China is one of the major
competitor of Indian call center industry. China has several advantages
over India and has a strong base to become a major hub for call centers
in the coming years.
The competition between two old rivals, China and India, is sparking up
as both countries become prime destinations for a substantial number of
well-paid IT jobs. Many multinationals, especially U.S. corporations,
plan to move operations overseas to slash costs.
The major strengths of China in the global outsourcing
markets are :
- Manufacturing - China's emergence as a global
manufacturing hub is one of the major factor drawing foreign
software developers.
- Information Technology - Its IT market is the
strongest in the world.
The main advantages of China are as follows:
- Lower Manpower costs: The Chinese workers cost
about 15 percent less than equally qualified Indians.
- Infrastructure: China has more comprehensive
and reliable infrastructure.
- Japan Advantage: China is likely to grow
through the Japanese outsourcing route. India currently offers
almost no BPO services in Japan.
- Extremely low cost real estate and power: These
costs are lower than in India. This can be a very attractive to the
US companies, which are looking for cost cutting due to the
downturn.
- Proactive Govt.: The govt. is very friendly to
this sector and has taken several steps like english teaching and
other skill sets.
Apart from all these advantages China also has certain
disadvantages :
- Lack of a good Quality record in Software:
India has a better image as a quality supplier
- Low English speaking population: It has a very
small proportion of the population speaking fluent English.
- Less mature: China has only recently entered
into BPO. As such, despite lower billing rates, total project costs
in China would turn out be higher because of the higher overheads
incurred.
China is on the process of overcoming these drawbacks to beat India
to become a major destination of call centers. Chinese government is
strongly supporting the call center industry and is on toes to compete
with India. China in turn has become a major challenge and the largest
threat for Indian call center industry which needs to be overcome in
order to maintain its supremacy.
