pak wibowo... baru saja saya mau posting berita menarik 'Microsoft di China...dari Fortune, eh anda sudah lebih dulu... memang menarik... dan coba simak strateginya... terima kasih atas partisipasinya...
Siapa yang menang... Microsoft , pemerintah China atau rakyat cina ?
dan apa yang bisa komunitas warnet belajar dari berita ini dan perjuangan APW?
note: sebetulnya saya membeli Fortune 500 ini karena tertarik saja melihat ranking perusahaan perusahaan kelas dunia dan strategi mereka... mencapai top 500 dunia.. Sayang tidak ada satu pun perusahaan Indonesia... biasanya forbes masih ada telkom
kalau utk bidang IT... kayanya dominasi revenue masih HP,IBM, Dell baru Microsoft... tapi melihat profit... sudah bisa ditebak siapa yang lebih unggul ... tentu MS :-)
note: dari Fortune magazine edisi Jul 23, 2007
salam, rr - apwkomitel
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Issue: Microsoft's big win in China
Who remembers Red Flag
Linux? Born during the dot-com boom and officially financed and adopted by
the Chinese government, Red Flag Linux was supposed to be China's answer for avoiding the
double-team of Windows and Microsoft Office that dominates the rest of the
world's PCs. In some circles, the potential spread of Red Flag Linux in the
world's most populated nation was even hailed as a critical sign that Microsoft
was not going to be able to spread its domination of the software market to the
rest of the world.
However, Red Flag Linux has turned out to be little more than a key
bargaining chip in a high stakes game of commerce between the Chinese government
and the world's largest software maker. Thanks to some major concessions on
source code and a precipitous price drop, the Chinese government has now
thoroughly embraced Windows and Office. And thanks to a major about-face in the
way that it deals with piracy, Microsoft has also won over the Chinese
people.
In April, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates took a victory lap in China, and
Fortune magazine's David Kirkpatrick went along for the ride, writing
an account of the trip and an excellent synopsis of Microsoft's rocky path to
success in China in a piece called "How Microsoft conquered China - Or is it the other way
around?"
Photo by Paolo Pellegri of Fortune — view full gallery
Kirkpatrick wrote, "No other Fortune 500 CEO gets quite the same treatment in
China. While most would count themselves lucky to talk with one of China's top
leaders, Gates will meet with four members of the Politburo … As one government
leader put it while introducing Gates at a business conference, the Microsoft
chairman is 'bigger in China than any movie star.' Last spring President Hu
Jintao toured the Microsoft campus in Redmond, Wash., and was feted at a dinner
at Gates' home. ' You are a friend to the Chinese people, and I am a friend of
Microsoft,' Hu told his host. 'Every morning I go to my office and use your
software.'"
Just five years earlier, the Chinese government was doing everything it could
to avoid Microsoft software. The government balked at the high price of the
software and had serious security concerns about saving sensitive government
data in a proprietary operating system built by a company located within the
borders of one of its chief international rivals. China was worried that the
U.S. government could use the Microsoft OS to spy on Chinese government
activity. The city of Beijing even began installing Red Flag Linux, supported by
the government-run Chinese Academy of Sciences, on the computers of city
workers.
In 2003, Microsoft began a program that allowed select partners to view the
source code of Windows, and even make some modifications. China was one of 60
countries invited to join the program. Then Microsoft got serious about
competing on price by offering the Chinese government its Windows and Office
software for an estimated $7-$10 per seat (in comparison to $100-$200 per seat
in the U.S., Europe, and other countries).
These moves, coupled with building strong relationships within the Chinese
government and opening a major research center in Beijing, completely changed
Microsoft's fortunes in China. Today, the Chinese government uses a version of
Windows that includes its own custom cryptography software. In Beijing, where
many of the workers avoided Red Flag Linux and used a pirated version of Windows
instead, the government has taken inventory of pirated software and forked over
cut-rate licensing fees to Microsoft.
Of course, piracy among the Chinese population at large is still one of the
major issues Microsoft has to overcome. Microsoft's initial strategy was to work
to get intellectual property laws enforced in China, but that was an unmitigated
disaster. Microsoft realized that it was powerless to stop widespread piracy in
China, so it simply threw up the white flag. If Chinese users are going to
pirate software, Microsoft wants them to pirate Microsoft software. Plus,
Microsoft has made it easy for Chinese users to purchase legal copies by
offering a $3 Windows/Office bundle to Chinese students.
Even with the cut-rate fees for students and the government, Microsoft will
still collect an estimated $700 million in revenue from China in 2007. That
amounts to only about 1.5% of Microsoft's total revenue worldwide, but the
battle for mind share has been won. Windows now has roughly 90% market share in
China. There are currently 120 million PCs in China, but that number is expected
by grow exponentially in the coming decades, and Microsoft is in a great
position to reap the benefits.
Sanity check
Microsoft's strategy in China and the ascendancy of Windows and Office there
could have important implications for Linux, the software market worldwide, and
the future of China and its citizens.
One of the necessary aspects of competing in China was that Microsoft has had
to cozy up to the Chinese government, which has long been the target of
international scrutiny for its censorship policies and its human rights
abuses.
Photo by Paolo Pellegri of Fortune — view full gallery
When Red Flag Linux was at the height of its hype cycle and China was being
viewed as the start of something big for Linux, Eric Raymond, the open source
advocate, was wary of people making too close of a connection between China and
Linux. He said "any 'identification' between the values of the open-source
community and the repressive practices of Communism is nothing but a vicious and
cynical fraud. [We] would not care to be associated with the totalitarian and
murderous government of Communist China — unrepentant perpetrators of numerous
atrocities against its own people."
During Gates' tour of China this spring, David Fitzpatrick asked Gates how he
could reconcile Microsoft's relationship with the Chinese government with
China's suppression of freedom of speech and disregard for human rights. There
was a long pause, after which Gates finally said, "I don't want to give an
answer to that."
Microsoft, Yahoo, and Google have all come under scrutiny recently for their
cooperation with China censorship:
Microsoft censors Chinese blogs
Yahoo 'helped jail China writer'
A Picture Says 1000 Words About Google's Censorship In China
There are two divergent arguments for whether establishing a relationship
with China is a good thing or a bad thing in helping the Chinese people achieve
freedom and justice:
1.) By doing business or building a relationship with China, you are giving
tacit approval to their suppressive government practices and only encouraging
them to continue. Therefore, nations and organizations should unequivocally shun
China unless the government changes its policies.
2.) By establishing strong ties with China, you bring it closer to being part
of the international family of nations in the hope that it will eventually curb
its more radical practices because of natural peer pressure. This is often
viewed as a better alternative to isolation, which can lead to extremism.
Microsoft obviously subscribes to the latter. But its primary motivation
seems to be that there's a lot at stake in China and it must have a strategy to
compete in China if it wants to continue to lead the software market. As a
result, Microsoft has taken an apolitical stance.
The fact that Red Flag Linux failed to gain a major foothold in China is yet
another blow to desktop Linux. After nearly eight years of being on the verge of
a breakthrough, Linux seems more destined than ever to be a force in the server
room but little more than a narrow niche and an anomaly on the desktop.
As for the price of Microsoft software worldwide, Gates has admitted that the
gap between the price in China and the price for the rest of the world will
naturally meet in the middle over time. In other words, Gates wants to
eventually charge China more and realizes that Microsoft won't be able to keep
charging everyone else so much. For analysts and pundits (myself included) who
have said that Microsoft's best strategy for combating software piracy in the
U.S. is not with product activation but by simply charging less for the
software, this is great news and a little bit of vindication. I guess we have
China to thank for that.
What do you think about the victory of Windows and Office in China? Do you
think the relationship of Microsoft with the Chinese government is a good thing
or a bad thing?
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