Why China still runs on Windows
On May 29, Microsoft’s China division announced a new partnership with Tencenti Tencent Best known for its super-app WeChat, Tencent is a Chinese technology conglomerate and a major player in the video gaming industry.READ MORE , building a pathway for publishing Tencent’s Android catalog on Windows. Tencent is best known as the company behind WeChat — a super-app that’s virtually essential in China — but it has a vast library of apps. It’s one of the world’s biggest gaming companies and runs QQ Music, one of the country’s most popular music-streaming services. Giving people a way to use Tencent’s apps on the desktop is a good idea, but if you’re not familiar with China, it might be a little surprising that the company is looking to Microsoft to do it. Given the rising political tensions with the U.S., couldn’t Tencent find a Chinese company to partner with?
But for the Chinese desktop market, Windows has become indispensable. It’s hard to get solid numbers on desktop OS usage in China, both because of piracy and general secrecy, but some analysts have estimated Microsoft’s share as high as 80%. Given the nature of Windows, that portion is probably heavily focused on offices and industry. With so much of the excitement and growth in the sector focused on mobile devices, there are few Chinese tech companies interested in challenging Microsoft in the desktop space, so there’s been no real threat to its dominance. If you’re making a product for desktops, you’re making it for Windows.
