As the national fundamental and strategic industry, the software industry plays a very important role in the promotion of the national economic and social development. In the new century, with the continuous improvement of the development environment for the software industry, China’s software industry has been rapidly developed, the industrial scale has been fast expanded, the level of technology has been increased, the key enterprises have been grown up and the industrial system has been basically formed.
I. The Industry Scale Increases Rapidly and Continuously
In the 21st Century, the global software industrial market increases steadily. The globalized economy has brought the fast growth of China’s software market, the policy environment of the promotion of the software industry development in China is continuous optimized, thus resulting in a historical development opportunity for the software industry. Since 2001, the average annual sales revenue of the software industry has increased by 43.2% per year (Figure 2-1), which is 4.3% higher than that of the electronic information product manufacturing industry. In 2006, the sales revenue of software industry was RMB 480 billion, accounting for 10.1% of the total sales revenue of the electronic information industry and the level and function of the software industry in the information industry have become more and more important. With the rapid development of China’s software industry, the market share of China’s software industry in the global market has also gradually increased year by year. The market share was increased from 4.3% in 2004 and 5.9% in 2005 to 7.1% in 2006. The market share of China’s software industry was ranked the fourth in the world, just after the United States (38.3%), European Union (28.7%) and Japan (9.8%).
Figure 2-1 The sales revenues and the rate of increase of China’s software industry 2001-2006
Data source£ºThe China Software industry Association
II. The System Integration and Software Product Are Dominant in the Industrial Structure
China’s software industry has five categories including the software product, system integration, software service, the embedded system software and IC design (Figure 2-2). According to the data in the “2007 Annual Research Report on the Development of China’s Software Industry” compiled by the China Software Industry Association, in 2006, the sales revenue of software product was RMB 128.2 billion, accounting for 27% of the total sales revenue of the software industry. The sales revenue of system integration was RMB 132.4 billion, accounting for 28% of the total sales revenue of the software industry. The sales revenue of the software service was RMB 105.9 billion, accounting for 22% of the total sales revenue of the software industry. The sales revenue of the Embedded System Software was RMB 102.8 billion, accounting for 21% of the total sales revenue of the software industry. The sales revenue of the IC design was RMB 10.7 billion, accounting for 2% of the total sales revenue of the software industry;
Figure 2-2 The China’s software industrial structure
Data source£º”2007 Annual Research Report on the Development of China’s Software Industry” compiled by
the China Software industry Association
III. The Industrial Concentration Effect Starts to Be Visible
With the promulgation of the “Notification Concerning the Policies for Encouraging the Development of the Software Industry and the Integrated Circuit Industry”(the State Council [2000] No. 18), the understanding on the position and function of the software industry have become more and more deep in the whole country. The software industry has become one of the key industries supported by the national and local governments and the concentrating effect of the software industry is increasingly visible (Figure 2-3). Up to 2006, there were 10 provinces and municipalities whose software industry value exceeded RMB 10 billion. Among the provinces and municipalities, the software industry values for Beijing, Guangdong, Jiangsu, Shanghai and Zhejiang exceeded RMB30 billion and the total value of the five regions were RMB 308.6 billion, accounting for 64% to the total software industry value in China. The software industry value of Beijing was close to RMB 100 billion. Among the 152 key enterprises recognized by the national government in 2006, 96 enterprises located in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong, Zhejiang and Jilin, accounting for 63.2% of the total software enterprises in China, and out of these 96 enterprises, 31 located in Beijing.
Figure 2-3 The top 10 provinces and cities in software industry in China£¨Unit£ºRMB 100 million£©
Data source: 2007 Almanac of China’s Information industry” Compiled by the Ministry of Information Industry
From 2000, in order to guide and promote the concentration development of the software industry, 11 State Software Industry Bases were approved in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Jiangsu, Hangzhou, Xi’an, Chengdu, Dalian, Jinan, Changsha and Zhuhai, respectively (Figure 2-4). With the strong promotion of the national and the local governments, these software bases have gradually grown up as the core force of China’s software industry development. In 2006, the total sales revenue of enterprises in these bases was RMB 74.2 billion, accounting for 15.5% of the total sales revenue of the software industry in China. There were 2,530 enterprises in these bases with a total of 213,000 employees, accounting for 20.4% of the total number of the software enterprises in China. The software industry bases provided to the enterprises with good service guarantee system including financing, investment, manpower training and intermediate services. The platforms for network communication, open software test and manpower training were established. What’s more, some public technical service platforms for IC design, service of software export, software exhibition and exchange, technical services and assessment of Linux were also established in these bases in accordance with their own positions in the software industry, thus promoting the development of the local software industry.
