What Drove China’s Software Industry Surge in Early 2021? Key Revenue Insights

Overall Operation

Software business revenue kept rapid growth. In January‑May, the software industry achieved revenue of 33,893 billion yuan, up 22.6% year‑on‑year, with the growth rate falling 2.4 percentage points compared with January‑April, and a compound annual growth rate of 13.0%.

Profit total continued fast growth. In the same period total profit reached 3,836 billion yuan, up 18.3% year‑on‑year, with the growth rate falling 2.2 points, and a compound annual growth rate of 8.2%.

Software export growth slowed. Export amounted to US$19.1 billion, up 10.1% year‑on‑year, essentially returning to the 2019 level. Outsourced services export was US$5.32 billion (+17.3% YoY) and embedded‑system software export was US$7.58 billion (+3.7% YoY).

Employment and wages: average employment reached 7.32 million people, up 6.6% YoY; total wages grew 9.8% YoY, with the growth rate falling 1.2 points, and a compound annual growth rate of 4.8%.

Sectoral Operation

Software product revenue growth steadied. In January‑May software product revenue was 9,142 billion yuan, up 21.8% YoY, with the growth rate falling 1.7 points, accounting for 27% of total industry revenue. Industrial software product revenue reached 855 billion yuan, up 23.2% YoY, becoming a key driver for manufacturing transformation.

Information technology services revenue growth slowed. Revenue was 21,314 billion yuan, up 24% YoY, with the growth rate falling 2.8 points, representing 62.9% of total industry revenue. Cloud computing and big data services contributed 2,913 billion yuan (+24.1% YoY). E‑commerce platform technology services generated 2,791 billion yuan (+25.8% YoY). Integrated‑circuit design revenue was 772 billion yuan (+21.6% YoY).

Information security products and services grew rapidly, achieving revenue of 515 billion yuan, up 27.6% YoY, with the growth rate falling 0.8 points.

Embedded‑system software revenue continued stable growth, reaching 2,921 billion yuan, up 14.4% YoY, with the growth rate falling 3 points.

Regional Operation

Eastern and central regions outpaced the national average, while the Northeast showed notable increase. Eastern region revenue was 27,569 billion yuan, up 22.9% YoY; Central region 1,519 billion yuan, up 27%; Western region 3,997 billion yuan, up 20.6%; Northeast region 807 billion yuan, up 15.2%.

The top five provinces—Beijing, Guangdong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shandong—accounted for 68.6% of national software revenue, with growth rates ranging from 15% to 37%.

Fifteen sub‑provincial cities generated 18,616 billion yuan, up 19.6% YoY; profit total in these cities was 2,182 billion yuan, up 13% YoY, although profit growth continued to slow.