China doesn’t have the most friendly relationship with the Redmond-based company. Microsoft’s Windows 8 operating system is already banned in China due to security concerns. Lately, some reports, originating from Chinese shores, also hinted at the same possible fate for Microsoft’s productivity suite. Office 365, which is available in the country in collaboration with 21Vianet, which is a carrier-neutral internet data center services provider in China.
Microsoft has denied the reports and said they are not true. The company is in talks with the authorities in order to protect its business in the region, but there’s no denying that the products have seen fierce competition from the local companies operating in the same sector.
“We have contacted the Ministry of Finance, the governing body of government procurement projects. They had no idea of the ruling as well,” a senior Microsoft executive told China Daily.
Microsoft is working closely with the Chinese authorities in order to make sure it’s services keep running in the region. Not to forget, there are some Chinese alternatives such as Kingsoft available, who were reportedly funded by the Chinese government, and managed to sell “two-thirds of their products” to the government in 2013. There’s still a need for Microsoft to worry about the situation, and protect themselves in the sector. It’s not just Microsoft, several games have received a ban in the region as well, not to forget Battlefield 4, over national security concerns.
“The incident shows increasing concerns about information security by the Chinese government, from both infrastructure and application perspectives, especially considering the increasing terror attacks in the country,” said Charlie Dai, principal consulting analyst at Forrester Research.
Dai further said, “I don’t think any domestic software could easily replace Microsoft Office because the software has been tightly integrated into many business applications and business processes of the Chinese government and State-owned enterprises.”
What do you think about all this? Will Microsoft Office get the same treatment as Windows 8? Sound off in the comments below.
Thanks Anon for the tip!!
