With a population of 1.3 billion, China is a red-hot market for IT products and services.

According to IDC, total IT spending in the country is projected to grow 16.4 percent to reach about US$46 billion in 2007.

PC demand, one of the key indicators of the market, continues to be healthy, with the analyst house predicting double-digit growth this year.

Bryan Ma, director of personal systems research at IDC Asia-Pacific, told ZDNet Asia in an interview: "We're looking at about 20 percent growth in terms of unit shipments, which is also ahead of the region. The China market is, of course, a very large market that is continuing to be driven by the government and education sectors, at least, historically.

"But there are a lot of other sectors like the SMB (small and midsize business) space, including other niche markets like Internet cafes that are going to continue to fuel the market," Ma noted.

Currently ranked as the world's second largest broadband market after the United States, China is expected to take the top spot as early as the end of 2007, if not 2008.

China also continues to make news headlines as one of the world's top offshore outsourcing locations, and is often pitted against India.

According to Analysys International, China's IT outsourcing market reached 1.24 billion yuan (US$164 million) in the first quarter of 2007, posting a 7 percent year-on-year growth.

Here is a quick look at China's IT profile:

Mobile phone penetration in 2006:	33.7 percent, or 443.6 million subscribers
Internet penetration in 2006:	9.7 percent, or 127.6 million users
Broadband penetration in 2006:	13 percent, or 56 million households
IT spending for 2007:	US$46,036.5 million, up 16 percent from 2006
IT market size:	China accounts for 32 percent of the Asia-Pacific regional IT market, excluding Japan
IT outsourcing:	Market reached 1.24 billion yuan (US$164 million) in first quarter of 2007, registering a 7 percent year-on-year growth. IBM, HP and Sunny-Service (Lenovo) were the top 3 players. Total market share by the top 10 ITO vendors accounted for 46.7 percent of the pie.
CRM product sales in 2007:	Market reached 79 million yuan (US$10.5 million) in the first quarter, increasing 13 percent year on year. Turbo, SAP and Oracle ranked the top 3.
Projected SMB IT spending for 2007:	US$28 billion
Projected SMB wireless spending for 2007:	US$9.5 billion
Per capita public sector IT spending in 2006:	US$3.67
PCs shipped in 2006:	16.8 million; 18.9 million projected for 2007, posting a 12 percent year-on-year growth
Notebooks shipped in 2006:	5.7 million; 8.1 million projected for 2007, posting a 43 percent year-on-year growth
x86 servers shipped in 2006:	500,000; 600,000 projected for 2007, or 18 percent year-on-year growth
Handhelds shipped in 2006:	290,000; 140,000 projected for 2007
Mobile phones shipped in 2006:	127 million; 143 million projected for 2007
Malicious activities in 2006:	China accounted for 11 percent of malicious activities worldwide, and 19 percent in the Asia-Pacific region
Projected online advertisement market in 2007:	7.6 billion yuan (US$1 billion)
Number of online gamers in 2006:	43.28 million, of which 24.58 million or 56.8 percent of the total were paying users.
Online game advertisement market in 2006:	87 million yuan (US$11.5 million); projected to reach 426 million yuan (US$56.3 million) by 2009, posting a compound average growth rate of over 60 percent from 2006 to 2009.
E-payments in 2007:	Total transaction value of third-party e-payment market reached 14.3 billion yuan (US$1.9 billion) in the first quarter. Alipay, Chinapay and Tenpay ranked top 3 in the market according to transaction value.

Source: Analysys International, Data Center of China Internet, Wikipedia, eMarketer, AMI-Partners, IDC , Springboard Research, Ministry of Information Industry; Portio Research, Symantec

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