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Fujian Foxit Software Development Joint Stock Co., Ltd. (Chinese: 福建福昕软件开发股份有限公司), also known as Foxit Software (Chinese: 福昕软件),[2] is a software developer based in Fuzhou, China, with subsidiaries in the United States, Europe, Japan, and Australia,[1][3][4] that develops Portable Document Format (PDF) software and tools used to create, edit, eSign, and secure files and digital documents.[5] It also has other offices in Fuzhou, Beijing, Berlin, South Yarra (Melbourne),[6][7] Japan, Taiwan, Korea, France,[8] North Macedonia, and Slovakia.
 | |
Native name | 福建福昕软件开发股份有限公司 |
|---|---|
| Company type | Public |
| SSE: 688095 | |
| Industry | Software |
| Founded | 2001 |
| Founder | Eugene Y. Xiong |
| Headquarters | Fuzhou, China |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people | Eugene Y. Xiong (Chairman and Founder), George Z Gao (CEO), Jeremy Wei (CTO) |
| Products | PDF software (Foxit Reader) and development kits |
| Owner | Eugene Y. Xiong (38.48%)[1] |
Number of employees | Over 650 worldwide |
| Subsidiaries |
|
| Website | www |
As of 2016, there were about 425 million Foxit users of Foxit's software, with sales to more than 100,000 customers in 200 countries.[9][10]
Foxit Software was named "#2 Best PDF Editor Software of 2022" by ComHQ.[11]
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Foxit Software was founded in 2001[7] by Eugene Y. Xiong (Chinese: 熊雨前), a Chinese national with permanent residence in the United States,[4] to develop similar PDF software products to those from Adobe Systems and other PDF vendors, and offer them at lower prices.[12] In 2009, Foxit Software Company incorporated as Foxit Corporation.[7]
In December 2015, Foxit went public on the Chinese over-the-counter market NEEQ.[13] Before 2019, Amazon was an early investor and substantial shareholder of Foxit, once owning 12.38％ of the latter's shares, before divesting in 2019 to make Foxit eligible for a simplified IPO process for domestic companies in China.[14]
In June 2020, Foxit Software received permission to list in the Shanghai Stock Exchange STAR Market (the Sci-Tech Innovation Board).[15] According to Foxit's pre-IPO disclosures, it seeks to raise RMB 409 million (approximately USD 49 million).[15]
As a technology company, Foxit is eligible to receive a reduced tax rate of 15% in China.[4] It also received RMB 13 million of Chinese government subsidies in 2019.[4] As of 2019, most of Foxit's software development has been taking place within China, while over 90% of its revenue was earned outside of China, in markets such as the United States, Europe, Japan and Australia.[4] The vast majority of its net profit is sourced from the United States.[4] It listed Adobe Inc. as its biggest competitor.[3]
Acquisitions
Foxit has grown organically and through several acquisitions.
Standards involvement
Foxit has contributed to the evolution of ISO 32000 and ISO 19005 standards.[7][21]
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| Product name | Formerly | Platform |
|---|---|---|
| PDF Editor Pro | Foxit PhantomPDF Business | Windows, macOS, Web, iOS, Android, and Chromebooks |
| PDF Editor | Foxit PhantomPDF Standard, Foxit PhantomPDF Online, Foxit PhantomPDF Mac, Foxit PDF Reader Mobile (with optional in-product purchases) | Windows, macOS, Web, iOS, Android, and Chromebooks |
| PDF Reader | Foxit Reader, Foxit PDF Reader Mobile | Windows, macOS, Web, iOS, Android, and Chromebooks |
| Foxit eSign | Foxit Sign | see features |
| Volume Automation | PDF Compressor, Rendition Server, Digital Transformation Services, Maestro Server OCR | Web, Windows, Linux |
| PDF SDK | N/A | Web, Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS, Universal Windows Platform (UWS) |
Foxit Reader
The company's first product, Foxit Reader, was released in 2004.[7] It provides a way to view, create and sign PDF files, and add annotations to them.[22] Foxit Reader 3.0 offers comparable functionality to Adobe Reader.[23] Older versions were notable for their speed and small file sizes.[24] Foxit released version 8.0 in 2016.[25] The software is pre-installed on Windows PCs from HP, Acer, and ASUS.[26] Foxit released version 9.0 in 2017. The software is available as a freeware download for PCs running Windows 7 (or later), MacOS and older versions of Linux.[27][28][29]
Foxit PhantomPDF
Foxit PhantomPDF, a multi-feature PDF editor, was released in 2008. Foxit PhantomPDF has an interface that holds many advanced PDF editing and security features.[30] Foxit released version 8.0 in 2016.[25] The software has been renamed from Foxit PhantomPDF to Foxit PDF Editor with the release of Foxit PDF Editor 11.0.0.49893 dated May 25, 2021.[31]
ConnectedPDF
ConnectedPDF, released in 2016, extends the traditional portable document format by associating a unique identifier with each PDF, thereby enabling capabilities such as file update notifications, document locating and tracking, shared and synchronized review and mark-up, and remote digital rights management and protection.[32] ConnectedPDF is not a stand-alone product. Functionality is embedded within some of Foxit’s PDF software products. ConnectedPDF is included in the latest releases of Foxit PhantomPDF (version ≥8), Foxit Reader (version ≥8) and Foxit MobilePDF (version ≥5).[32]
PDF Compressor
Foxit PDF Compressor converts scanned documents to PDF or PDF/A, compresses them and uses integrated OCR technology to make them fully text searchable.
Rendition Server
Foxit Rendition Server is an on-premises or cloud web service for centralized document conversion to PDF and PDF/A. It enables the construction of a transformation infrastructure which can be addressed by programs and environments through a web service interface.
OEM relationships
The company has developed original equipment manufacturer relationships with a number of businesses. Foxit’s technology is included in Amazon Kindle,[33] Gmail and Google Chrome.[34] The company has also developed the rendering engine for Google's open-source PDFium project.[35]
SDKs
Foxit also provides a variety of PDF software development kits (SDKs) for developers wanting to create custom PDF applications.[36]
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Foxit Software is an active member of the PDF Association. LuraTech, acquired by Foxit in 2015, was a founding member of the PDF Association. Carsten Heiermann, founder and CEO of the LuraTech group, is member of the association’s board.[37] Thomas Zellmann, who joined LuraTech in 2001, is the association’s Managing Director.[38]
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