Promoting High-Quality Development of the Industrial Chain · Venture Capital Record | UnionTech Software: China’s Pioneering Operating System Developer, Offering a Better Choice to the World
In recent years, digital technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), advanced computing, digital twins, blockchain, and the metaverse have been driving a new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation. Globally, the shift from an industrial economy to a digital economy has accelerated, and the digital economy is becoming a key force in reorganizing global factor resources, reshaping the global economic structure, and changing the global competitive landscape.
As the scale of China’s digital economy continues to expand, various sectors are increasingly dependent on information technology (IT) hardware and software. To achieve independent and controllable core technologies, the country has proposed vigorously developing the IT Application Innovation (ITAI) industry. In essence, the ITAI industry is a software and IT industry; as a vital component of modern technology, it is crucial for achieving self-reliance and self-improvement in science and technology. The report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China emphasized: "Accelerate the development of the digital economy, promote in-depth integration of the digital economy and the real economy, and build internationally competitive digital industrial clusters."
In 1999, Xu Guanhua, then Minister of Science and Technology, pointed out that "China’s IT industry lacks ‘cores’ and ‘souls’" – where "cores" refer to chips, and "souls" are a critical part of basic software: operating systems. This "lack of cores and souls" has been a long-standing pain point for China’s IT industry and also marked the beginning of the embryonic stage of China’s ITAI industry.
An operating system serves as the link connecting the hardware and software resources of a computer system. Over the past few decades, China’s domestic operating system market has long been monopolized by foreign manufacturers: software launched by Internet giants such as Microsoft, Apple, and Google (all from the United States) has occupied over 95% of the market share, while domestic manufacturers have remained in the stage of exploration and catching up for a long time. Being dependent on others for operating systems not only means surrendering a market worth tens of billions of yuan to foreign companies, but also poses hidden risks to national cyber information security – as the inability to access source codes leaves room for potential "backdoors" in operating systems.
"National information security must rely on domestic operating systems, and someone has to take on this responsibility." Driven by this original aspiration, UnionTech Software – with nearly 20 years of experience in operating system technology – stepped up to the challenge. UnionTech Software Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "UnionTech") was jointly established in 2019 by leading domestic operating system vendors, with its headquarters located in Beijing Economic and Technological Development Zone. Its predecessor, Wuhan Deepin Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Deepin Technology"), had its core R&D team release the first Chinese Linux-based community operating system as early as 2004. In 2019, Deepin OS entered the TOP 10 global Linux distributions – becoming the first and only domestic operating system to make it into the international top 10. To date, Deepin OS has undergone over 200 updates, now supporting 34 languages, with more than 3 million global community users and a total download volume of 80 million times. The Deepin Desktop Environment (deepin DDE) and a large number of self-developed applications have been ported to more than 10 international Linux distributions and communities, including Fedora, Ubuntu, and Arch, with growing activity.
UnionTech focuses on the R&D and services of Chinese operating systems, committed to developing secure, stable, intelligent, and user-friendly Chinese operating system products. It has initially formed a product system of "operating system products + value-added products + solutions," which can meet the broad needs of different users and application scenarios for operating system products and solutions.
Currently, the installation volume of UnionTech UOS (the company’s domestic platform) has exceeded 6 million units. Approximately 70% of Party and government agencies, 80% of central state-owned enterprises, 65% of central ministries, 90% of financial institutions, and 90% of educational institutions in China run their general and core business systems on UnionTech UOS. According to statistics from third-party institutions, UnionTech UOS has maintained the No. 1 market share in the desktop segment and ranks first in growth rate in the server segment.
Since its establishment, UnionTech has always aligned its development with the national strategy of self-reliance and self-improvement in science and technology. It drives development through innovation, continuously increases R&D investment (with R&D personnel accounting for 60% of its workforce, and R&D intensity ranking among the top in the industry), and strives to win the battle for key core technologies. As a pioneering enterprise in China’s operating system sector, UnionTech has achieved a series of "firsts" and "innovations" in China: it developed China’s first self-developed desktop environment (DDE); became the first to support all domestic CPU architectures with homogeneous and heterogeneous compatibility; pioneered the global "layered and classified" theory for operating systems; and proposed China’s first software governance system based on the "Linglong Package Format." It has developed 100 self-innovated products and applications, filed 803 patents (with 309 authorized), registered 280 software copyrights, and led or participated in drafting 36 national, industrial, and alliance technical standards.
Liu Wenhuan, General Manager of UnionTech, pointed out: "China’s IT industry has experienced multiple waves of localization. From 2000 to 2010, there were repeated efforts to promote localization. It is clear that ecological win-win is the optimal path for the stable and long-term development of localization. The success of the domestic ecosystem ultimately determines the success of localization efforts, and its importance is self-evident." Therefore, since its establishment, UnionTech has actively promoted the construction of a hardware and software ecosystem centered on UnionTech UOS. It not only regards ecosystem construction as a company-level strategic goal but also collaborates with upstream and downstream partners to build China’s largest operating system ecosystem. UnionTech has established three adaptation centers in Beijing, Wuhan, and Guangzhou, built ecological development bases in six major regions across the country, jointly established nearly 30 joint ecological centers with ecological partners, and set up more than 40 joint laboratories.
On July 25, 2022, UnionTech announced that the number of its ecosystem adaptations had exceeded 500,000 – making it the first domestic operating system vendor to reach this milestone. By the end of the same year, at the 2022 UnionTech UOS Ecosystem Conference, the company announced that the number of ecosystem adaptations had surpassed the critical 1 million mark. In September 2023, the number of hardware and software adaptations for UnionTech UOS exceeded 3 million – a first for any Chinese operating system, and a scale that has become globally competitive.
Building an operating system ecosystem requires not only quantity but also quality. Therefore, UnionTech has focused on two aspects: the construction of a standard system and breakthroughs in specific fields.
Standard system construction includes: the UnionTech UOS Standardized Hardware Ecosystem Construction Plan (UHQL), the UOS Proactive Security Protection Plan (UAPP), the ITAI Secure Application Development Guide and USKI, and the Linglong Package Format Standard initiated by UOS.
Breakthroughs in specific fields include: the establishment of a joint R&D platform for peripheral devices, a product ecosystem specifically built for localization replacement, a targeted R&D plan for the X86 hardware ecosystem, and Deepin Community – China’s first root community for desktop operating systems.
The digital economy, new infrastructure, and localization efforts have brought more space and opportunities to domestic operating systems. In practice, the replacement process of domestic operating systems has moved from the stage of "local pilots in key links, non-core businesses, and partial markets" to the stage of "comprehensive coverage across multiple links, core businesses, and multiple industries." In eight key sectors – including Party and government, national defense, finance, telecommunications, and electric power – domestic CPU + domestic operating systems are fully capable of handling daily office tasks. An independent and innovative product ecosystem has initially taken shape, basically possessing the ability to replace the Windows + Intel system. It can be said that domestic operating systems have, to a certain extent, achieved replacement of Windows, completed the pioneering stage from 0 to 1, and now embarked on a journey from 1 to infinite possibilities.
Breakthroughs in core technologies cannot be achieved overnight. From the perspective of computer technology development, domestic operating systems must move forward steadily, step by step. At the end of 2020, Nanjing Innovation Investment Group and Nanjing Software Valley Technology Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development Co., Ltd. jointly established Nanjing Chuangyi Software Valley Consulting Management Partnership (Limited Partnership), investing over 100 million yuan in UnionTech’s Series A financing. This support helped UnionTech establish an R&D center in Nanjing, integrate into the vigorous development of Nanjing’s software industry, and boost the company’s innovative development. A relevant person in charge of the First Investment Department of Nanjing Innovation Investment Group stated: "Currently, Microsoft’s Windows system still maintains an absolute leading position in China’s operating system market, but its market share has gradually decreased. The market share of domestic operating systems has been steadily and rapidly increasing – jumping from 0.4% in 2018 to nearly 5%. UnionTech UOS Desktop Edition has been widely applied in key fields such as Party and government, national defense, finance, telecommunications, transportation, energy, and education; it has penetrated into industry applications and is gradually advancing toward marketization. Nanjing Innovation Investment Group uses equity investment funds to focus on strengthening and supplementing the chains of key industries, giving full play to the driving and leading role of venture capital in the industrial chain, and providing strong support for the in-depth integration of capital and technological innovation."
Looking ahead, under the guidance of the strategy of "Empowering thousands of industries on the B-end and entering thousands of households on the C-end," UnionTech will more firmly join hands with ecological partners to launch a comprehensive drive into fields such as desktops, servers, cloud natives, and intelligent terminals, leading the promotion of application and innovation iteration of China’s operating systems.
Source: Cao Rui, First Investment Department
Review: Xue Yao
Release: You Yi
