The 24th China International Software Expo was held at the Hangzhou Whitehorse Lake International Exhibition Center in Hangzhou, capital of East China's Zhejiang province, from Nov 12 to 18. It was the first time Zhejiang has hosted the expo.

Zhejiang's software industry has seen rapid development over the past few years. The industry's total operating revenue rose from 303.7 billion yuan ($459.8 billion) in 2015 to 611 billion yuan in 2019, with an average annual growth rate of over 19 percent, the highest among all provinces and municipalities in East China.

The industry's exports were valued at $1.47 billion in 2019, up 8.7 percent year on year.

In addition, a total of 485,000 people worked in the industry in 2019, up 19.3 percent year on year. Their total annual wages surged 25.6 percent to 107.89 billion yuan in 2019.

The numbers of Zhejiang-based software enterprises that earned more than 100 million yuan, 1 billion yuan, and 10 billion yuan in 2019 were 399, 47, and eight, respectively. The top 20 companies made up 53.6 percent of the industry's total provincial operating revenue and 83.2 percent of total provincial profits. Nine Zhejiang-based software companies ranked among China's top 100 in terms of comprehensive competitiveness in software and information technology services.

Furthermore, Zhejiang's technological innovation index was the third highest among Chinese provinces, according to the 2019 Comprehensive Development Index Report on China's Software and Information Technology Services, which was released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.