Gus Tsao had waited for 13 years to settle an account with Bill Gates, co-founder of the dominating US software powerhouse Microsoft.
At the just-concluded DEMO 2004, a two-day showcase of the world's latest IT innovations and products, Tsao, CEO of China's leading software developer Evermore Software LLC., stole the show by declaring a daring challenge to Microsoft monopoly with his innovative Evermore Integrated Office (EIOffice) software suite.
"Everyone thinks I'm crazy to take on Microsoft, but China is not going to pay Microsoft forever with their prices," Tsao announced during the demonstration of the Evermore Integrated Office suite to about 600 IT leaders, engineers and venture capitalists, who applauded in support.
Thumb-up from Microsoft
The 60-year-old Chinese American is not the kind who thirsts for fame, rather he is a man that means business.
"I do not come here to seek fame, I just want to show that I can do better than Microsoft, regardless of its dominance and arrogance," Tsao told Xinhua at the conclusion of the DEMO conference held in Scottsdale, Arizona.
The release of the English-language version of EIOffice, the world's first integrated office software, was well received by both the host and participants at the DEMO conference.
"It's a very elegant piece of software. Can this company no one has ever heard of be a competitor to Microsoft? My answer is yes," noted hostess Chris Shipley, executive producer of the DEMO conference, sponsored by leading US IT research and marketing company International Data Group.
In an interview with Xinhua, Shipley said she began using EIOffice weeks before the DEMO conference and found it compatible with all the operating systems and formats, and "is very convenient to use."
The EIOffice software has fixed the shortcomings of Microsoft Office, by combining different office applications into one singleinterface, thus increasing productivity through streamlined work.
Dan Gilmore, a famous IT analyst and columnist for San Jose Mercury News, wrote that EIOffice "struck me as more advanced in some ways than the Microsoft product ... Overall, the product looks slick and capable of handling serious chores."
Tsao was more surprised Monday when Steve Sinofsky, senior vicepresident of Microsoft's Unit of Office, came right to him to givehim a thumb-up sign after Tsao's on-stage demonstration.
Sinofsky later also sent an email to Tsao to congratulate him on achieving "such fine level of innovation and integration" with the EIOffice software suite.
A long bumpy road
With the participation of Evermore as the first Chinese enterprise, Shipley believed that this year's conference had refuted some preconceptions about China and the IT industry. DEMO executes a high-standard screening policy in selecting about 60 demonstrators from more than 300 applicants worldwide.
"It's very important for us to recognize that the technology market is a global market, and China is a huge player in that market, not just a consumer products producer but also an innovator itself," Shipley told Xinhua.
But for Tsao, a US-educated physicist who later joined the software industry in the 1980s, he has traversed a bumpy road before he got a real chance in early 2000 to realize his dream of building a Chinese software empire in the world's most populous country with the fastest growing economy.
Tsao established his first company the Daybreak Technologies Inc. which made a spreadsheet program called Silk in the late 1980s. Lack of financial support and marketing expertise rather than the software's flaws led to the company's bankruptcy in 1988.
Tsao returned to China in 1999 with an aim to help the rapidly growing economy build a software industry. Swung by his persuasion,the government of Wuxi in South China agreed to set up Evermore Software LLC. by contributing 2.7 million US dollars.
Competing in home game
The 4-year-old Evermore is now 200-strong and continues to expand under the leadership of Tsao, who envisions that it will eventually grow to be China's Microsoft with at least 4,000 software engineers and a big team of marketing people.
"It's not an illusion to beat Microsoft," declared Tsao.
With what? "It's of course impossible to compete with Microsoftin terms of mind power and finance, but I'm in China, where I can compete with it in a home game," he said.
Actually, Tsao's confidence about the race with Microsoft comesfrom the strong backing of the Chinese government and the huge growing software market in China.
He said China, aspiring to build its own software industry, well understands the strategic importance of developing its own software industry so as to get rid of the Microsoft monopoly.
"Indeed, Evermore should not have been so successful without the government's backing," he told Xinhua.
The release of EIOffice is the first step in a long march to compete with Microsoft, Tsao said, indicating that he is able to deliver more innovations in areas other than the office software.
Already, Tsao has won his early victory in his challenge to Gates' Microsoft. Interestingly, a poll conducted at the DEMO conference found that at least 43 percent of the participants believed that Microsoft could be unseated from its dominating place in the office software.
(Xinhua News Agency February 21, 2004)
