China has become the second-largest economy and third-largest IT market in the world since 2012. IT spending per capita in China is still less than five percent of that in the U.S. CIOs in China need to focus on retaining and winning customers. It requires more than just technology to attain success in the age of the customer. It hinges on organisations shifting cultures, organisational structures and mindsets to win in this era. Forrester Research Inc recently published its China Tech Outlook report for 2014.
Top Five Predictions – China Tech Outlook 2014
- Technology spend slows down in China and local vendors will gain share – Forrester estimates that China’s enterprise IT purchases will grow by 6 percent in 2013 to RMB 698 billion nad a further eight percent in 2014 to RMB 752 billion. Local brands such as Huawei, Inspur and Lenovo will likely benefit from the NSA/Snowden issue. They will gain share mostly in the hardware space, including server, storage, and networking.
- China will become the world’s largest eCommerce market – Online buyers in China will reach 356 million in 2014, surpassing the entire population in U.S. The online retail market will continue to grow to US$604billion in 2017.
- Smarphones become life hubs for Chinese consumers – The Smartphone will begin to resemble a ‘life hub’ that connects people’s lives in China. An estimated 48% of all Chinese mobile phone subscribers will own smartphones in 2014 growing to 64% in 2017.
- Customer Experience is priority – Customer experience will become a hot topic for CIOs in the hypercompetitive Chinese market.
- Big data and analytics will gain popularity, but few IT organisations will meet business demands – Customer engagement will drive BI, big data, and analytics investments in China in 2014 especially in the banking/finance and retail sector.
