According to the result of the 2018 Global Software Survey released by the Business Software Alliance (BSA), the global piracy rate of PC software has declined, and the piracy rate has decreased by 2% to 37%, as compared with 2016. Among them, China's PC software piracy rate dropped the most.

According to the report, between 2014 and 2016, the piracy rate in China fell by 4%. This year, the piracy rate has again dropped by 4%. China’s unlicensed software usage has fallen by 8 percentage points in four years, making it the most visible improvement in this global survey.

BSA claims that this decline shows China's progress in intellectual property protection. The decline in the use rate of unlicensed software, on the other hand, is also due to the positive changes in consumer perceptions and behaviors promoted by the gradual popularization of cloud computing technology and cloud-based subscription-based software payment models in enterprises as well as the increase in the numbers of free software.