China’s Software Sector Grows Steadily in First Two Months

China’s software and information technology services industry maintained a steady growth momentum in the first two months of 2026, with robust increases in business revenue, profits and exports, data released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) on March 31 showed, reported CCTV News.

According to the MIIT data, the industry’s business revenue reached 2.1534 trillion yuan in the January-February period, representing an 11.7% year-on-year increase. Meanwhile, total profits of the software industry stood at 269.3 billion yuan, up 7.3% year-on-year, and software business exports rose by 12.7% year-on-year to 10.38 billion US dollars.

“The software sector has shown strong resilience and vitality in the early part of the year, with all key indicators maintaining positive growth, laying a solid foundation for the industry’s high-quality development throughout the year,” said Zhang Wei, an industry analyst from the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, in an interview with the reporter.

Software product revenue grew steadily during the period. With an income of 472.7 billion yuan, it increased by 7.8% year-on-year, accounting for 21.9% of the industry’s total revenue. Among them, basic software product revenue rose by 8.1% year-on-year, while industrial software product revenue grew by 9.4% year-on-year, reflecting the continuous optimization of the software product structure.

Information technology services revenue maintained a double-digit growth, becoming the main driving force for the industry’s development. In the first two months, its revenue hit 1.4474 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 13.1%, accounting for 67.2% of the total industry revenue.

Broken down by segment, cloud computing and big data services achieved a combined revenue of 280.9 billion yuan, up 11.4% year-on-year; integrated circuit design revenue increased by 15.7% year-on-year; and e-commerce platform technology services revenue grew by 10.5% year-on-year, showing a balanced development of various sub-sectors.

In addition, information security products and services revenue increased by 6.2% year-on-year, while embedded system software revenue rose by 12.3% year-on-year, both maintaining steady growth momentum and effectively supporting the safe and stable operation of the digital economy.

Zhang Wei added that the steady growth of the software sector is closely linked to the continuous advancement of digital transformation across various industries, as well as the strong policy support from the government. The remarkable growth in key sub-sectors such as industrial software and integrated circuit design also indicates the industry’s continuous enhancement in core competitiveness.