Global Developers Conference opens in China: Open-source a hot topic

DeepSeek's achievements have made open-source software development a central topic at the Global Developers Conference (GDC), which opened in Shanghai on Saturday. 

According to a report presented by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) at the conference, China now ranks second globally in the number of open-source contributors.

Meanwhile, the number of high-quality open-source large models, open-source projects and open-source communities continues to grow, driving the vigorous development of the artificial intelligence industry.

MIIT data as of 2024 shows that the number of China's software developers has exceeded 9.4 million. A report by the Cloud Computing Standards and Open Source Promotion Committee under the China Communications Standards Association reveals that Chinese projects now account for 17 percent of global open-source software, ranking China second worldwide.

In a keynote speech, Harry Shum, former executive vice president of Microsoft's Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Research group, emphasized that with the open-sourcing of large Chinese models like DeepSeek, China has transitioned from being a beneficiary to a significant contributor in the global open-source community. Now serving as chairman of the council at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Shum expressed confidence that more Chinese teams will lead the way in shaping the future of open-source innovation.

This year marks the second edition of the GDC, which aims to connect participants by enabling projects to secure funding, scenarios to access services, businesses to discover markets, talent to join teams, developers to explore technologies and young individuals to find partners. The event serves as a platform to foster resource alignment and industry integration among developers, further solidifying China's role in the global tech landscape.