The colonial dream of “adding a single inch of cloth to the sleeve of every Chinese” may one day have an IT equivalent for Western software developers.

I recently received a press release from next-door neighbor Dextrys, a software outsourcing outfit based in Suzhou and Boston:

“…China is still an untapped market for US software sales and cannot be ignored by US software providers as they seek new avenues of commerce. Up until this point, most Chinese businesses have never been exposed to US software.”

A lot of that, of course, has to do with the American market itself being so large for software applications the rest of the world never really mattered. Also, most American software companies couldn’t be bothered localizing their software into Chinese language, leave alone setting up the sales and distribution network to grow the business in China. Of course, that likely 90% of all software-use in China is pirated likely scares the beejeezus out of all but the largest American vendors.

The press release threw out some statistics such as:

“While 87% of Chinese companies surveyed purchased software in 2008, only 30% considered US-developed software…”

“However, 84% of respondents have a strong positive impression of US software quality…”

“79% of respondents are willing to buy software from any country other than China—including the US—as long as it meets their business needs.”

Anyway, if you’re interested in downloading the full survey, go to the Dextrys site.