To great fanfare, Microsoft last week announced it would invest US$750 million in China. At first glance, this appears to be a staggering sum, even for cash-rich Microsoft, the world's largest software company.
Microsoft said it would invest 6.2 billion yuan (about HK$5.81 billion) over the next three years, further co-operating with China's domestic firms, research institutes, universities and other bodies in development of exports, investment, training and new technologies.
Software companies, however, can offer a great deal and not have to part with much. A multi-million dollar software donation may look good in print, but it costs the company almost nothing. As all software pirates know, the cost of making copies is minimal.
Microsoft may be trying to counter a recent donation from Sun Microsystems, a bitter rival. In March, Sun donated what amounted to millions of licences of its StarSuite office productivity software to China's schools. StarSuite is a product that rivals Microsoft Office, but unlike Office, it runs on the competing Linux operating system (OS), thus dealing Microsoft a double blow. Sun also gave away US$1.6 million in networking systems.
Microsoft, it seems, has had more difficulty over the past few years in China than most high-technology firms.
Its Windows 98 operating system had a dictionary in it from Taiwan that included such phrases as ''red bandits'' to refer to the Chinese communists.
Despite all this, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates is something of a hero in China. Not only is he the richest man in the world, his books sell better there than anywhere else.
