From January to February in 2008, the software industry presents a steady and rapid growth with the trend to continue to expand the scale and adjust the structure and employment continued to grow. But economic benefits are decreased a little bit. Key features are as follows:
First, grow faster than the electronic information industry as a whole, continue to expand the scale
From January to February in 2008, China's software industry has gained an income of 92.275 billion Yuan, increasing 28.7 percent than the same period of last year, and the growth rate is 7.1 percentage points higher also, and 11 percent higher than the entire electronic information industry. The number of above-scale enterprises reached 12,317, an increase of 492 comparing with the same period of last year; workers in the industry exceeds 1.3 million.
Second, the continuous industry structure adjustment, the trend of service pattern in software products is becoming notable
Along with the constantly innovation of software industry, "SaaS" (software as a service) model is entering all sorts of application software markets including traditional management software. IDC places "SaaS will become popular" to the first place of ten forecasts in IT market in 2008, which denotes that the trend of software as a service will be more prominent in 2008.
From the perspective of revenue structure, software technology service grows at the fastest speed, gaining 16.03 billion Yuan from January to February this year, up to 38.3 percent higher than the same period of last year and 9.6 percent higher than the software industry, accounting 17.4 percent of the entire income of the software industry which is 1.2 percentage points higher than the same period of last year. The revenue for software products is 33.19 billion Yuan, 25.5 percent higher the same period of last year, accounting for 36 per cent of total revenue of the software industry, remaining to be the main component of software industry.
Third, industry concentrate to the areas with advantages, eastern region develops at the fastest growth rate
From January to February in 2008, the eastern region has achieved an income of 79.38 billion Yuan in software business sector, which is 30.8 percent higher than the same period of last year and 86% of national revenue in software sector, and the percentage has increased by 1.3 point. In the central area, income from software business sector is 4.57 billion Yuan, increasing 22.9 percent than the same period of last year; the western region had gained 8.32 billion Yuan, 14.2 percent higher than the same period of last year.
Fourth, intensified market competition, software companies gain less benefits
From January to February in 2008, China's software industry¡¯s income fell by 6.86 billion Yuan, which is 4.6 percent lower than the same period of last year. The reasons for the decline are: first, the entire electronic information industry growth rate decline in 2008 which certainly has an impact on the demand in the software industry; second, the continuing appreciation of the RMB not only increased the cost of the software outsourcing, but also resulted in the revenue of software outsourcing which are mainly paid in dollars, and has a direct impact on the effectiveness of outsourcing enterprises; third, the scale effect of software industry is significant, large-scale foreign invested enterprises strengthen competition in the domestic market by undermining the customer base of small and medium enterprises, some of which witness a fall in benefits; fourth, in accordance with the typical features of software enterprise management, January and February are usually the months to sign contracts and they are still at the initial stage of software development, so it is usual to have deficit for an enterprise at the beginning of a year.
