TMTPOST -- The surge in artificial intelligence adoption and a growing wave of Chinese companies expanding abroad are accelerating the globalization of China's software industry.

At a recent media briefing, Kingsoft Office CEO Zhang Qingyuan reaffirmed that international expansion remains a core strategy for the company, adding that it plans to continue investing heavily in overseas markets.

Chinese software companies have been venturing overseas for years — from IT players like UFIDA and Huawei, which followed infrastructure projects abroad, to mobile-first software companies such as CamScanner, Wondershare Technology, and Kingsoft Office, which leveraged the early global boom in mobile internet.

Now, the AI era is reshaping industry dynamics. According to Sensor Tower, global in-app purchase revenue for productivity software is expected to rise 43% in 2024, outpacing other non-gaming app categories such as video and photo apps (33%), entertainment (29%), and utilities (26%).

The boom is being driven by both new AI-native applications, like ChatGPT and DeepSeek, and traditional office suites like Microsoft Word and WPS, which are rapidly integrating AI functionality to boost user productivity.

As AI adoption shifts from model development to application-level deployment, software-as-a-service (SaaS) products in the productivity space are emerging as mainstream AI use cases worldwide.

In Southeast Asia, where AI penetration leads globally, AI-powered text editing apps rank second in downloads, just behind AI-enhanced image editing tools.

He Xiang, head of Kingsoft Office's international business, said document refinement is one of the most popular AI features in the overseas version of WPS Office. The company has tailored its offerings to recognize nuances between different forms of English, such as American and British usage, helping users create more culturally appropriate and error-free documents.

AI-driven translation has also become a critical battleground. Since expanding internationally in 2007, Kingsoft Office found that many languages were underserved by traditional translation tools. For example, Arabic documents require right-aligned formatting, a feature poorly handled by standard translation engines.

To address this, Kingsoft launched the WPS Overseas AI Translation project, which developed AI-powered translation technologies capable of maintaining original formatting across over 32 languages, up from a dozen previously.

"Focusing on user scenarios and deeply localizing AI functions is key to succeeding overseas," said Zhang. He emphasized that for users, ease of use trumps whether the solution is based on large AI models or traditional software methods.

Kingsoft Office adopted a paid subscription model when it formally expanded abroad in 2018, riding the wave of the mobile internet boom. WPS Office was pre-installed on Huawei, OPPO, Vivo, and Xiaomi smartphones, helping it build a global user base without heavy advertising costs.

By the end of 2024, Kingsoft Office's overseas monthly active devices exceeded 200 million.

Despite this growth, overseas revenue remains modest — about 218 million yuan in 2024, or 4.25% of total revenue — indicating significant future potential.

Kingsoft's near-term goal is expanding user coverage and entering the PC and enterprise markets, particularly in regions where Chinese firms are already active, such as Saudi Arabia, Oman, and Serbia.

He Xiang revealed that in addition to serving Chinese enterprises overseas, the ultimate ambition is to win enterprise clients among local companies in global markets.

For Chinese software players like Kingsoft Office, competing with Western giants like Microsoft is inevitable. Microsoft maintains near-total dominance in global office software, controlling about 90% of the market for documents, spreadsheets, and presentations, according to Researchandmarkets.com.

However, interoperability challenges between Microsoft, Adobe, and Google products create openings for competitors. Kingsoft Office is banking on WPS Office's superior compatibility to gain a foothold among enterprise clients, particularly in Southeast Asia, where it has built a distributor network in countries like Malaysia.

Facing strict compliance and data security requirements in markets such as Japan and Hong Kong, Kingsoft has strengthened its local legal and compliance efforts, and forged partnerships with cloud providers like Huawei Cloud and AWS to win customers including EDF and Airbus.

While recent U.S.-China trade tensions have cast a shadow over some overseas expansion plans, Zhang believes WPS Office's competition with Microsoft will primarily unfold outside the U.S. and China. He remains optimistic about growth opportunities across other global markets.

According to Statista, the global office software market could reach $33.09 billion by 2029, with markets outside of China and the U.S. representing roughly $14 billion — a major growth avenue for emerging challengers like Kingsoft Office.

Other Chinese players are also making moves. DingTalk recently launched in Hong Kong with its global solution suite, while Feishu's international version, Lark, is expanding in Japan.

With momentum building and AI integration accelerating, Kingsoft Office may soon emerge as a serious contender in the global office software landscape.