| The Chinese economy continues to show high growth rates. Real GDP growth in China for 2006 was estimated at 10.5% over 2005.1 The printing industry in China is growing at a much higher rate than mature economies such as North America, Japan or Western Europe. Estimates of growth in printing revenue vary but are in the upper teens compared to the low single digits.
This growth in the China market presents significant opportunities and threats. For equipment and supplies vendors, it represents an opportunity for incremental growth and higher net revenue growth than advanced economies will offer. For print service providers in mature economies, it represents new competition and new opportunities for partnerships.
The goal of this study is to provide a comprehensive view of the China production printing market and the opportunity for digital printing technology. In addition to evaluating the current sate of the Chinese printing market, we have developed a forecast through 2010 that is consistent with our existing digital printing and industry forecasts. The goal of the study is to enable subscribers to gain a solid understanding of China’s market structure and opportunity.
We examined the full range of the production printing opportunity in China. InfoTrends definition of a production printing environment is one where there is a dedicated staff that primarily prints the work of others. This includes the commercial printing market, from small quick printers to large commercial printers. It includes digital printing specialists, copy shops, quick printers, in-plant operations and specialists such as packaging, book or forms printers.
We surveyed 388 print providers in China, all of whom were decision makers as it relates to purchasing equipment and software. Surveys were conducted at the All in Print China event held in June of 2006. In addition, we conducted several in-depth interviews with industry leaders and reviewed a wide range of secondary data. Our survey with print providers is statistically valid +/- 5% at 95% probability level.
We believe the combined research provides an objective view of the market opportunity in China. |
