Kai-fu Lee talks about software outsourcing and software security (I)

How is China's software industry going? Is it suitable for India's outsourcing model? What are the starting points and Breakthrough points of China's software industry? In response to these problems, on June 14, Microsoft's Asian Engineering Institute was established. The reporter interviewed Dr. Lee Kaifu, vice president of Microsoft, who came to Beijing to attend the ceremony. Chinabyte Reporter: Dr. Li, what do you think of China's software industry? Kai-fu Lee: many people love to compare India with China. Both sides of human resources are very strong. Compared with India, China has a great advantage in that it has a large market. India has many places to learn about it and software outsourcing in China. In this regard, India can even be said to be the first in the world. However, India does not have a sound local market like China. India's software development is concentrated in a few cities, but it does not match traditional industries, but more rural areas. China has many traditional industries with sound industrial structure, and many industries are doing well. Chinabyte Reporter: Do you think the Chinese software industry is suitable for India's outsourcing model? Kai-fu Lee: It should be a two-pronged approach. On the one hand, we need to do a good job in the existing market and industry. For successful traditional industries, enterprises are growing to a certain extent. The biggest contribution of it is to improve their operational efficiency, thus reducing costs and improving the competitiveness of enterprises. At the same time, this has also helped it enterprises grow. In this way, mutual promotion forms a virtuous circle. On the other hand, development outsourcing. Outsourcing is a good way to improve the level of software development and Outsourcing Management in China faster. China has a big gap in software management compared with the United States and India, and there are very few talents in this field. China lacks not only software development management experience, but also outsourcing project management. Different from software development projects, outsourcing projects have a short project cycle, the market comes from abroad, customers and development teams are difficult to communicate with each other in different regions, and the cost requirement is high (compared with local competitors of customers). This requires outsourcing enterprises to handle the following issues: The first is how to get the project. If you want someone who doesn't understand American business culture to talk about the project, you can't. The second is outsourcing project process management. This can be done with companies in the United States or India. The third is to change your management mindset. This is difficult to change, but without doing so, there is no chance of outsourcing. Chinabyte Reporter: Where do you think is the breakthrough point of the Chinese software industry? Kai-Fu Li: it is a good direction for financial, management, operation and other application software. For Chinese enterprises, it is reasonable that Chinese software has a high market share in China. In the long term, China will have the potential to become a software export power in the future. More than 90% of the countries do not have this luxury. From the perspective of the international economic environment, it is inevitable for China to become a great power of software outsourcing. The reason is very simple. In any case, India is almost saturated. About 50 thousand computer college students graduated from India every year, seeking too much supply, while China is constantly improving its higher education, the success of the Software Institute (I estimate), coupled with work in China, may start at the grassroots level, So outsourcing in China should be the second or third choice. If you want to do a good job in this area, the first step is to lay a good foundation. Leverage the experience of managing and integrating outsourcing multi-learning software. Step 2: select development in China as the most appropriate project. For example, in mobile software, whether on a mobile phone or on a server or in a mobile phone service environment, because China's mobile phone market is the largest, mobile phones are bound to become a digital service, there will be more and better value-added services in the future, and China Mobile and China Unicom are willing to make great investments and try new things. I think there may be some breakthroughs in mobile software in China. After being mature and rooted in China, it is gradually popularized abroad. DoCoMo in Japan is a good example. In addition to mobile software, online games, traditional industrial management software, and software and hardware integration are all distinctive fields in China. Chinabyte Reporter: Do you think the breakthrough of China's software industry lies in its integration with some industries? Kai-fu Lee: I think we should select one of China's first or first-class markets in the world. Make a test point in this market and take some risks and make new investments, whether the investment is new online services, mobile phone software, or even hardware. Because China has a very large market, Chinese software vendors have an advantage. First, developers first, first attempts, and China's success will naturally go abroad. In addition, Chinese companies should also be willing to borrow some basic projects, such as software testing, to lay the foundation. (Source: chinabyte Reporter Song Baoqiang)