21) How much do China and India have in Common?

The reason many see ‘China versus India’ based titles so frequently in software outsourcing headlines is because readers from both nations enjoy examining the clash. This topic has become especially popular because both countries have done a lot of business in countries such as the U.S. and Europe.

In fact, China and India have little in common. Their people do not resemble each other, they have quite different food habits, they speak different languages, and they do not share a common religion except that both countries have a significant Muslim population.

China now has the world's second largest Internet market. In some places like Beijing and Shanghai, it is much easier to install broadband than in many parts of the United States. Furthermore, for a country like India that makes such a big deal out of its software industry, its connectivity is relatively poor.

What China has always showed is that when it concentrates its resources (especially financial) there is not much able to stop it from reaching its goal. It took China a decade or so to build a world-class telecom infrastructure but now it has one. It will have a world-class software industry as long as it wants. And when it comes to outsourcing, China enjoys their competitive edge over India in price.

In short, the two countries have little in common to be compared with eachother.

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