凭借LinkedIn，微软成为这个领域的老大

Synergy Research上周三发布的数据显示，托去年262亿美元收购LinkedIn之福，微软巩固了自己最大订阅软件供应商的地位。

Synergy表示，二十多年前开创“软件服务”（也就是SaaS）的Salesforce仍是该领域的第二大供应商。在这个模式下，公司通过互联网传输的数据使用软件，而不是在自己的服务器上独立运行软件。去年，微软首次超过Salesforce，在该领域占据榜首。

Synergy并未发布公司的收入增长，不过分析师约翰·丁斯代尔表示，微软占有了超过15%的企业市场，而Salesforce占有了超过10%。阿多比、甲骨文和SAP的市场占有率都在5%至10%之间。

总体来看，这类软件的整体年度销售额同比增加了31%，达到150亿美元。

Salesforce和更晚进入市场的公司如Workday和SuccessFactors都采用了每个用户每月付费的模式，而早期的运营商如阿多比、微软、甲骨文和SAP不得不迅速跟进，因为消费者更喜欢这种新的软件购买（或者说租赁）方式。所以，越来越多的商业客户如今谈论的都是微软的Office 365，而不是Microsoft Office。这也是为何SAP收购了Concur和SuccessFactors，而甲骨文也收购了NetSuite、Taleo和其他一些公司，从而在这种订阅软件市场更好地站稳脚跟。

微软和Salesforce的这种趋势值得一提，因为两大软件公司长期以来都亦敌亦友：例如，他们在销售软件上展开竞争，却又在将微软Outlook整合到Salesforce产品的过程中携手合作。

然而，微软去年成功收购LinkedIn，又揭开了两家公司之间的旧伤疤。Salesforce一直在寻求并购LinkedIn，但他们的出价却被微软超过。公司的首席执行官马克·贝尼奥夫随后公开抱怨称微软-LinkedIn的组合有损公平竞争。（财富中文网）

译者：严匡正

Microsoft, aided by its $26.2 billion purchase of LinkedIn last year, has fortified its lead as the biggest provider of subscription software, according to numbers released Wednesday by Synergy Research.

Salesforce (crm), which pioneered the "Software-as-a-Service" (a.k.a. SaaS) market more than 20 years ago, remains the second largest player, Synergy said. Under the SaaS model, businesses use software that streams over the Internet rather than running it independently on their own servers. Microsoft first passed Salesforce on this list last year.

Synergy does not release revenue growth by company, but analyst John Dinsdale did say that Microsoft (msft) holds more than 15% of the total enterprise market while Salesforce accounts for more than 10%. Adobe (adbe), Oracle, and SAP each fall in the 5% to 10% range, Synergy said

In aggregate, total sales of this type of software rose 31% year over year to $15 billion.

Companies like Salesforce and more recent entries like Workday (wday) or SuccessFactors were born to this pay-per-user-per month model while older vendors like Adobe, Microsoft, Oracle, and SAP (sap) had to adapt quickly as customers embraced the new way of buying (or renting) software. Hence most business customers now talk about Office 365 from Microsoft rather than Microsoft Office. And it's also why SAP (sap) bought Concur and SuccessFactors while Oracle bought NetSuite, Taleo, and other companies to gain a stronger foothold in this subscription software market.

The Microsoft-Salesforce dynamic is worth noting because the two software powers have long been frenemies: They compete in sales software but also work together to integrate Microsoft Outlook with Salesforce products, for example.

Microsoft's successful purchase of LinkedIn last year, however, opened up old wounds. Salesforce had been pursuing LinkedIn but was outbid for it. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff subsequently complained publicly that the Microsoft-LinkedIn combination hurts competition.