(Yicai Global) Jan. 6 -- The ban levied by the US government yesterday against Kingsoft Office Software’s Writer, Presentation and Spreadsheets office suite will not have a substantial impact on the firm in the short term, the Chinese software developer told Yicai Global today.

Most of the 130 million overseas users of the Beijing-based company’s WPS products are non-fee paying and it only has a small amount of advertising business there, Kingsoft said. The firm will continue to review the possible consequences of the executive order and will issue further announcements in due course.

Eight Chinese software applications were the target of the Trump administration’s latest sanctions against Chinese companies over national security concerns. US businesses and individuals will in 45-days’ time be blocked from making transactions with Ant’s mobile payment app Alipay, Tencent Holding’s digital wallets WeChat Pay and QQ Wallet, its social messaging platform QQ, as well as image scanner CamScanner, cross-platform video, music and file sharing app SHAREit, multimedia app VMate and WPS Office.

Kingsoft has been developing its own office software technology code independently for more than 30 years and does not depend on external open source platforms or need authorization from US companies, the company said.

WPS Office is one of China’s most popular office suites. It is used by two thirds of government offices and counts the country’s five major state-owned commercial banks and 11 of China’s 12 joint-stock commercial banks as clients. There were over 300 million monthly active users of Kingsoft products at the end of 2019.

The Beijing-based firm’s net profit almost tripled in the first three quarters last year from the same period last year to CNY595 million (USD92.2 million). Revenue was up 44.25 percent to CNY1.5 billion (USD232 million).

Kingsoft’s stock price [SHA:688111] sank 2.34 percent today to close at CNY397.96 (USD61.65).

Editor: Kim Taylor