Software that aims to win user hearts

In the Windows personal computer office-software and apps market, Microsoft Office remains the world's best, said Zhang Qingyuan, chief operating officer of Beijing Kingsoft Office Software Inc, which is known for its WPS Office suite.

The acknowledgement of MS-Office as the leader of the pack is Zhang's way of staying humble and aspiring to be a giant-killer one day.

Founded in 1988, Kingsoft Office launched the first edition of WPS Office suite in the same year. It was China's first domestically developed office software. After weathering the most difficult time in the late 1990s and early 2000s due to the competition from Microsoft Office and pirated software, Kingsoft Office reached a turning point in 2011 when it shifted its focus to mobile devices.

As of March 2019, the company gathered more than 328 million monthly active users, who accounted for nearly half of China's office-software users. Its sales revenue surged from 541 million yuan ($77.7 million) in 2016 to more than 1.1 billion yuan in 2018. The company's headcount has reached nearly 2,000, the majority 70 percent of whom specialize in product research and development.

The rapid growth may be attributable to its paths: adapting its Office suite to the Mac and the Linux operating systems, and more importantly, designing Office software for mobile devices.

"It makes no sense to confront and compete directly with Microsoft Office," said Zhang.

The tactics have worked well for its overseas reach. Ever since Kingsoft Office adopted the "all-in mobile" strategy in 2011, WPS Office has won more than 187 million mobile monthly active users worldwide as of March 2019, which is 41.7 percent higher than the number of monthly active users at the PC end.

The mobile version of its Office software is distributed via Google Play app store in over 220 countries and regions. In 2018, mobile data and analytics service provider App Annie chose WPS for the "2018 Top App for Overseas Growth" award.

To date, about 25.8 percent of the monthly active users of WPS are in overseas markets. Users from emerging markets such as India, Indonesia, Russia and Brazil show special preference for Kingsoft's software products. In fact, more than half of its overseas users are from these markets.

On the one hand, the reach in some of these markets is in accordance with the country's Belt and Road Initiative, explained Zhang. On the other, WPS products and the brand name are better accepted by users in emerging markets, especially India and Indonesia, which are seeing their internet market expand rapidly, he said.

But it does not mean that WPS has totally steered clear of the more mature markets in the United States and Europe. To differentiate itself from Microsoft Office, WPS has focused on the Office suite designed for Mac, subscription services such as PDF toolkit and template services, and other value-added services.

"The success in the Chinese market over the past few years has prepared us financially to explore the overseas markets. The strong economic base has become our competitive edge so that we can take our time to realize our goals. We will not confront our competitors directly or wage any price war. We only want to win the hearts of consumers with our products," he said.

To be sure, there are differences regarding the user habits in different regions. While China has leapfrogged the development of mobile internet over the past few years, users in the Western markets are still using the functions which are prevalent in the PC age. Therefore, such functions are added to products launched in some of the overseas markets but cannot be found in the Chinese version.

Such subtle variations were not provided from day one. "We thought introducing our products to overseas was just a snap. We thought we could hire a translation company and make different language versions and that's it. But soon we found that our understanding was totally wrong. The cultural differences and complexity in each market mean that you cannot just leave a translated version of your software on the official website and go," said Zhang.

"International companies in a real sense have invested a lot of time and resources to explore markets one by one. It is also one of the reasons that we have started with markets with easier access."

In this sense, help from Google was indispensable. WPS took small steps in the overseas markets as its mobile versions of its Office applications were available on the Google Play app store.

"We are much stronger in product development than in management, especially lacking management experience in overseas markets. The Google team works as a mentor to us, solving problems regarding our software per se and building the ecosystem. Many detailed things such as commercialization and subscription are all explained by them."

Thirty-one years after its founding, Kingsoft Office successfully listed on the technology-focused STAR Market of the Shanghai Stock Exchange on Nov 18. For Zhang, the company's ultimate goal should be to grow into a truly international company with world-class products.

"We don't have a specific timeline for it. We can spend another 30 years to realize that goal," he said.