However, both Chinese government policy makers and end users increasingly view IT adoption as a critical factor of China's membership in the international community. With this backing, China will experience strong growth in late 2000 and will maintain this strong growth throughout the next five years. However, IDC does expect a change in the country's IT spending patterns.
Finance represents China's largest IT industry.
As for the telecom sector, the consumer market is obviously one of the major contributing factors. IDC expects these two industries will continue to be China's largest consumers of IT products through 2004. However, their market shares will likely decrease as other industries bulk up their IT consumption. China's Internet market will also experience substantial growth through 2004. By 2004, IDC forecasts more than 33 million Internet users in the country.