Software Company Launches .net StrategyA Beijing software company claims Monday that it has conducted a "successful experiment" in the upgrading of the industry by linking traditional software products with the Internet.The new software, Kingsoft.net2001, developed by Kingsoft Company, will make its debut on the Beijing market on September 23 this year, Kingsoft's chairman Lei Jun announced here today. He described the software as "an electronic encyclopedia", saying that the new software will enable users to download new words directly from the Internet "with a click of the mouse." "Kingsoft's long-term development strategy is focused on the Internet," he said, adding that some 12 million Internet surfers are currently using Kingsoft2000. The company also announced the opening of a new website, www.iciba.net, saying that it would facilitate the downloading of words and on-line searching. Kingsoft.net2001 contains more than seven million expressions and over 2000 pictures. Three versions, a Chinese, English and Japanese, will be available on the market soon, according to Lei. In 1999, Kingsoft introduced its Kingsoft2000 version and sold one million copies at 28 yuan each in less than three months. Yin Zhihe, executive chairman of the Beijing Software Industry Association, said that China's software industry is still "at a nascent stage", with sales accounting for less than 1 percent of the country's gross domestic product. Seventy percent of the software products sold in the Chinese market are foreign products. The Chinese government introduced favorable policies this year in intellectual property protection, tax reductions and in its anti-piracy campaign to support the sector's development, he said. |
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