In recent years, China's three major telecom operators have consistently emphasized their "security" business, highlighting its strategic importance. But which operator is performing better in this segment? The following analysis compares them across several key dimensions.
CHINA TELECOM is currently the clear leader when looking at the most direct metric: financial performance. Among the three, only China Telecom separately discloses its security business revenue, which reached 16.6 billion yuan in 2025. China Unicom's latest disclosure was in the first half of 2024, reporting "cybersecurity and information security business revenue of 1.4 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 58.2%," with no subsequent data released. China Mobile has not disclosed related figures, but its controlled subsidiary, Venustech, reported approximately 669 million yuan in security business revenue for 2025, a surge of 456%.
Furthermore, as of the end of May this year, 24 of China Telecom's provincial companies have achieved positive growth in their security business, with the top four provincial units seeing year-on-year increases exceeding 300%.
Specialized Subsidiaries
All three operators have established dedicated security subsidiaries, but China Telecom operates two. Internally, it has set up China Telecom Tianyi Security Technology Co., Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary managed as a secondary unit. Externally, it acquired ChenAn Technology. These two subsidiaries work in a complementary and coordinated manner to handle the group's security operations. Data shows ChenAn Technology's total revenue for 2025 was approximately 1.292 billion yuan, comprising 443 million yuan from city safety, 236 million yuan from emergency management, and 613 million yuan from equipment and fire safety.
China Mobile entered the field by acquiring Venustech, making it the group's specialized subsidiary responsible for cybersecurity and information security. China Unicom's dedicated security company is "China Unicom Zhihui Security Technology Co., Ltd.," established in 2019 through the integration of China Net威信. Its industry profile appears less prominent compared to its peers.
Promotional Activities
In terms of promotional events for the security sector, China Telecom seems to be the sole operator hosting dedicated forums. In October 2025, it held the China Telecom Security Industry Capital and Ecological Cooperation Forum in Suzhou, attended by its Vice President Liu Ying, Suzhou's Executive Vice Mayor, and Liu Ziqian, the former Chairman of Tianyi Security Technology. There have been no reports of similar dedicated security promotion events held by China Mobile or China Unicom.
Based on the analysis across these dimensions, China Telecom currently holds a leading position in the security business development, likely putting significant competitive pressure on its rivals. However, it is worth noting that the revenue scale of the security business remains relatively small for all three operators, constituting a very low percentage of their total revenue. Therefore, it might be premature to focus intensely on which operator performs better in this niche area. Perhaps more attention should be paid to aspects like employee compensation within these units. Given that employees in these roles are typically technical talent, they likely receive appropriate rewards and subsidies to retain their expertise, regardless of the business unit's current revenue size.
Comments