In the first half of this year, the high-quality development of the software and information technology service industry has been solidly promoted, showing characteristics of stable growth, increased efficiency, and strong capabilities. From January to May, the software business revenue was 5578.8 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 11.2%; The total profit reached 672.1 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 12.8%. The revenue from information technology services was 3809.6 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 12.0%, accounting for 68.3% of the industry's total revenue. Among them, cloud computing and big data services achieved a total revenue of 585.5 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 11.2%. Currently, artificial intelligence is reshaping the software industry with unprecedented depth and breadth, bringing new growth opportunities for it. Experts predict that China's software industry is expected to continue its double-digit growth trend this year. In the first half of the year, the quality of profitability continued to improve. In the complex macroeconomic environment, China's software industry demonstrated strong development resilience and endogenous driving force, with steady growth and improved quality and efficiency. Yang Wanyun, Director of the Software Industry Research Office at the Institute of Information Technology and Software Industry of China Electronics Information Industry Development Research Institute, stated that the profitability quality of the software industry continues to improve. From January to May, the total profit growth rate was 1.6 percentage points higher than the revenue growth rate, indicating an improvement in the operational efficiency of software companies, an increase in the proportion of high value-added businesses, and optimization of business models. At the same time, the revenue of software listed companies in the first quarter increased by 5.1% year-on-year, an increase of 2.4 percentage points compared to the same period last year. The loss area narrowed significantly, by 2 billion yuan compared to the same period last year, and the quality of enterprise operation and profitability have been enhanced. From the international market perspective, in the first five months, the export value of software business reached 22.71 billion US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 3.3%, turning from negative to positive compared to the same period last year. This is mainly due to the expansion of emerging markets and the transformation of technological advantages in fields such as artificial intelligence and cloud computing into export competitiveness. From the perspective of regional development, the industrial agglomeration effect coexists with the trend of coordinated development. The eastern region remains the core of industrial development, contributing 84.2% of the country's software business revenue. The two major urban agglomerations of Beijing Tianjin Hebei and Yangtze River Delta, as sources of innovation, achieved year-on-year growth of 12.3% and 11.9% respectively, demonstrating their outstanding leading role. The position of the five key provinces and cities for software, namely Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Shandong, and Guangdong, remains stable. The software industry has a high degree of application integration, and software products have been integrated into the digitalization process of various fields of the economy and society. ”Zhao Gang, president of CIIC Industrial Research Institute, said that as of June, the Internet penetration rate had reached 79.7%, the rural Internet penetration rate had reached 69.2%, the penetration rate of digital R&D and design tools of key industrial enterprises had exceeded 84.1%, and the online traffic of mobile users had achieved double-digit growth for six consecutive months. Wei Daisen, Vice President of Inspur Group and General Manager of Inspur Digital Enterprise, stated that driven by various factors such as policy guidance, market demand upgrading, and technological iteration, the process of digital transformation of the real economy is accelerating. In the first half of the year, China's software industry relied on new generation information technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data, and the Internet of Things to drive the digital reconstruction of core business scenarios and promote the digital transformation of the real economy. Artificial intelligence is reshaping the industry, injecting new vitality and innovation into the software industry. Yang Wanyun believes that artificial intelligence drives a paradigm shift in software development to achieve cost efficiency optimization. On the one hand, the large-scale application of AI assisted development tools significantly improves research and development efficiency through intelligent code generation, testing, and debugging. On the other hand, general large models such as DeepSeek, with their relatively low calling costs and powerful foundational capabilities, have enabled the rapid popularization of expensive large model technologies in the past, allowing small and medium-sized enterprises and developers to develop and deploy AI applications at a lower threshold. Zhao Gang stated that with the continuous innovation of basic big models, industry big models, intelligent agents, embodied intelligence and other technologies, artificial intelligence technology promotes the iterative upgrading of the entire software industry chain. Accelerate innovation in artificial intelligence basic big models and industry big model algorithms. As of June 30th, a total of 439 generative artificial intelligence services have been registered in China, and 233 generative artificial intelligence applications or functions have been registered. The construction of open source system is constantly improving. DeepSeek's innovative model of soft patching hard, open source dissemination, and ecological priority has effectively stimulated the open source innovation atmosphere in the industry. Multiple technology-based enterprises have launched a batch of open source software achievements, such as Cangjie programming language, Star Ring car operating system, Wenxin big model, etc., accelerating their development. Accelerate the construction of open-source communities in fields such as artificial intelligence, humanoid robots, and autonomous driving. The open-source HarmonyOS ecosystem is accelerating its evolution. As of the end of June, there were over 1200 product types equipped with the open-source HarmonyOS operating system, with a total of over 1.19 billion units, over 25000 applications and meta services listed, and over 450 ecosystem partners. Artificial intelligence has given rise to a new blue ocean of applications and built a "second growth curve" for enterprises. Yang Wanyun introduced that AI is driving the formation of a new market. Since February, there has been a significant release of demand for intelligent transformation in key industries such as smart cities, finance, energy, and healthcare. Various AI applications based on general models such as DeepSeek have accelerated their implementation. According to statistics, the total number of winning projects related to large-scale models in China in the first half of the year has reached 1810, exceeding the total number for the whole year of 2024. AI products and services have become a new driving force for the business growth of key enterprises. For example, Tiktok Group won several industry projects in the first half of the year. 360 Group founder Zhou Hongyi stated that the most distinctive feature of the digital age can be summarized as "everything is programmable, everything needs to be interconnected, big data drives business, AI improves productivity", that is, "software defined world". This means that the public's clothing, food, housing, transportation, business operations, and government operations are all built on top of networks, software, and data, bringing unprecedented risks. In response to the new security challenges of the AI era, Zhou Hongyi proposed the idea of "molding models": "Using big models to deal with big models, launching big model guards to solve the risks of big model attacks, privacy breaches, content errors, and alleviate illusion problems." "Driven by both policy and technology, AI big models and open source models will further improve the efficiency of new product development and empower key software products to upgrade intelligently. ”Wei Daisen said. What are the reasons for the rapid growth of China's software industry for many years driven by technology innovation? Zhao Gang analyzed that software technology innovation is active, and new products are constantly updated and replaced; The competitiveness of domestic software products continues to improve, and their market share continues to expand; The integration of digital economy and real economy continues to deepen, and market demand remains strong. The three major engines of macro demand, technological innovation, and policy environment together constitute a powerful and enduring driving force system. ”Yang Wanyun said that among them, the technology engine brings innovation drive. In recent years, the triple trend of open source, cloud, and AI has provided unprecedented acceleration for innovation in the software industry. Firstly, the popularization of the open source model has become the dominant paradigm for software technology and industrial innovation, greatly reducing the threshold for innovation. China has a large group of developers, and the activity and participation of domestic open source communities continue to increase. This not only accelerates the maturity of software products, but also prompts people to gradually transform from open source users to contributors and leaders. Secondly, the comprehensive penetration of cloud computing and innovative models such as SaaS (Software as a Service) have changed the delivery and business models of software, driving the transformation of software products towards on-demand subscription and ready to use services. This not only opens up a new source of sustainable income for software companies, but also enables many small and medium-sized enterprises to enjoy advanced digital tools at lower costs, greatly expanding the breadth and depth of software applications. Finally, and currently the most highly anticipated, AI technology represented by large models is injecting new vitality into the software industry. Technological innovation is the core driving force. ”Wei Daisen stated that Chinese software companies are continuously increasing their investment in technology research and development, especially in emerging technology fields such as artificial intelligence and big data, which have made significant progress in promoting software technology innovation and upgrading, and improving the performance and quality of software products. Xie Cun, Director of the Information and Communication Development Department of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, stated that efforts will be made to further improve the quality and efficiency of software and information technology services, organize the "Artificial Intelligence+Software" campaign, and accelerate the process of software intelligence. Concentrate on building high-quality open source projects, deepen the contribution oriented evaluation of open source talents, and create a more attractive, inclusive, and creative open source ecosystem. Yang Wanyun judged that the 11.2% revenue growth in the first half of the year laid a solid foundation for the software industry for the whole year. According to the data of the National Bureau of Statistics, Internet software and information technology services in June were in a high boom range of more than 55%. The construction of Digital China is being further promoted, accelerating the intelligent transformation and digital transformation of traditional industries, and constantly releasing new market space. The accelerated implementation of AI technology represented by large models will also inject new momentum into industrial growth. Throughout the year, China's economy has maintained a clear trend of stable growth. Among various industries, the software industry is an important sector with active technological innovation, sufficient growth momentum, and stable market size. It is expected that the software industry will maintain a growth rate of over 10% throughout the year, and sub sectors such as artificial intelligence big models, cloud computing, big data, integrated circuit design, and e-commerce platform technology services will continue to maintain high growth rates. ”Zhao Gang said. (New Society)