Why are domestic software more and more rogue?

0. Preface

This is the process of expelling good money from a bad coin, which is a revolt process.

The author of more than 10 years of experience for you to comb out the Chinese software fee development process, and finally revealed the reasons for the domestic software rogue.

1. Traditional mode

80 's computer entered China, at that time users are mainly scientific research units and colleges and universities, the network has not been popularized, software sales in the physical way, that is: direct purchase of the boxed floppy disk or CD-ROM. Because of the number of computers at that time, so the price of the software is relatively high, but because there is no piracy or access to piracy inconvenient, coupled with the purchase of units-based, so this time the software enterprise revenue is good.

2. Free software

Into the 90 's, with the development of pirated technology, pirated optical discs, coupled with the popularity of the network later, access to pirated software becomes very easy, often new software comes out, not a few days in the pirated market or network to find the corresponding pirated software. The way the entity software is sold is outdated and gradually replaced by the new "free software" approach. The so-called "free Software" is the first taste after the purchase of the model, you can first online free download trial of this software, trial satisfaction and then pay the money to register to buy. and reduce the cost of packaging and physical channels, the price of software can also be lower. At that time, computers gradually became popular in the family, and the main target groups of software purchase and use changed from unit users to family and individual users.

Although the "Free software" model concept is very good, users and software developers can win, users can try to buy their favorite software, and software developers can be because a large number of users to buy and receive a good return. But in the country because of weak software copyright protection, piracy Rampant, your software released, will soon have a "registration code" or "cracked version" appear, sell pirates earn the pot full, and software developers often lose all the money.

3. New Hope

But software practitioners also have to eat to support the family, the software industry has gradually explored two new ways to make money:

One is not to do domestic software and specifically for the development of foreign markets software, such as:flashget, Phil Antivirus;flashget(later called the Internet Express) is a network ant similar software, Mainly in the foreign market, so at the time when the English version of the release is not Chinese version; Why did Phil have such a strange name, because he was targeting foreign markets.

The other is software free but when the interface with a banner, relying on advertising bar to make money, to network ant to do the most successful, said he earned a lot of dollars. However, these two models have great limitations, for foreign markets to develop software has language, national conditions, collection method (need US credit card) and so on, and the second mode of advertising bar also has a variety of restrictions, first of all, your software must be long-term online network class software, followed by a large user group, And the advertising bar provider is also a foreign collection of the same problem, so neither of these models developed. Software developers are still very bitter, and the Chinese software industry is also depressed, very few like Foxmail, network ants and other excellent software appeared, even now very good QQ also nearly hung up.

4. Special Cases

Although the software industry as a whole make no money, but there is a kind of software is a special case, that is antivirus software, for security reasons many companies and individuals do not dare to use pirated anti-virus software, so has been anti-virus software has been selling very good. China's development of anti-virus software is thriving, there have been a lot of anti-virus software, like everyone familiar with rising, Jinshan, Jiangmin,KILL,RAV,VRV and so on, because of the fierce competition, the price of anti-virus software is also decreasing year by year. And at that time the computer newspaper and various websites appear the biggest advertisement is anti-virus software. This also fully shows that users spend money to buy software is a win-and-win situation: Software development enterprises can make money to motivate them to make more and better software, users can spend lower prices with high-quality software, newspapers and magazines can receive software industry ads, The state does not have to worry about national security issues with installing foreign anti-virus software.

5. misguided

Because there is no income, the domestic software industry for a long period of time in a downturn, almost no good software release. Users naturally also can not use good software, is completely double-lose the situation. Just so dull a few years later, one day 3721 ( Span style= "Font-family:times New Roman" >360 ie plug-in) was born. He pioneered a new model of software monetization: bundled installation; As long as your software is installed bundled with his plugin, he will give you a little money for each installation. Although the revenue from an installation is very low, if your software is popular, with millions, 100,000, million installs, the revenue is also very impressive. So almost overnight, a variety of software used this "free to use, bundled plug-ins," the way released. Users happy to have free software can be used, software developers also have a considerable income, plug-in installation volume also exploded growth, the software industry once again prospered. This seems to be a happy three-win model. A bull man once said that "free things are often the most expensive." Chinese software has since entered the rogue era, was led astray.

Other software vendors see 3721 This model can quickly seize the internet access, So they have to follow the introduction of their own plug-ins, but also using the same model to promote, so large and small variety of plug-ins appeared. Common software developers in order to make more money, bundled plug-ins also from 1 A gradual increase to 2 , 3 , 4  ... A. Ordinary users of the computer is secretly installed plug-ins are also more and more, a large number of plug-ins seriously affect the computer's boot speed and internet speed. The following picture can be very good to explain how exaggerated the situation at the time, a few years later users finally unbearable, the crusade against these software is rogue software. "Free things are often the most expensive," the ordinary users pay for their own gains and pains. There was a joke: to keep the computer clean three Principles is 1 do not install domestic software, 2 Do not install native software, 3 Do not install domestic software. Originally three win mode, became three lose.

< See figure 1>

6. step into the abyss

As users demanding and complain more and more, this model finally quickly support. So one day , and turned out, playing to help users clean up the banner of the plug-in, the installed capacity of the rapid rise, and soon became the necessary software installed. The same is free, and the rogue seems to have straightened out. However, the slow, slowly revealing his nature, or to seize the Internet access, or bundled installation, but this time the bundle is not plug-ins but the browser and modify the user's homepage . Some software not directly bundled installation, instead of induction installation. Just out of the tiger boyfriend, the user's homepage was inexplicably modified, and is changed every few days, the user's default browser is often inexplicably changed. It is possible that more than 10 browsers will be installed on the computer. And everyone started to do the browser, have to do guard and housekeeper. History has once again been reborn.

Not only that, with the introduction of free anti-virus software, China's only one kind of money-making software has also fallen. Since then rarely seen anti-virus software to advertise. Many anti-virus software also slowly disappeared, the rest can only move to the enterprise market to linger. There is no free lunch, leaving the personal anti-virus software can only rely on bullying to make money. "Free things are often the most expensive." Chinese software has plunged into this strange rogue pattern.

< See figure 2>

7. the resurrection of the Ashes or the fire

Perhaps you will complain that 3721 360 The Chinese software into the wrong way, is it really so? No! 3721 3721 there will be 4721 5721 appeared.

Why is this? Why is it? Originally 80 90 The people because the software is too expensive, they are too poor so unwilling to buy, to the later China more and more rich, And the price of software is getting lower, people still do not want to buy software. People are willing to pay to watch a movie, eat a meal, but do not want to buy a game they like, like the software, but buy pirated CDs or download to the Internet. Because in this 20 People have developed the habit of using software for free for many years. , even if so many times to pay the cost of messing up the computer has not learned, free already in the minds of people deep in the root of the solid. What is the reason for people to develop this habit? It is the lack of protection of software intellectual property rights, which caused this situation. Although it has played a great role in the popularization of computers, it is not worth the expense of the software industry at the expense of the whole of China. Why people abroad rarely use piracy, not because of their moral level, and national law in the protection of intellectual property rights, the use of piracy will pay a high price.

The lack of protection of intellectual property has resulted in the extinction of a good domestic software, and in recent decades, China has almost no outstanding software, and the same period of open source software in the development of foreign countries, resulting in Linux,MySQL and other epoch-making products. China's single-machine game is basically extinct, we are doing online games, why do online games, because it is a good charge. "Game free, equipment charges." "Seemingly free games, the end result of spending money to buy equipment may be far more than buy a single game of money." And the single-machine game to Buy is yours, you want to play as long as possible, and online games in the equipment will not be long behind, you can only pay to buy more advanced preparation. "Free things are often the most expensive." There is a single-player game is a game that can be finished, and the net game is a never ending game, which has created a number of internet addiction teenagers. Perhaps you will say that now is the era of online games, single-player game because of the outdated and be eliminated, but at the same time foreign countries like "Call of Duty" "Plants vs Zombies" and other large and small games are sweeping the world. Paradoxically, the same is the "Plants vs Zombies" abroad is the fee software, to China can only be free software, and then rely on selling props to make money. Foreigners to China can only do as the Romans beats me.

To change the status quo, to save China's software industry, only a bitter lesson, determined to strictly protect intellectual property rights. Short-term can certainly experience a few years of labor, after all, people more than 20 years of habit is not easy to change, people on the software free habitual thinking is not easy to change. But we have to bite the bullet and hold on, this is the price we pay for more than 20 years of mistakes, perhaps our generation of software practitioners can not catch up with the benefits, but at least for the next generation of people to create a good environment, so that they can put down the burden of the Chinese software industry to create a better tomorrow.

If we do not have the determination to break the wrist now, China's software industry can only continue to sink down, and finally really doomed.

Why are domestic software more and more rogue?