CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive

04 November 2004

Company News

Autodesk's Software Sales Soar in China  

Autodesk said that its software sales in China were growing at about three times the rate of its worldwide sales as it considered expanding its year-old Shanghai research and development laboratory.

The company's sales in China doubled in the first half of this year from a year before, Jack Gao, regional director for greater China, said in an interview.

That growth rate outpaced overall sales, which rose about 35 percent to $499 million for the six months through July 31.

Gao declined to reveal Autodesk's specific sales figures for China. But he said the digital design company licensed about 50,000 users over the past year, compared with the 150,000 it licensed over the previous nine years.

Prices vary for its high-end design software but typically range anywhere from $1,000 to $10,000 per licensed user.

"China so far is growing the fastest" among Autodesk's major markets, Gao said.

"We're looking at fairly high-speed growth for the next few years. Last year, our business grew enormously fast."

Gao predicted the company would maintain its swift growth in the market for the next three to five years.

As the Chinese market grows in importance, Autodesk has also moved to increase its presence in the country.

Its staff there is now nearly 200, or more than double the level of a year ago. It is mostly based in Beijing and at a research center in Shanghai, which has 68 software engineers.

Autodesk is now integrating the Shanghai center into its worldwide product development network, Gao said, in contrast to other multinationals that typically use their China-based research centers to localize worldwide products.

Many large companies avoid original software development in China out of concern over workers' qualifications and intellectual property theft. With the Shanghai research center up and running, the company is considering expanding the facility and it is also starting to lookat other sites to establish similar centers.

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