Microsoft benefits from decreasing piracy rate

In March 2006, the Chinese Ministry of Information Industry (MII), the National Copyright Administration (NCAC) and the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) jointly issued a "Notice on Pre-installation of Genuine Operating System Software in Computers", requiring all computer manufacturers to preinstall genuine PC operating systems.

Now, nearly years have passed and the software piracy rate in Chinese market has declined markedly. As the world's largest software maker, Microsoft undoubtedly benefited from the decreasing piracy rate.

As of the end of September, the revenue of Microsoft Windows amounted to 822 million US dollars, of which 164 million US dollars came from the fight against piracy. According to Analyst Brent Thill of Citigroup, driven by the fight against piracy, Microsoft's revenue in 2008 will be increased by 1 billion US dollars.

Microsoft CEO Steve. Ballmer said in November this year that the China market is essential to Microsoft and China has also made some progress in IPR protection. He said: "Compared with three years ago, China now pays more attention to IPR protection and Microsoft has also made some progress as well." [Chinese version is available on Ccidnet.com]