russian software developing industry and software exports

Chapter 4.
Overview of Business Environment
for Software Development in Russia
been constantly reducing in recent years. According
to Business Software Alliance (BSA), in 2008 it reached
68% and over the year dropped by 5 percent.
Software distributors think that this indicator is
already lower, because BSA takes into account the cost
of all software installed on a computer (irrespective
of how and with what applications it’s being used).
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Intellectual property rights protection improvement
within the last 2 years
46%
47%
59%
41%
62%
7% 0% 0%
Poll 2008
Poll 2009
Poll 2009 *
(exporters only)
Worsened Didn't change Improved
* – all respondents including non-exporting companies
(157 respondents total, 43 non-exporting respondents)
58%
42%
66%
34%
38%
Intellectual property rights protection improvement within
the last 2 years by companies' turnover
up to 0.5 MUSD
from 0.5 MUSD
to 4 MUSD
Didn't change
56% 57%
44% 43%
from 4 MUSD
to 20 MUSD
Improved
over 20 MUSD
In experts’ opinion, the damage measured by BSA in
monetary terms is obviously exaggerated, because
many people use open source applications instead
of using the already installed unauthorized software.
Anyway, there are still great opportunities to reduce
the level of piracy in Russia.
It remains unclear how the crisis affects the level of
piracy, but there has not been any apparent increase.
Despite the actual progress of the anti-piracy
campaign, a major part of respondents still thinks that
the situation in the field has not changed in the last
2 years. Nevertheless, this year none of the companies
said it had aggravated (against 7% last year). Most
likely, these changes are not felt by companies whose
business is not at all influenced or is still uninfluenced
by improvements in the field of intellectual property
rights protection. These improvements are more
often mentioned by companies with the turnover
more than 4 MUSD and companies mainly focused on
export rather than the domestic market.
STATE SUPPORT TO THE SECTOR
OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES
The number of companies who think that the
state support in the field of IT has strengthened in
the last 2 years has sharply decreased this year. Now
improvements are seen only by 8% of respondents
against 32% last year. Around 90% of respondents
think it remained the same.
A slightly bigger proportion of companies loyal
to the state support are recorded in Moscow and St.
Petersburg. They are closer to federal state bodies
and actually participate in the lobbying activity
of Associations of IT business, whereas regional
companies are less involved in it.
Companies with the turnover exceeding 4 MUSD
see more improvements in this area, and in the
category of companies with the turnover more than
20 MUSD positive changes related to the state support
were mentioned by 43%. This is clear because major
companies communicate with state bodies either
Intellectual property rights protection improvement within
the last 2 years by the share of export revenue in gross earnings
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
64%
up to 50%
36%
Didn't change
45%
over 51%
Improved
55%
100%
80%
60%
40%
20%
0%
State support of IT within the last 2 years
89%
66%
2%
32%
3%
8%
Poll 2008
Poll 2009
Worsened Didn't change Improved
37