According to data from Qingdao Municipal Bureau of Industry and Information Technology, in 2023, Qingdao was home to more than 2,000 enterprises included by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology for statistics, Qingdao’s software business revenue topped the RMB 400 bln mark for the first time, amounted to RMB 447.22 bln, a year-on-year increase of 14.3%. In 2023, Qingdao’s software business revenue accounted for 31.9% of the province’s total. Qingdao’s growth rate outperformed average rates in the country and sub-provincial cities by 0.9 and 3.1 percentage points, respectively, and Qingdao ranked 6th and 7th among all sub-provincial cities in terms of growth and market size, respectively.

In 2023, Qingdao was home to four enterprises, the most in Shandong Province, namely Haier, Hisense, Aucma and Kengic, which ranked among the top 100 Chinese competitive software and information technology service providers, and the four enterprises contributed more than one third of the total software business revenue in Shandong Province. Haier made the list for a seventh consecutive time while it was the eighth consecutive time for Hisense, highlighting the solid strength of leading enterprises in Qingdao. Aucma and Kengic elbowed their way into the list for the first time, showing that emerging companies in Qingdao are gaining momentum.