Chinese software developers narrow gap with foreign brands

BEIJING - Domestic software has started to attract more Chinese consumers, with some leading developers able to rival their international counterparts in quality, experts have said.

Chinese software and operating systems for servers are meeting the industry's needs after years of development, as 75 percent of domestic business users are satisfied with the software they are using, said Gao Zhiyang, deputy director of the China Software Testing Center (CSTC), on Friday.

In terms of certain criteria and standards, a number of domestic developers are nearing or even overtaking their foreign counterparts, he noted.

In the first ten months of the year, business revenues for China's software sector surged 25.8 percent year on year to 1.96 trillion yuan ($311 billion), according to a report released by the CSTC.

However, the sector is still dealing with unstable software performance and an inefficient quality management system. Some companies still lack innovation and rely heavily on overseas markets for core technology, he added.

Gao called for more efforts related to copyright protection and a better management system for the healthier growth of the sector.