Oracles opens business conference in China
The Jakarta Post, Beijing
Oracle Corp. CEO Larry Ellison confirmed on Wednesday the company's commitment to doing business in China, saying there was a bigger risk in not investing in China than in investing in China.
"China is a fast growing country and the engine of growth for the rest of Asia. Oracle, like many other companies, is focusing on China," he said here at the opening of Oracle Open World.
The event itself, which will last until Friday, showcases the importance Oracle places on China. With over 5,000 delegates attending, including over 50 of its most strategic partners and 1,100 customers, as well as over 200 journalists from 14 countries, it is the largest conference Oracle has ever had in the Asia-Pacific region, and the first in China.
While lower labor cost are one of the driving factors behind the increasing attention on China, it is not the only reason why Oracle is investing heavily in the vast country.
"China is exciting because it does not have a technology legacy. It is going straight to the Internet, to Linux, Windows. In the U.S. for example, we have to do battle every year to try to persuade companies to move to Oracle technology," he said.
China is the fastest growing market worldwide for Oracle, and is now the third largest market after Japan and South Korea. The company has opened the Oracle China Development Center in Shenzhen and plans another one in Beijing.
In China, like everywhere else, Oracle, the world's leading supplier of software for information management, used the balanced global approach, he said.
"We don't want to just sell, we want to build together with our partners in China. It's not like we're having an American company in China; we want to have a Chinese company in China," Ellison stressed.
Earlier, Derek Williams, executive vice president Asia Pacific Region, said in his introductory speech that Oracle had had a long presence in China. Two years ago it embarked on a project to provide a Chinese version of its software.
"We also made a special exception for China and had the Oracle logo written in Chinese," said Williams.
Both Ellison and Williams, however, declined to mention the amount of money the company invested in China.
Ellison took the opportunity to deny reports of layoffs.
"Oracle has 42,000 people and if we let 200 people go, that's not a layoff," he said, referring to one press report.
"In fact, we have had remarkable margins of profit this year, about 35 percent," he said.
Oracle posted US$10.9 billion in revenues last year.