Ballmer: Piracy costs Microsoft 95% of potential Chinese revenue
Found on Ars Technica on Thursday, 26 May 2011
Speaking on Wednesday at the opening of Microsoft's new Microsoft Asia-Pacific R&D Group headquarters in Beijing, Microsoft CEO said that the company earned revenue in China amounting to only five percent of that earned in the US, in spite of comparable sales of personal computers between the two countries. The reason for the difference? Piracy, unsurprisingly.
Assuming it would be possible to make piracy impossible, China would simply push their companies to alternatives like Red Flag Linux. Microsoft's market dominance exists because of piracy.