Singapore, (Wednesday, July 7) – Fifty-three percent of the software installed on computers in the Asia Pacific region was pirated in 2003, representing a loss of over US$7.5 billion. According to findings from a global software piracy study released today by the Business Software Alliance (BSA), the international association of the world’s leading software manufacturers, Asia Pacific is the region with the fourth highest software piracy rate and the second highest revenue losses in the world.
Conducted for the first time by global technology research firm International Data Corporation (IDC), this year’s BSA global piracy study incorporated major software market segments including operating systems, consumer software and local market software. In previous years, the study was limited to business software applications.
The inclusion of these new categories paints a broader, more accurate picture of the global software piracy problem based on IDC's extensive industry and market knowledge. The study found that, while US$80 billion dollars in software was installed on computers worldwide last year, only US$51 billion was legally purchased.
According to the study, the piracy rates in Asia Pacific range from a high of 92 percent in Vietnam and China to a low of 23 percent in New Zealand. Three of the four countries with the highest piracy rates are in Asia Pacific.
“Economies in the Asia Pacific region are still confronted with the challenge of combating software piracy and it is in the interest of governments in the region to drive down software piracy,” said Jeffrey Hardee, Vice President and Regional Director, Asia Pacific, BSA. “A separate IDC study released last year clearly revealed that there is a correlation between the software piracy rate of a country and the contribution of the IT sector to its economy.”
“Piracy continues to be a significant problem through Asia Pacific, as evidenced by the region’s representation among the world’s piracy leaders,” added Martin Kralik, senior research manager for Asia Pacific consulting at IDC. “Unfortunately, this same piracy is also hurting the region’s competitiveness. The revenues that are lost to piracy are vital to the success and survival of smaller, local software developers and that ultimately undermines the region’s ability to develop new products and compete in the global market.”
The study also found that software piracy tends to be high in those markets with high PC market growth, such as China and India, and that if the piracy rate in these emerging markets does not drop, the worldwide piracy rate would continue to increase.
“There is still much to be done in the fight for strong intellectual property protection and respect for copyrighted works in the region,” said Hardee. “BSA will continue to work with governments across Asia Pacific to encourage them to enact policies to protect software intellectual property and to implement programs to educate businesses and consumers about the importance of copyright protection for creative works. Lowering the piracy rate will stimulate local economic activity, generate government revenue, create job growth and cultivate future innovation.”
For its analysis, IDC drew upon its worldwide data for software and hardware shipments, conducted more than 5,600 interviews in 15 countries, and used its in-country analysts around the globe to evaluate local market conditions. IDC identified the piracy rate and dollar losses by utilizing proprietary IDC models for PC, software and license shipments by all industry vendors in 86 countries.
Among key findings:
- The piracy rate in the Asia Pacific region was 53 percent, with dollar losses totaling more than US$7.5 billion.
- In Eastern Europe, the piracy rate was 70 percent, with dollar losses at more than US$2.2 billion.
- In Western Europe, the piracy rate was 36 percent and dollar losses totaled US$9.6 billion.
- The average piracy rate across Latin American countries was 63 percent, with losses totaling nearly US$1.3 billion.
- In the Middle Eastern and African countries, the piracy rate was 55 percent on average, with losses totaling nearly US$900 million.
- In North America, the piracy rate was 23 percent and losses totaled more than US$7.2 billion.
The study found that the size of a regional software market is the critical link between piracy rates and actual dollars lost. For instance, 92 percent of software installed in Vietnam in 2003 was pirated, as compared to 29 percent in Japan But dollar losses in Japan (US$1.6 billion) were about 40 times higher than those in Vietnam (US$40.8 million). This difference is attributed to a much larger total PC software market in Japan than in Vietnam.
For more details about the study, please visit the BSA website: www.bsa.org/globalstudy/.
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CONTACTS:
Gerard Chong
Juliet Lim
(m) +65-9431-5111
juliet@pacific.net.sg
