news

한어Русский языкEnglishFrançaisIndonesianSanskrit日本語DeutschPortuguêsΕλληνικάespañolItalianoSuomalainenLatina

"kechuangban daily" news on september 27 (editor song ziqiao) on september 27, local time, spacex’s starlink division announced that its number of global users exceeded 4 million. “starlink provides high-speed internet connections to more than 4 million people in more than 100 countries, regions and many other markets. thank you to us. all customers worldwide! ”

this milestone means that in just 4 months since the end of may this year, starlink has added 1 million new customers.

starlink was launched in 2015 and features large scale, low latency, and global coverage. it began to provide product beta services in october 2020; its number of users reached 1 million in december 2022, and 2.3 million in september 2023. reaching 3 million in may 2024.

the launch and operation of starlink satellites is one of spacex's important businesses. it not only provides internet services to remote areas, but also supports commercial and military applications.currently, starlink operates the largest low-orbit broadband satellite network. spacex has launched 7,062 starlink satellites, and this number is still increasing, with 6,426 starlink satellites in orbit.

for a long time, the starlink business has been regarded as spacex's "abyss of negative cash flow."mass production of starlink terminals is starlink’s primary goal and the key to profitability.

the charging method for starlink terminals is terminal + traffic package. the basic terminal is us$599/unit and the basic traffic package is us$120/month. for more demanding starlink customers (such as mobile, marine or aviation users), spacex sells antennas and services for between us$2,500 and us$15,000 per antenna.

in september 2023, jonathan hofeller, spacex's vice president of starlink and commercial sales, revealed that starlink terminals will no longer be sold at a loss. in november 2023, starlink announced that it had achieved breakeven.

the latest report from quilty space, an aerospace research consultancy, stated that,from 2023 to 2024, user growth will push starlink from substantial losses to profitability.

a report released by quilty space in may this year estimated that 95% of starlink users are individual consumers. the agency estimates thatstarlink is expected to achieve revenue of us$6.6 billion in 2024, a year-on-year increase of 80% (revenue of us$1.4 billion in 2023); starlink’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (ebitda) in 2024 will be us$3.8 billion, which will be achieved for the first time positive free cash flow.

this is still far short of spacex’s original goals. according to the company's 2015 fund-raising documents from investors, in terms of profitability, spacex estimates that this satellite network business will bring nearly us$12 billion in revenue and us$7 billion in operating profits in 2022; in terms of user numbers, it is expected to be close to at the end of 2022, starlink will have more than 1 million active subscribers, and spacex's previous forecast was higher, reaching 20 million.

satellite operators around the world are actively deploying low-orbit communication constellations. business prospects and scarce orbital resources are the core driving forces for each entity to accelerate their deployment.the current global low-orbit satellite internet constellations mainly include starlink, amazon kuiper, eutelsat oneweb, and telesat lightspeed; the latter three constellations have planned 3236, 648, and 198 satellites respectively. in addition, traditional head constellations such as intelesat, ses, and viasat are also planning to be put into low orbit.

according to calculations by guosen securities, the global market space for satellite manufacturing exceeds us$100 billion, and the market space for applications is approximately us$200 billion. our country is accelerating the construction of low-orbit satellite constellations. in 2023, it will successfully launch multiple experimental satellites. it has a new plan for the "g60 star chain" and the first satellite has been produced offline. private rocket technology continues to make breakthroughs. station no. 1 of the wenchang commercial launch site has been completed. several mobile phone manufacturers plan to launch direct connection of mobile phones to satellites; it is expected that large-scale launches of low-orbit communication satellites will begin in china in 2024. the industry will usher in a year of high-prosperity development from 0 to 1 construction, and opportunities across the entire industry chain are worthy of attention.

according to the agency, the manufacturing cost of starlink satellites is less than us$2,000/kg, leading the world; falcon 9 is the main launch vehicle of starlink, and the launch cost is expected to be optimized to us$17 million/time, leading the industry. low cost is due to scale effect. this performance also sets a price benchmark for the subsequent deployment of domestically produced low-orbit satellite internet.