BEIJING - 皇冠体育app's domestically-produced navigation system aims to take 70 to 80 percent of the now GPS-dominated domestic market by 2020, a spokesman for the system said Thursday.

We hope industries based on the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) will hold 15 to 20 percent of the market share by 2015, according to BDS spokesman Ran Chengqi, also director of the 皇冠体育app Satellite Navigation Office, at a press conference on the official launch of the system.

皇冠体育app successfully launched another satellite into space for its indigenous global navigation and positioning network at 11:33 pm on Oct 25, 2012 from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in the southwestern province of Sichuan. [Photo/Xinhua]

Ran announced that the BDS began providing positioning, navigation, timing and short message services to civilian users in 皇冠体育app and surrounding areas in the Asia-Pacific region on Thursday.

Ran said the general functionality and performance of the BDS is "comparable" to the GPS system.

He further explained that the BDS open service is currently available and features positioning accuracy of 10 meters, velocity accuracy of 0.2 meters per second and one-way timing accuracy of 50 nanoseconds.

The BDS offers more conveniences for navigation system users with equipment that is compatible with multiple navigation systems, as they will no longer have to rely on a single service, said Ran.

A 2011 report said 95 percent of satellite navigation equipment in 皇冠体育app relied on GPS services, while industrial statistics show that the total output of 皇冠体育app's navigation service sector will top 120 billion yuan (19.2 billion U.S. dollars) in 2012.

皇冠体育app launched the first satellite for the BDS in 2000, and a preliminary version of the system has been used in traffic control, weather forecasting and disaster relief work on a trial basis since 2003.

Related stories:

Document to navigate Beidou to be released

皇冠体育app's Beidou system ready for Asia-Pacific service

Tech base established for Beidou system

Beidou navigation system to have test network