The scale of the world information industry reached $4245.7 billion in 2006, up 9.1% over 2005. Among all industrial segments, digital content ranked No.1 with growth rate of 40.1%; telecommunications was ranked last, with a growth rate was 6.2%; software & IT services grew faster than the communications industry with a growth rate of 6.3%.
In 2006, the global information industry witnessed clear structural change. While the electronic information product manufacturing industry still ranked No.1 in the whole industry, its ratio has decreased from 36.4% in 2005 to 35.7% in 2006. This is also the case in the telecommunications industry with its proportion to the whole industry declining from 34.6% in 2005 to 33.7% in 2006. Such a decline is due to the upsurge of the digital content industry, whose proportion to the whole industry has increased from 7.8% in 2005 to 10.0% in 2006. However, the proportion of the software & IT service industry is not large at all, remaining at about 21%. This number was 20.6% in 2006 and 21.2% in 2005.
Traditional electronic information industries, such as computer, communications, semiconductor and consumer electronics industries, have entered their maturation period gradually, all of which had seen single-digit growth in 2006 with their growth rates at 8.2%, 6.6%, 9.4% and 8.4% respectively. The software industry started to grow faster again in 2006 with one percentage point higher over 2005. Though the industry creating new types of displays started early in 1990s, it has maintained rapid growth until now. In 2006, the production value of this global industry reached $85.28 billion, up 15.2% year-on-year. The rapid popularization of broadband and gradual maturation of wireless networks have driven the fast expansion of the digital content industry, whose sales revenues increase year-on-year, reaching $424.8 billion, up 40.1% year-on-year.
The information industry has witnessed fast growth in countries all over the world. The United States was the clear overlord in terms of the market share of its information industry. In 2006, value-added size of the US information industry was $1027.7 billion, up 6.1% over 2005. The production value of the Japanese electronic information product manufacturing industry was $214.45 billion in 2006, up 6.0% over 2005 year-on-year and the sales revenue of its information service industry was $127.41 billion, up 4.2% year- on-year. The size of the information industry in the EU reached $864.17 billion, up 3.8% over the same period of the last year.
Driven by its policies including the IT839 strategy, the information industry in South Korea maintained fast growing momentum in 2006, with its total yearly industrial scale being 248.4 trillion Korean Won, up 7.5% year-on-year. The production value of Taiwan ranked No. 4 in the world, which just followed the US, Japan and Mainland China. In 2006, Taiwan's yearly sales revenue was about 3.95 trillion TWD. In 2006, the information industry in China continued to grow fast with its sales revenue at 4.75 trillion Yuan, up 23.6% year-on-year. The total national communications turnover was 1532.1 billion Yuan, up 25.6% year - on-year.
New technologies and services need urgent breakthroughs in terms of both service quality and mode.
Technical experts lay more emphasis on the overturning capability of technologies. The emergence of a new era of technology lies on the trinity of technology, product and market. In 2006, the rapid growth expected of new technologies, such as mobile video and Web2.0, had not been seen.
Constant emergence of new products and technologies.
Microsoft officially launched its next generation Windows operating system, Windows Vista Enterprise. The popularization of dual-core processors and the Intel's recent announcement concerning dual-core processors indicates that the era of the multi-core processor will soon be
here. Breakthroughs have been made for larger capacities and higher-speed storage. Products with new storage technologies, such as MRAM and FRAM, are launching one after another. Great achievements have been made with phase-change memory R & D. The $100 computer made its public debut. It is expected that this may take an active role in narrowing the digital gap across the whole world. South Korea's WiBro, the first mobile business using the WIMAX network in the world, has been officially put into operation, which opens a new chapter for the official application of WiMAX for business use.
The Power of Asia is great with the upsurge of both China and India.
In 2006, the market size of Asian-Pacific IT products increased by 8.9%, reaching $116.7 billion, accounting for 40% of the world market. The market size of IT products in China (including Hong Kong and Taiwan) accounted for 44% in the Asian-Pacific region, up 12.4% year-over-year. The proportion of India was 24%, up 23.9%. The global IT industry develops in a fairly unbalanced way. However, with the rise of some developing countries including China and India, the scale of the information industry continues to grow.
By the end of 2006, the production value of India's software industry had reached $24.5 billion, accounting for 76.5% of the production value of its total IT industry. Software export covers 20.4% of the total export value in India. India has also developed a number of software giants with world brand recognition and competitive strength, which include Tata, Infosys and Wipro, et al.
In China, the information industry has become a guiding industry, a pillar that acts as the foundation for other developing industries. From January to December of 2006, China's electronic information industry witnessed sales revenues of 4.75 trillion Yuan, up 23.6% year-on-year. Its manufacturing industry produced sales revenues of 4270 billion Yuan with an increase of 23.7% year-on-year. The software industry has seen a total income of 480 billion Yuan, up 22.9% year-on-year. The total national communications turnover was 1532.1 billion Yuan, up 25.6% over the same period of the last year, of which the total turnover of telecommunications services was 1459.21 billion Yuan, up 26.1% year-on-year. The total turnover of postal services exceeded 72.89 billion Yuan, up 16.9%.
M&As reached its unprecedented climax in 2006 across the world.
It is estimated that in 2006, the total M&As value jumped to $3.5 trillion, surpassing $3.33 trillion, which was the historical record made during the Internet bubble in 2000. Constantly changing demand stimulates the M&As in network, chip and enterprise software markets. The IT industry is the area where the fiercest fights for M&As have been seen. What is worth noting includes AT&T's acquisition of Bell South. Google spent $1.65 billion on purchasing YouTube. The France-based Alcatel merged with the US-based Lucent.
Industry Forecast
CCID Consulting predicts that the global information industry will grow by 9.5% in 2007, with its total industrial size reaching $4649.7 billion. By the year of 2011, its annual growth rate will increase to 11.9%. By then, the total industrial size will reach $7306.8 billion. In 2007, the pattern of global information industry will not change much. However, the position of digital content industry will be enhanced further. It will cover 12.7% of the total industry, which will lead to the decrease of the ratios of both the electronic information product manufacturing industry and the telecommunications industry, which will go down by 33.7% and 32.7% respectively. The ratio of the software industry will remain unchanged. By the year of 2011, the proportion and structure of the world information industry will undergo significant change. Ratios of the electronic information product manufacturing industry and the telecommunications industry are predicted to decrease while those of software and digital content industries will increase. The total developing tendency of the global information industry is that the software industry will continue to play the key role in the future.
