly includes four major sectors: low-altitude infrastructure, low-altitude production and manufacturing, low-altitude operation services, and low-altitude flight support. The low-altitude economy enterprises referred to in this article are those whose main business involves relevant industrial chain sectors.

The industrial data center of Firestone Creation shows that from 2020 to 2024, the number of low-altitude economy enterprises nationwide was 9,400, 10,400, 11,200, 12,300, and 14,700 respectively. In the first quarter of this year, it reached 16,600, a sharp increase of more than 1,800, directly reflecting that the low-altitude economy has entered a new stage of large-scale development.

Image source: "Linkage Index of Urban Low-Altitude Economy (2025)"

These enterprises are the main players in the market and the core of the low-altitude economy industrial chain. Looking across the country, the Greater Bay Area, the Yangtze River Delta, the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, and the Chengdu-Chongqing region are the four major growth poles of China's regional development and the absolute centers of the low-altitude economy development, leading the country in the R & D and manufacturing of low-altitude aircraft, scenario exploration, and operation services.

Beijing and Shenzhen lead the country. Whether in terms of the total number of enterprises, listed enterprises, or specialized and sophisticated "little giant" enterprises, they are the absolute "leaders". Beijing has gathered a number of leading enterprises in the core sectors of the industrial chain, such as unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) manufacturing and low-altitude intelligent networking. Shenzhen accounts for 70% of the global market share of consumer-grade UAVs, and has formed an integrated industrial chain of R & D, manufacturing, application, and services driven by scenarios.

As of the end of 2024, the number of low-altitude economy enterprises in Shenzhen and Beijing was 788 and 782 respectively, making them the two cities with the highest concentration of low-altitude economy enterprises in the country. At the same time, the number of enterprises in Chengdu, Shanghai, Xi'an, Guangzhou, Nanjing, Zhengzhou, Wuhan, and Chongqing is in the second echelon, all exceeding 280. Together with Shenzhen and Beijing, they form the top ten cities in terms of the number of low-altitude economy enterprises, accounting for nearly one-third of the national total.

To a certain extent, this also reflects the trend of concentrated development of the low-altitude economy. Cities with a high concentration of enterprises, such as Shenzhen and Guangzhou in the Greater Bay Area, Beijing in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, and Shanghai, Nanjing, and Suzhou in the Yangtze River Delta, are important drivers of the large-scale development of the low-altitude economy in their respective regions.

In particular, whole-machine enterprises and eVTOL enterprises play a prominent role in integrating the resources of the low-altitude economy industrial chain and driving the upstream and downstream industries. Not long ago, EHang Intelligent in Guangzhou signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Huabin Aviation Group to jointly create a three-dimensional low-altitude service ecosystem that combines "traditional general aviation + electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft (eVTOL)". Voliflyte in Chengdu signed an agreement with Southwest Jiaotong University to jointly build an innovation highland for the low-altitude economy.

These are vivid examples of local leading whole-machine enterprises participating in the construction of the low-altitude economy industrial chain. To a certain extent, the establishment of the "growth tier for technological innovation" on the Science and Technology Innovation Board will further broaden the financing channels for high-growth low-altitude economy enterprises, which will help improve the low-altitude economy industrial chain in various regions.

02

Industrial Trends

The Explosion of Infrastructure: Finding the "Coordinates" is the Key

In the four major sectors of the low-altitude economy industrial chain map, low-altitude economy enterprises are highly concentrated in the two sectors of low-altitude production and manufacturing and low-altitude operation services, accounting for more than 90% in total. Enterprises in low-altitude infrastructure and low-altitude flight support are relatively scarce.

Data shows that as of the end of 2024, the proportions of enterprises in low-altitude production and manufacturing, low-altitude operation services, low-altitude infrastructure, and low-altitude flight support were 47.1%, 43.1%, 5.2%, and 4.6% respectively.

This also reflects to a certain extent that China's low-altitude economy is internationally leading in the production and manufacturing and operation sectors, but the construction of infrastructure such as general aviation airports, low-altitude take-off and landing points, and meteorological stations is generally in its infancy, and large-scale implementation needs to be accelerated.

However, in recent years, local governments have been increasing their efforts in infrastructure construction to promote the cluster development of the low-altitude economy through the large-scale implementation of scenarios. Kaiyuan Securities believes that the low-altitude economy has achieved vertical implementation from the macro level (national industrial planning) to the meso level (local subsidies) and then to the micro level (infrastructure and host bidding, application scenario construction).

This year is the first year of large-scale implementation of the low-altitude economy and also the first year of low-altitude economy safety. Local governments are intensively introducing policies to promote the commercial implementation of the low-altitude economy through infrastructure construction and scenario construction.

In the past month, cities such as Chengdu, Nanjing, Guangzhou, Dongguan, and Suzhou have successively held meetings on low-altitude economy development and scenario docking, emphasizing the construction of low-altitude infrastructure and application scenarios. For example, Dongguan proposed to create no less than 100 demonstration application scenarios in the next year.

Statistics show that since 2025, the tender volume of local governments for comprehensive information infrastructure projects such as low-altitude flight service platforms has increased. Among them, representative projects include Shenzhen Urban Transport Planning Center Co., Ltd. (Low-altitude Collaborative Perception System Project in Nanshan District, with a tender amount of more than 60 million yuan) and Les Information Co., Ltd. (Military-Civilian Collaborative Operation Project in Hubei Province, with a tender amount of more than 50 million yuan), which have attracted wide attention.

Reflected in the data, from 2020 to 2024, the proportion of low-altitude infrastructure enterprises in the total number of low-altitude economy enterprises nationwide increased from 3.7% to 4.6%, and the proportion of flight support enterprises increased from 3.1% to 5.2%. In the process of the accelerated development of the low-altitude economy, more cities have the opportunity to "change their fates". Understanding the trends is as important as seizing the opportunities.

How can leading cities strengthen their leadership, and how can small and medium-sized cities achieve "breakthroughs" with differentiation? More precise positioning is needed. This is precisely the original intention of compiling the "Report".

We focus on nearly 300 cities involved in the low-altitude economy and use the "linkage" (enterprise concentration, capital activity, innovation concentration, and environmental friendliness) as a yardstick to evaluate the top 50 cities in the "linkage" of the low-altitude economy and four sub-lists, measuring the ability of different cities to integrate and link various resources in the low-altitude economy field.

When cities of different levels find their own "low-altitude coordinates" and continuously "break through" upwards, a new national pattern of the low-altitude economy with complementary advantages and coordinated development will eventually be formed.

This article is from the WeChat public account "Urban Evolution Theory". The author is Dan Zhongkui. It is published by 36Kr with permission.