First, the development of software industry in China
The software industry is the core and soul of the information industry, and has become the focus and strategic commanding height of all countries in the world in the new round of international competition. In order to seize the development opportunity and establish a favorable position in the global software industry chain, both developed and developing countries have formulated the development goals and strategies of the software industry according to their national conditions, adopted a series of supporting policies and measures, and gradually formed a development path suitable for their own characteristics in practice. For example, the United States takes a "comprehensive leading" development path, occupies the most upstream position in the global software industry chain, standardizes and guides the software industry categories located in the middle and lower reaches with standardized products and services, aims at the domestic market and the international market, and wins huge industrial profits. Japan and South Korea fully meet the domestic market demand and take the development path of "domestic priority", mainly targeting at the domestic market, and exports account for a small proportion in the total domestic software industry. Israel emphasizes the development of software industry, gives full play to the intellectual resources of Russian immigrants, and transforms the world-leading military software technology knowledge into civilian use, thus gaining a leading position in software market segments such as data, information security and wireless communication. Ireland used its low corporate income tax policy to attract multinational companies to establish production bases in Ireland, and gradually became the operation center and software distribution center of software multinational companies in Europe. India has avoided the "congenital deficiency" of narrow domestic market and weak information base, and vigorously developed software outsourcing services and offshore development business. Large software enterprises contract high-end products and services in the value chain for multinational companies, while small and medium-sized software enterprises provide low-end services in the value chain, such as decoding, programming and testing, creating a relatively large amount of software exports.
In contrast, at present, China has not formed a clear development goal and strategy for the software industry, policies and measures to support industrial development have not really been put in place, and the development environment has not been optimized. In addition, the development scale and speed of domestic software can not provide enough support for the national economy, which makes China in the "crack" between developed countries and neighboring developing countries in the development of software industry, and the gap with the world advanced level has not narrowed, but has a growing trend. In the long run, if we don't fundamentally accelerate the development of the software industry, China will lose the opportunity to occupy the commanding heights of international competition, and the urgency and seriousness of the situation can be imagined.
(A) the status in the global software industry is low, and there is a big gap compared with neighboring countries.
In 2000, the total revenue of the global software and service market was US$ 596 billion, of which the sales of China's software industry was US$ 710.70 billion, accounting for10.2% of the total global software industry, equivalent to US10.4, Japanese10, and Irish/kloc-0.
Table 1 China's position in the global software industry
(Unit: USD 100 million)
China, USA, Japanese, Irish, Indian, Korean, all over the world.
1999 53.2 2200 540 84 67.5 59 5274
Share1.0% 42.0%10.2%1.6%1.3%1%100%.
2000 7 1.7 2400 572 89 88.5 83.2 5960
Share1.2% 40.2% 9.6%1.5%1.48%1.39%100%.
Source: China Software Industry Association: China Software Industry Research Report in 2000, April 2006, 5438+0.
In terms of total volume and proportion, in 2000, although the share of China's software industry in the global market was similar to that of neighboring countries such as India and South Korea, it was slightly lower than that of Ireland by 0.3 percentage points, but it seemed that there was not much difference. However, there is a big gap between China and these neighboring countries and Ireland in terms of the quality of software products, the standardization of software development and the degree of software export or meeting the domestic market. For example, in terms of exports alone, China's software exports in 2000 were about US$ 400 million, only115. The position of China's software industry in the global market and the gap with neighboring countries are not commensurate with China's position as the most potential developing country in 2 1 century.
(2) The contribution of the software industry to the development of the national economy is low, and the development speed cannot meet the requirements of national informatization.
In 200 1 year, China's total software industry accounted for 0.78% of GDP, far below the average level of 6% in developed countries, 0/.96% in South Korea and 0/6.7% in India, and there is still a big gap with the demand of national informatization for software industry.
From 1996 to 200 1 year, the domestic market growth rate of China software industry was 46.8%, 3 1%, 26.4%, 27%, 33% and 34% respectively, with an average annual growth rate of about 30%. Although it is higher than the average growth rate of the world software industry, it is 20% lower than when the Indian software industry took off.
(3) The software industry has a huge development space, but the market share of domestic software is very limited.
At present, China is vigorously promoting the construction of national economy and social informatization, which undoubtedly provides a huge demand for the development of software industry, and the development space of software industry is very large. However, the rapid development of informatization has not formed an effective demand for domestic software, but has promoted the development of multinational companies in China. For example, Microsoft's business in China has increased by 2.5 times in two years, which is the fastest growing part of Microsoft in the world, while the market share of domestic software is only maintained at about 30%. On the one hand, China's software industry is almost in the middle and lower reaches of the global software industry chain, and it is constrained by people in the development of core products and key technologies, and is in a very passive situation in the international environment of the domestic market. On the other hand, the current government procurement attaches great importance to saving financial funds as much as possible, but it does not pay enough attention to creating market space for domestic software by starting government procurement, and fails to give strong substantive support to domestic software.
(D) lack of core products and key technologies, weak core competitiveness
In order to ensure security, the military departments of some countries, such as Russia and Belarus, completely use their own independently developed operating systems. However, in China, foreign software products occupy 2/3 of the domestic market, among which system software has almost no place in China's independent copyright software, and domestic supporting software is rare, and application software is also facing fierce competition. Lack of basic core technologies and software products with independent intellectual property rights and weak independent innovation ability not only make a lot of profits flow into foreign enterprises, but also seriously affect the accumulation and recycling ability of China's software industry and seriously threaten China's information security. A country's information industry is developed on the basis of core technologies provided by other countries. In the long run, it is very dangerous to national interests and national defense security.
(e) The industrial development foundation is too weak to compete with multinational corporations.
According to CCID (Electronic Information Industry Development Research Institute of the Ministry of Information Industry), by the end of 2000, there were about 3,000 software enterprises engaged in software development, research and development, sales, maintenance and service in China, with a total of about 5,000 software enterprises.
The scale structure of China's software industry is characterized by small and medium-sized enterprises. Enterprises with less than 50 employees account for about 55%, enterprises with 50-200 employees account for about 42%, and there are only a dozen enterprises with 1000 employees or more, such as ChinaSoft, Neusoft, UFIDA and Peking University Founder. In 2000, the per capita output value of software industry in China was less than 6,543.8+0.5 million yuan, while the annual per capita output value of Microsoft was as high as 620,000 dollars, which indicated that the labor productivity of software enterprises in China was at a low level and their market competitiveness was not strong.
The shortage of talents and unreasonable structure are important factors that lead to the weak foundation of industrial development. At present, there are about 1.9 million software technicians in China. In addition, 300,000 people are engaged in computer applications, scientific research and education. However, the vast majority of software technicians in China are engaged in program development, technical support and services, and the number of system analysts, architects, senior engineers, project managers and skilled workers urgently needed for the development of software industry is very scarce, which cannot meet the needs of software industry development for talents at all levels. It is not surprising that the typical knowledge-based industries lack much-needed professional knowledge-based talents, coupled with the current situation of "one low and two high" (low labor productivity, high labor cost and high development cost), the development speed is slow.
(VI) There are still many problems in the implementation of the national software industry policy.
The State Council's "Several Policies on Encouraging the Development of Software Industry and Integrated Circuit Industry" has greatly promoted the development of software industry in China. However, we should also see that nearly two years have passed, and the policies stipulated in this document have not been fully implemented, and some problems have gradually emerged in the process of implementation.
For example, in terms of investment and financing, the state-supported software industry venture capital companies and investment funds stipulated in this document have not yet been established. Because software enterprises have few fixed assets, a large proportion of intangible assets, and lack assets that can be mortgaged or pledged, it is difficult to obtain bank loans. In the listing of software enterprises, the policies and regulations formulated by various departments of the state are contradictory, and the current policies and regulations hinder the listing and financing of software enterprises. At the same time, due to the small scale of software enterprises, the early R&D investment is too large, and it is difficult to convert R&D expenses into fixed assets. Unlike the traditional manufacturing profit model, the scale of stock issuance cannot be enlarged. Therefore, under the current approval system of stock issuance, the enthusiasm of securities companies to recommend software companies to issue shares is not high, and there are practical difficulties for software companies to go public. In addition, the document the State Council 18 lacks detailed regulations on the proportion of intangible assets to net assets in the asset evaluation of software enterprises and the overseas listing financing of software enterprises. In terms of preferential tax policies, the existing software industry policy defines software enterprises from the proportion of sales revenue of software products and the proportion of sales revenue of self-produced software products, but does not include software service industry, software industry incubators, branches of software enterprises and agents and distributors of domestic software. In fact, all links and elements in the software industry chain are in an unequal position, which leads to the lagging development of some links and becomes a "constraint" for the development of the whole software industry.
With regard to software procurement, at present, government procurement mainly aims at improving the efficiency of the use of financial funds, and the policy goal of creating market space for the development of domestic software through government procurement is not considered enough, and there is a lack of standards and specifications and product service catalogues to guide government procurement.
Regarding the protection of intellectual property rights, the implementation of copyright law has not achieved the expected results. According to the survey report of SIIA (Software and Industry Information Association), Vietnamese and China have the highest piracy rates in the world, and the piracy rates of 1994 are 100% and 97% respectively. With the government's attention to intellectual property rights, the piracy rate in the two countries has declined in recent years, but it still remains at around 98% and 9 1%. According to statistics, from 65438 to 0999, the software industry in China lost more than 600 million dollars due to piracy. The high piracy rate not only seriously restricts the development of domestic software enterprises, damages the national image, but also seriously affects the enthusiasm of multinational companies and venture capital to enter China.
Second, the opportunities faced by China's software industry development
China's software industry is caught between developed countries and neighboring developing countries, and there are many problems to be solved in the development process, but this does not mean that China will do nothing in the forefront of international competition in the software industry. In the late 1990s, India achieved rapid development of software industry on the basis of relatively poor domestic economy, and made remarkable progress in the core areas of high-tech industry and knowledge economy. Indian software industry has developed by leaps and bounds without obvious advantages, but what about China? India's incomparable national economy informationization, information industry scale, domestic market potential and comprehensive economic strength have undoubtedly enhanced China's determination and confidence in developing software industry.
By studying the successful development paths of the software industry in the United States, Japan, South Korea, India, Israel, Ireland and other countries, we can find that the software industry has different laws from the general manufacturing industry. Many capital-intensive manufacturing industries, such as machinery and electronics, automobiles, etc. Basically, it presents the law of "developed countries → underdeveloped countries → developing countries →". However, it is entirely possible for the software industry to develop simultaneously in developed countries, underdeveloped countries and developing countries. This is mainly because the key resources to promote the success of the software industry are different from the traditional manufacturing industry. The key resource for the success of traditional manufacturing industry is capital, while the key resource for the success of software industry is knowledge-based human resources. Therefore, it is entirely possible for developing countries to compete with developed countries in this field by using abundant human resources, plus government promotion and policy support.
At the same time, the rise of open source movement represented by Linux and the popularity of network computer (NC) provide a rare opportunity for the leap-forward development of software industry. Linux is a completely open source UNIX-like operating system. Because of its openness and advanced technology, it won the support of a group of software developers with rich market experience, and announced that it would follow the GPL protocol of the Free Software Alliance (CNU), which enabled Linux to spread and develop rapidly and began to pose a direct threat to Microsoft. At present, Linux has about 654.38+0,000 million users in the world, ranking first in the operating system (OS) used by Internet servers, accounting for 28%. IDC (International Data Corporation) predicts that Linux will rank second in the global operating system market in five years.
Open source software represented by Linux has brought great impact to the existing software industry system and will certainly affect the development of the world software industry. For example, open source may become an important mode of software development; An open and brand-new development model with the network as the core has gradually taken shape; Change the "rules of the game" of the software industry.
With the application and development of network technology, numerical control (network computer) has become one of the important directions of computer development, which is especially suitable for China's national conditions and has the conditions for vigorous promotion. At present, NC has expanded from a single thin client to a portable, mobile and wireless network access terminal, and the user base has expanded rapidly, and the conditions for popularizing NC have gradually matured. NC does not require high performance of CPU, so it can vigorously promote the development of CPU chips based on Linux, and strive to form a CPU design industry with China characteristics.
In addition, software has become the core of enterprise management, product design and production process control in all walks of life, and it is a powerful tool for technological innovation and commercial competition. The software industry is no longer limited to the computer industry, but has infiltrated and distributed to other industries, and the product forms of software are diversified. The embedded software market is heating up, one is the consumer-oriented market, such as mobile phones, handheld devices, information appliances, etc. The other is the industrial application market, such as industrial automation equipment and intelligent instruments. This is a fairly scattered market, because embedded software often runs on special microprocessor chips, so it is not easy to form a unified monopoly market.
Therefore, China has many rare opportunities to change its position in the global software industry chain, especially in the passive situation of the system software market. It is important for our country to seize the time and not indulge in too many useless arguments. At present, the most urgent thing is to determine the development strategy of China's software industry as soon as possible, give full play to China's advantages and formulate practical policies and measures. Only in this way can China's software production develop by leaps and bounds in a relatively short time, reach the goal stipulated in the State Council 18, and rank among the world's software powers.
Third, the development path of China software industry
Earlier, we investigated the development paths of the software industry in the United States, Japan, South Korea, India, Israel and Ireland. Looking back now, what kind of development path should China's software industry take in the future? An obvious conclusion is that it is absolutely impossible for China to copy the model of other countries. We have our own national conditions and unique advantageous resources. Therefore, in the choice of the way to develop the software industry, we should embark on a development path with our own characteristics.
(A) the interaction between state behavior and enterprise behavior
The "state behavior" here not only means that the state should formulate reasonable policies to support the software industry, but also means that the state should promote the development of the software industry through investment, organization and guidance. As we have said before, China's information industry is basically based on the platform that the United States provides core technologies, which is very dangerous for a country. Therefore, it is necessary for China to develop core software products and key technologies with independent intellectual property rights, realize industrialization and provide market space for them. We can't place our hopes on software enterprises. This is because, first, the development of core software products and key technologies with independent copyright, unlike the software service industry, can only be done well by excellent human resources. System software products, such as operating system and supporting software, can be said to be typical capital-intensive and talent-intensive industries. Only when the country concentrates a large amount of capital resources and talent resources, takes the country as the leading factor and unifies organization and coordination, can it succeed. It is unrealistic to expect a single enterprise or an alliance between enterprises to solve the core problems of software. Second, at present, China's software enterprises are generally small in scale, lacking sufficient funds, unable to solve the huge amount of funds needed to develop system software, and facing great risks. At the same time, the profit-seeking nature of capital cannot require software enterprises to take the initiative to "solve problems" for the country from the perspective of the country. Third, the development situation of China's software industry is urgent. Only by mobilizing national power, concentrating national resources and adopting an unconventional operation mode similar to that of China in the past, and quickly shortening the gap between China's software industry and developed countries in core products and key technologies, can China get rid of the long-term passive position and embarrassing situation in the international software industry chain.
Of course, reflecting the behavior of the state in the development of the software industry does not mean that the state directly intervenes through administrative means, but takes the form of market operation and commercialization under the guidance of the state. The feasible operation method is: the state invests heavily, takes the state as the leading factor, absorbs funds from all walks of life, including software enterprises, universities, scientific research institutions, investment institutions and even multinational companies, and directly establishes entities. Engaged in R&D, production and sales of software core products and key technologies, this entity has formed a "one-stop" from R&D to industrialization, which has solved the "stubborn disease" of the current separation between R&D and industrialization in China.
(2) Pay equal attention to software products and services.
Some people think that at present, China should focus on developing software products, improve China's position in the global software industry, and keep the software service industry growing naturally. Some people think that China's software products are far behind the software powers at present, and cannot surpass them in a short time. Instead of struggling in the field of system software with little chance of success, it is better to focus on the development of service industry, which can not only cultivate talents, but also create jobs, laying the foundation for focusing on the development of software products in the future, and also conforms to the leading development trend of software service industry at present.
The author believes that the above two viewpoints are biased and do not comprehensively examine the essence of the problem. The author puts forward the viewpoint of "paying equal attention to software products and services" and the viewpoint of "interaction between state behavior and enterprise behavior". On the road of developing software industry, the state and enterprises have both division of labor and interaction. The state can make use of the will of the state, concentrate on investment, adopt the form of entity operation, integrate the superior resources from the state and society, concentrate on conquering the core products and key technologies of the software industry, and establish its own independent product system. At the same time, in the process of informatization construction, the state creates market opportunities for software enterprises and promotes the maturity and growth of software service industry. What about the enterprise? Mainly concentrated in the field of software services, vigorously develop information system integration, ASP, information system operation and maintenance, data center and resource outsourcing, data processing and processing, software testing, information system consulting and evaluation, information system engineering supervision, software and information system management personnel engineering training and other services, provide quality services for the industrialization and large-scale application of software products, and accumulate professional knowledge and software talents. Through policy guidance, the state encourages qualified software enterprises to vigorously develop the software service industry and improve quality of enterprise. At the same time, we encourage qualified and willing software enterprises to actively participate in the international customized software and service market, learn and master the operating rules and business processes of the national software market, actively participate in CMM certification, improve the quality assurance system, promote software enterprises to further integrate with the international community and improve their international quality.
(3) Focus on developing the domestic market.
There is no doubt that the domestic market space of China's software industry is huge. China should focus on e-government, e-finance, enterprise informatization and social security, vigorously develop and promote the application of China's independent copyright software core products and key technologies, industrial application software, information security software and other products, and promote the rapid development of software industry through huge domestic demand.
E-government involves various products and technologies of information technology, which promotes the informationization of industries, enterprises and families. The adopted technology and products have extensive demonstration and guidance to the society. Because of the security, personalization and localization of e-government in China, domestic software enterprises will have strong competitiveness in this field. At present, the urgent problem to be solved is to formulate unified e-government standards and norms as soon as possible, and put forward the catalogue of products or services recommended by the government, so as to avoid the "rushing headlong into action" of government departments and localities at all levels in the implementation of e-government and weaken the pulling effect of e-government on domestic software.
China's financial electronization has developed rapidly. By the end of 2000, the banking system had more than 700 large and medium-sized computers, more than 6,000 minicomputers, more than 500,000 PCs and servers, nearly 30,000 automatic teller machines (ATMs) and 220,000 POS, and the coverage rate of electronic business outlets reached over 95%. The hardware construction of financial electronization will promote the great development of application software in the financial field. Digital electronic money, online payment, security authentication and other electronic financial functions will directly promote the development of e-commerce.
At present, there are 15000 large and medium-sized enterprises and more than1000 small enterprises in China. These enterprises urgently need to improve their management level. At the same time, the demand for implementing enterprise management information system will be stronger and stronger, and the potential market of enterprise informatization will be bigger and bigger. At the same time, China's accession to the WTO will also require China enterprises to conduct business activities in accordance with international rules, which will definitely increase the demand for enterprise management software. At present, the effective users of management software only account for about 5% of the total number of small and medium-sized enterprises. Enterprise informatization will directly drive the development of software such as ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning), CRM (Customer Relationship Management) and SCM (Supply Chain Management).
(D) the establishment of industry autonomy system
Vigorously developing software core products and key technologies with independent intellectual property rights and establishing an industrial independent system require organization, coordination and guidance at the national level. At present, the rise of Linux in the world provides a rare opportunity for China to gradually break the WINTEL system and establish a system software industry system based on Linux. At present, the most important thing is to establish our own software industry standard system, occupy the top of the global software industry chain, and finally develop into a software power that can compete with the United States.
refer to
[1] China Software Industry Association. China Software Industry Research Report in 2000 [R].200 1, (4).
[2] Seize new opportunities, meet new challenges, and comprehensively promote the reform and development of China's information industry-Report of Minister Wu Jichuan at the National Information Industry Work Conference [R].2002-0 1-28.
[3] Wang Wenjing on software industry and software enterprise management [DB/OL]. Sina website, 200 1- 12-09.
[4] China Electronic Information Industry Development Research Institute. Thoughts on the tenth five-year plan of software industry [DB/OL]. www.ccidnet.com，200 1-09-30。