AfterDawn: Tech news

Microsoft only makes $1.25 billion in China per year

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 27 May 2011 1:52 User comments (10)

Microsoft only makes $1.25 billion in China per year Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has said today that profits for the company coming from China is only $1.25 billion per year, about 1/50th of the software giant's overall revenue of $62 billion.
The CEO says that number could jump to $7.5 billion if China had better piracy control.

Speaking to Chinese employees today, Ballmer said "our revenue in China will be about a twentieth of our revenue in the United States," even though the company sells the same amount of PCs in both countries.

Additionally, the CEO says the company makes six times as much per PC sold in India as it does in China, ever since India initiated stricter piracy controls in the country.

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10 user comments

127.5.2011 02:02

Waaaahhhhhhh!!!!!1

227.5.2011 04:38

"The CEO says that number could jump to $7.5 billion if China had better piracy control."

That was a really dumb thing for him to say; people are going to get tortured and killed because of that...the Chinese government uses almost nothing but pirated software, yet they will use this as an excuse to arrest people and put them into slave labor camps.

327.5.2011 06:01

it's not a Chinese company though so the government won't care what MS says.

Now if MS was to hand over the code base to a Chinese company to take over completely well they would be forcing and pushing for less piracy all over the world.

427.5.2011 13:00

ONLY?!?!?!?


ONLY??!?!?


ONLY?!?!?!?

527.5.2011 15:28

Originally posted by xtago:
it's not a Chinese company though so the government won't care what MS says.

I'm sure MS pays China taxes so they probably care a great deal.

627.5.2011 23:57

MS are being greedy.im sure the people in china that are over worked and underpaid have better stuff to spend there money on like food&rent.im sure the people working for microsoft are over paid under worked and have more money than they need.

728.5.2011 00:41

Originally posted by hearme0:
ONLY?!?!?!?


ONLY??!?!?


ONLY?!?!?!?
They make about $20 billion a year (or more) so their profits from China account for 1/16 of total profits. China, however, with 1.33 billion people, is 1/5 of the world's 6.77 billion population. Hence the "only"!

828.5.2011 09:58

you and your freaking only $1.25 billion

929.5.2011 13:54

It's a possible ruse folks... China holds a ton of US debt, who says they don't hold a lot of M$ debt as well. M$ coming out publicly and saying that they "potentially" (I love this shit of basing monetary gain/loss on pure hypothesis & the gov believes them) lose "X" amount then they just write that off their taxes; in whatever country their in and whatever other boarder they can.

Seeing as the world economy is globally screwed I don't doubt several Fortune 500 companies are trying this approach. M$ just happens to be a MUCH heavier hitter than the rest of the group.

It's one train of thought anyway.

103.6.2011 19:14

Poor M$. How can they even get up in the morning just knowing that they are going to struggle for the day. Concerned about things like how will I get my meals for today, how will I get some water to drink, how will I get warm today and tonight, how will I feed my child, how will I get the medcation for my child and where will I sleep tonight....

Sod off M$, you are just plain outright greedy. Simple as that.

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