The Microsoft CEO was in Beijing for the opening of a Microsoft R&D facility. He used the occasion to complain that Microsoft is seeing only about 5% of the revenues it should be getting from software sales there. China generates about $2 billion in revenue to Microsoft. The US brings in $36 billion, even though sales of PCs are about the same in both countries. Even the Netherlands, with 17 million citizens, brings in more cash than China. The Chinese government has grumbled in the past about Microsoft software costing too much and that’s why so many Chinese people grab pirated copies. But Ballmer says if you can afford a PC, you can afford software.
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