Microsoft to launch MSN China web portal — This is interesting. Just as I read about the new MSN portal to be launched in China (to compete with the Google and Yahoo initiatives) the BSA sends out a press release (bottom) bitching about Chinese government practices. The Chinese know that the BSA is a Microsoft front. It will be interesting to see how the portal is sabotaged.
News of the portal:
US computer software giant Microsoft Corp. said it has formed a joint venture with China’s state-funded Shanghai Alliance Investment Ltd (SAIL) to launch the MSN China web portal later this spring.
The venture, Shanghai MSN Network Communications Technology Company Ltd, has received approval from the Chinese government to deliver products and services of MSN, Microsoft’s online services division, throughout China, a joint statement said on Wednesday
BSA Press release:
BSA CEO Testifies on Discriminatory Procurement Practices in China
Tech Industry Leader Urges U.S. Government to Take Immediate Steps to Reverse Restrictive Policy
Washington, D.C. (May 13, 2005) ― Testifying before the U.S. House of Representatives’ Government Reform Committee, Robert Holleyman, President and CEO of the Business Software Alliance (BSA), today urged Members of Congress to take immediate steps to delay the Chinese government’s implementation of restrictive software procurement regulations until agreeable changes can be negotiated. As currently proposed, new software procurement regulations would severely restrict the ability of U.S. software companies to sell to the Chinese government.
“Any agreement should establish a software procurement framework that is open, inclusive and non-discriminatory, and allow U.S. and other foreign software makers to compete without restriction in China’s government procurement market,” said Holleyman. “In a market where over 90 percent of software is pirated, such a discriminatory procurement regime as proposed would effectively close the door to many, if not all, U.S. software companies.”
The Chinese government is the largest purchaser of software in China, and the procurement market represents ne of the most significant growth opportunities for the U.S. software industry.
“There is every reason to believe that the proposed software regulation is merely the first in a series of measures that will ultimately close to foreign competition all sectors of procurement that China considers strategic to its economic development. This is a lose – lose situation for the United States and Chinese economies. U.S. software makers are being closed out of a vast marketplace, and China is missing an opportunity to promote the development of a vibrant software economy by discouraging the active participation of U.S. companies.” olleyman concluded.
And I guess someone thought that public complaining in Washington, D.C. about the Chinese government practices was a good idea while trying to do deals over there? This should be fun to watch.
