Market data services in China’s financial services industry - a sector serving users such as wealth managers - will expand by an annual growth rate of 30 per cent, hitting $1.7 billion by 2015, Celent, the research firm, said in a report about technology trends in the Asian country.

The financial services industry in China accounts for 6.8 per cent of the global market, but its market data services only account for 3.1 per cent of the global total, the report, called China’s Financial Information Service Industry, said. Given likely trends, this market should expand rapidly, the report said.

Among other finds is that globally, the financial information service industry – firms such as Dow Jones, Bloomberg and Thomson Reuters - attained a gross income of more than $25 billion, with China's market contributing only $780 million. This figure is expected to reach $940 million in 2012.

The report said there are three main reasons behind the smaller market size for financial information services in China: 1, the lower penetration rate of financial information services, lower charges, and 3, the simpler financial industry in China.

Celent said it estimates that the number of branches of securities firms, number of mutual funds, and number of Sunshine private funds (China's hedge funds) will reach 6,500, 1,400, and 480 respectively by 2014. There are some 133 million retail investment accounts in China, with 1.05 million retail investors having more than RMB1 million (around $160,000) invested. In addition, there are more than 40 million mutual fund accounts. All these institutional and retail investors are potential customers of financial information services.