IDG News Service - A Chinese company that offers a rival suite to Microsoft Office is following industry trends by turning its software into a Web-based service.
Evermore Software, based in the eastern Chinese city of Wuxi, has for years offered a software suite that looks very similar to Microsoft Office but costs less. Now the company sees its rivals moving online, and it is designing a Web version of its suite to compete with the likes of Google Docs and Microsoft''s upcoming Office Web apps.
"Everyone is searching for what form the online office should take, including Microsoft," Wang Yuanbing, vice president of Evermore, said in an interview.
Evermore is little-known outside China. But over 20 million users have downloaded the personal version of Evermore Integrated Office, and state-owned enterprises and government offices around China use the business version, said Rong. The suite, which runs on Windows and Linux, has some users in the U.S. and other countries but is focused on China so far, he said.