Text | Hua Shang Tao Luo Mu Mu
Office has dominated the world for decades, but now it has encountered a strong opponent in China that has never been seen before - Kingsoft.
In recent years, Kingsoft wps have begun to appear more and more in office scenes, and the 2021 financial report shows that the number of monthly active equipment in Kingsoft office has exceeded 544 million. But can this native-grown domestic product really compete with the hegemony of the office software industry?
In the impression of many people, Kingsoft WPS is a copycat version of Microsoft Office, in fact, the war between the two software dates back to the 80s of the last century.
In 1989, WPS 1.0 was quietly launched and soon won 90% of the domestic market share. Lei Jun, who has not yet founded Xiaomi, also took a fancy to WPS at this time and became one of the staff.
Making Kingsoft available in every computer in China is the goal of that generation of Kingsoft people.
Note: The picture is from the official website of Kingsoft
In the early 90s, Microsoft came, and the office "bloodbathed" the entire domestic office software field like a storm, poaching a large number of WPS users through bundled sales.
In the 90s, every computer in China didn't necessarily have a golden mountain, but it did have Office.
In this way, Kingsoft was silently defeated, and the next few counterattacks ended dismally, so that many young people today believe that WPS appeared in China much later than Office.
Of course, Office's victory did not only rely on sales strategy, at that time WPS still stayed in the DOS interface, the operation was indeed not convenient enough, and Microsoft's word 4.0 in terms of operation has left all the global office software far behind.
Until 1997, the undead Kingsoft began another Jedi counterattack, and a new WPS turned out. At that time, some media commented that the comeback of WPS was the most representative event of the Chinese software industry this year.
The following year, Lenovo announced the injection of capital, as if to give Jinshan a shot in the arm. After that, Kingsoft vigorously invested in the development of a new version of WPS and began to win back domestic market share step by step. In 2001, Kingsoft launched the WPS Office Suite, which directly competed with Microsoft Office.
However, this set of software has caused great controversy in China, and many people believe that this is a copycat version of Microsoft Office. Many of the software interfaces, functions and operating procedures in the WPS suite are very similar to Microsoft Office, which makes Kingsoft WPS very criticized.
In addition, many Chinese people would rather spend money on Office than use free WPS. Because Microsoft Office has a wide and strong user base in China, some enterprises, institutions, schools use Microsoft all year round, and personal purchase computers are basically pre-installed with Microsoft systems. If the two software are not fully compatible, it is more reliable to communicate with each other, circulate documents, or use Microsoft Office.
To break the deadlock, Kingsoft WPS must exert efforts from the technical and functional aspects.
Kingsoft has set its sights on new market demands such as mind maps and H5 productions, providing users with more convenient and comprehensive operations; What's even more amazing is that WPS has also achieved that the whole software is not only more functional than Microsoft Office, but also comes with a resource library to convert and synchronize files, and occupies a smaller footprint.
In addition, WPS is also "taking a different path" on mobile.
As early as 2011, Kingsoft took the lead in releasing the Android version and optimized the update at the rate of launching new versions every month. Drawing on Microsoft's experience, Kingsoft has also reached cooperation with domestic mobile phone manufacturers such as Huawei and Xiaomi to obtain new users through software pre-installation. In the following years, WPS exploded at a rate of nearly 300%.
Note: The picture is from the official website of Kingsoft
After the rise of WeChat Mini Programs, WPS has also accurately embarked on this "new trend of no installation". Microsoft only released the iOS version of Office two years after Kingsoft involved in mobile, and the Android version was delayed until 2015.
Immediately after WPS launched Linux, iOS and other multi-operating system cross-platform versions, with the increase of the domestic young generation of "fruit powder", WPS usage has also been greatly improved.
Of course, compared with the mature Microsoft office, Kingsoft WPS is still a growing software, and the current problems cannot be ignored.
Since Microsoft Office is based on Windows, the compatibility aspect is obviously better, and if the user uses the Windows system, the stability of the actual experience of Office will be better than WPS.
In some small operating functions, WPS has not yet "evolved" the "sense of premium" of Office, for example, in the PPT production, many advanced dynamic functions of Microsoft Office are still ahead of other office software.
In terms of genuine payment, although Kingsoft is more affordable, but compared with Office still lacks obvious price advantages, Microsoft genuine paid software also comes with one driver, and WPS has been a major problem that domestic users complain about is too many ads, in order to enjoy clean pages, users have to continue to add money, WPS comes with many functions also need to open rice husk members, which also makes many users dissatisfied.
In short, the two software have their own advantages, and the "fan" group also has its own opinions. There is no doubt that a domestic software can break through the middle layer of the global hegemon Microsoft's strong containment and win today's market position, which has surprised everyone. But to truly replace Office, Kingsoft still has a long way to go.
——END——
Welcome to pay attention to [Huashang Taoluo], recognize the heroes, and read the legend of Taoli.
All rights reserved, unauthorized reproduction is prohibited!
Some of the images come from the Internet
If infringement is involved, please contact to delete it