China's Linux market sees massive growth

SALES REVENUE in the Chinese Linux market shot through the bamboo roof during the first three quarters of 2008, up 17 per cent year-on-year, only to slow down a bit in the last quarter due to the slowing economic climate.

Chinese consulting outfit CCID reckoned China's Linux market had sucked in 126.6 million Yuan ($18.4 million) during the first three quarters of the year, only to see sales slow to 45.5 million Yuan ($6.56 million) - still up 29 per cent year-on-year - in the third quarter itself.

The report noted that local player and aptly named Red Flag Software had cultivated strong ties within the Chinese public sector, securing itself lucrative contracts in areas pertaining to government, education and transportation, and making it the most equal comrade company of them all when it came to market share.

Of course, hobnobbing with the likes of Intel and taking part in Chipzilla's Moblin project hasn't hurt Red Flag either, as they long march their way to taking control of the Chinese railway ticket system, social charity sector and medical informatisation fields.

Linux's recent popularity behind the bamboo curtain is linked to a number of factors, namely the fact the Chinese government has lately taken serious steps to clamp down on software piracy and copyright violation, which has ironically hurt firms like Microsoft whilst giving Linux more scope to grow.

Also, recent big vendor support of open-source namely from the likes of IBM, Intel, SUN and Oracle, has really given the open sourcerers a leg up and helped to improved both software and hardware support platforms.

But despite the recent Linux explosion, CCID warned that the credit crisis will doubtless take its toll, with would be investors becoming more cautious and system constructions being postponed or cancelled left, right and centre. CCID also posits that the facts that open-source apps at the server end are still peripheral and new markets in banking and telecom aren't yet getting into the Linux groove could yet put dampeners on Linux prospects

But despite CCID saying it doesn't think that China's Linux market will continue to grow at such a rapid pace, there's no reason for that to put a chink in open sourcerers' moods, because forecasts still predict good, stable growth for China's Linux market for a while to come. µ