Business & IndustryAnalysis
China Software Revenue Reaches 8.98 Trillion Yuan in First Seven Months
Official data shows software industry income grew 9.2 percent, powered by integrated circuit design and cloud computing.
Share
Photo by Myburgh Roux on Pexels
The Brief
China's software and information technology services sector generated 8.98 trillion yuan in revenue during the first seven months of the year, marking a 9.2 percent year-on-year increase, according to data released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. Software exports rose 12.2 percent to 40.61 billion dollars over the same period. Growth was particularly pronounced in high-value segments, with integrated circuit design expanding by 21.5 percent and combined cloud computing and big data services climbing 12.3 percent, while major internet enterprises accelerated their research and development spending.
Why it matters
Sustained near-double-digit growth in software revenue underscores persistent domestic demand for digital infrastructure and industrial modernization. Outsized expansion in semiconductor design, cloud services, and industrial software demonstrates that critical segments targeted by national technological resilience initiatives continue to outpace broader macroeconomic growth rates.
China context
Faced with ongoing external technology export controls and supply chain realignments, Beijing has placed foundational software, industrial design platforms, and domestic semiconductor architecture at the core of its industrial policy. The acceleration of corporate research spending highlights structural efforts by Chinese tech firms to deepen proprietary capabilities and substitute foreign enterprise solutions.
Editor's View
EDITOR'S VIEW — Analysis and inference, not factual reporting.
The sectoral breakdown revealed in the official figures illustrates a bifurcated software economy. While baseline information security and consumer-facing software products expanded at moderate rates of around 6 percent, foundational tools and chip design achieved significant momentum. This divergence suggests corporate capital expenditure is heavily concentrating on supply chain self-reliance and mission-critical enterprise systems rather than discretionary consumer software.
What to watch
- Full-quarter industrial profit figures to evaluate whether revenue expansion translates into healthy operating margins.
- Adoption rates of domestic industrial and foundational software within key manufacturing and critical infrastructure sectors.
- The trajectory of internet sector research and development spending across the remainder of the fiscal year.
Key Takeaways
- 1China's software and IT services industry generated 8.98 trillion yuan in revenue in the first seven months, up 9.2 percent year-on-year.
- 2Software exports climbed 12.2 percent to 40.61 billion dollars.
- 3Integrated circuit design revenue led sector growth, expanding 21.5 percent.
- 4Cloud computing and big data revenues grew 12.3 percent, while industrial software rose 8.4 percent.
- 5R&D expenditure among major internet companies rose 14.8 percent, accelerating past first-half levels.
China's software and information technology services industry maintained steady growth through the first seven months of the year, generating 8.98 trillion yuan (approximately 1.26 trillion dollars) in software business revenue, according to figures released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and published by Xinhua.
The headline figure represents a 9.2 percent year-on-year increase. Sectoral export earnings outpaced domestic topline growth, rising 12.2 percent from the previous year to reach 40.61 billion dollars, reflecting sustained international demand for Chinese software engineering and digital services.
A breakdown by sub-sector shows divergence between consumer-oriented applications and specialized technological fields. Overall revenue from software products rose 6.3 percent year-on-year. Within that category, foundational software products grew by 9.4 percent, while industrial software products advanced by 8.4 percent, both outpacing broader software product averages.
Information technology services generated a 10 percent year-on-year revenue increase. The segment was driven by sharp gains in upstream digital capabilities, notably integrated circuit design, which surged 21.5 percent. Meanwhile, combined revenue from cloud computing and big data services rose 12.3 percent, signaling steady enterprise adoption of modern computing architectures. In contrast, revenue from information security products and services posted a more moderate increase of 6.2 percent.
The ministry also detailed operational performance among major internet and related service providers—defined as enterprises with annual revenues meeting statutory statistical thresholds. Business revenue across these internet firms rose 7.3 percent year-on-year over the seven-month period. Notably, research and development spending among these firms expanded by 14.8 percent year-on-year, picking up momentum with a growth rate 0.7 percentage points higher than the rate recorded across the first half of the year.
Sources
- Com — People's Daily · 9/1/2026