Open Source Alliance

What Open Source Alliance does

Open Source Alliance (KAIYUANSHE / 开源社), founded in 2014 and headquartered in Shanghai, is a vendor-neutral, public welfare, non-profit open source community organization governed under the principles of "Contribution, Consensus, Co-governance." It operates as China's most active open source community, aggregating approximately 100 formal members, thousands of community volunteers, and hundreds of speakers. Its organizational structure comprises a Board of Directors, Executive Committee, Project Committee, Advisory Committee, and Legal Advisory Committee, with formal membership open to individual volunteers who join through open application. Financial administration is entrusted to Xingyuan (Shanghai) Information Technology Co., Ltd.

KAIYUANSHE's core deliverables are a portfolio of community platforms and open source projects rather than commercial products. These include OSS.Chat (an AI-powered dialogue and collaboration platform for open source projects), the China Open Source Map (a panoramic visualization of project and community distribution), KToken (a blockchain-based contribution incentive system), Xiaoyuan Bot (an intelligent community service bot), the China Open Source Annual Report (an authoritative trend analysis integrating GitHub and Gitee data), and the Open Hackathon competition platform. It has operated COSCon (China Open Source Conference) annually for 10 consecutive years and runs KCC city chapters nationwide. KAIYUANSHE was OSI's first Chinese member (January 2016), played a role in drafting the Mulan Permissive License v2 (OSI-certified as an international license in 2020), and contributed to national open source and AI governance standards in 2020, 2022, and 2024.

KAIYUANSHE's revenue model is structured as a non-profit community organization funded by donations, grants, sponsorships, in-kind contributions, interest, and income from activities and services within its mission, with no commercial product sales or public pricing. Its customer base spans community members and individual contributors (primary), enterprise Open Source Program Offices (OSPOs) at companies including Alibaba, Huawei, and ByteDance (primary), and universities/students (primary), with secondary engagement of international open source foundations (Apache, Linux Foundation, CNCF, OSI). The 2025 partnership roster comprises 26 organizations across platinum (Ant Group), silver (Huawei, ByteDance, GOSIM, Baidu Wenxin), gold (Dexmal), and star/minor tiers, with media partnerships spanning CSDN, InfoQ, SegmentFault, OSCHINA, and others.

Name

Open Source Alliance

Legal name

开源社 (KAIYUANSHE)

Website

https://kaiyuanshe.cn

Company type

Private

Founded year

2014

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Open Source Alliance (KAIYUANSHE), founded in 2014 in Shanghai, is China's most active non-profit open source community, organizing COSCon annually, governing open source projects and standards, and serving individual developers, enterprise OSPOs, universities, and international open source foundations through community platforms and policy advocacy.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Open Source Community Services

NAICS

Religious, Grantmaking, Civic, Professional, and Similar Organizations (813), Business Associations (813910), Educational Support Services (611710)

SIC

Services-Membership Organizations (8600), Services-Educational Services (8200)

akta.pro primary industry

Developer & Open-Source Communities (MPACAJAK)

akta.pro secondary industries

Open-Source & Developer Communities (BPAMABAM), Secure Software & DevOps Awareness (Secure Coding Basics) (EDABAGAN)

Keywords

• Open source community
• Open source governance
• Community management
• Open source education
• Community platforms

Headquarters

HQ city

Shanghai

HQ country

China

HQ region

Asia

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Others

Revenue model

1. 非营利组织运营: 开源社作为厂商中立、公益、非营利组织，主要依靠志愿者贡献开展活动，不以盈利为目的。主要经费来源包括：在业务范围内开展活动和服务的收入、捐赠、资助、利息及其他合法收入。经委托醒源(上海)信息科技有限公司负责相关财务管理。

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels8 records

Core offering

Open Source Alliance (KAIYUANSHE) is a non-profit, vendor-neutral open source community organization that operates a portfolio of community platforms and programs supporting open source governance, international collaboration, community development, and project incubation. Its core activities include hosting the annual China Open Source Conference (COSCon), running KCC city communities nationwide, maintaining community platforms (OSS.Chat, KToken, China Open Source Map, Open Hackathon, Xiaoyuan bot), publishing the annual China Open Source Report, providing open source education across youth-to-enterprise levels, and engaging in international open source standards work (e.g., Mulan PSL v2).

Product overview

Open Source Alliance (开源社/KAIYUANSHE) is a community-driven, non-profit open-source organization founded in 2014. Rather than a single unified product, it operates a portfolio of community platforms and initiatives including: the KAIYUANSHE official website portal; OSS.Chat for AI-powered project dialogue; the China Open Source Map for community landscape visualization; KToken for blockchain-based contribution incentives; the Xiaoyuan Robot for community automation; the China Open Source Annual Report for research and analysis; and Open Hackathon for innovation events. The organization focuses on open-source governance, international engagement, community development, and project incubation rather than commercial product development.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• COVID Aid Platform (新冠援助平台)

Quantifiable outcome

• 连续10年举办中国开源年会(COSCon)，成为中国最大的开源技术年度盛会
• +3 more outcomes

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature7 records

Partnerships

25 partnerships are on record, tiered flagship, core and minor.

• 蚂蚁集团 (Ant Group) / 蚂蚁开源flagshipGTM or Marketing Partner · 1 January 2025蚂蚁集团为开源社白金合作伙伴，累计合作3年。蚂蚁开源与开源社在中国开源年会等活动中紧密合作，支持开源生态发展。
• 华为 (Huawei)coreGTM or Marketing Partner · 1 January 2025华为为开源社银牌合作伙伴，累计合作9年。作为头部科技企业，华为通过开源社区与开源社建立长期合作关系。
• 字节跳动 (ByteDance)coreGTM or Marketing Partner · 1 January 2025字节跳动为开源社银牌合作伙伴，累计合作2年。开源社与字节跳动开源Open Day等社区活动有合作。
• GOSIMcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2025GOSIM为开源社银牌合作伙伴，累计合作2年。共同举办GOSIM China等技术活动，推动开源技术创新。
• 百度文心大模型 (Baidu Wenxin)coreGTM or Marketing Partner · 1 January 2025百度文心大模型为开源社银牌合作伙伴，与开源社在开源AI领域开展合作。
• 商汤大装置 (SenseCore)coreGTM or Marketing Partner · 1 January 2025商汤大装置为开源社银牌合作伙伴，在AI与开源交叉领域开展合作。
• openKylin (麒麟软件)coreGTM or Marketing Partner · 1 January 2025openKylin为开源社银牌合作伙伴，累计合作2年。共同推动中国开源操作系统生态发展。
• OceanBasecoreGTM or Marketing Partner · 1 January 2025OceanBase为开源社银牌合作伙伴，累计合作4年。共同推动开源数据库生态在中国的发展。
• openEuler (龙蜥社区)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2025龙蜥社区(OpenAnolis)为开源社星牌合作伙伴，共同推动中国开源操作系统生态合作。
• 原力灵机 (Dexmal)flagshipGTM or Marketing Partner · 1 January 2025原力灵机为开源社金牌合作伙伴，2025年新加入的重量级合作企业。
• SeafileminorGTM or Marketing Partner · 1 January 2025Seafile为开源社星牌合作伙伴，累计合作4年。共同推动开源存储与协作生态。
• 安势科技 (Sectrend)minorGTM or Marketing Partner · 1 January 2025安势科技为开源社星牌合作伙伴，累计合作2年。在开源安全合规领域开展合作。
• 北京大成（上海）律师事务所 (Dacheng Law)minorImplementation/ SI/ Consulting Partner · 1 January 2025大成律所为开源社星牌合作伙伴，累计合作2年。提供开源法律咨询和合规支持。
• 醒源(上海)信息科技有限公司coreOthers · 1 January 2025开源社委托醒源(上海)信息科技有限公司负责相关财务管理，定期公布财务报告，接受成员监督。
• Open Source Initiative (OSI)flagshipStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 20162016年1月开源社加入OSI，成为OSI联盟的首家中国成员。开源社认同OSI对开源的定义，积极参与木兰许可证等国际开源标准的制定和推广。
• Apache Software Foundation (ASF)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 20162015年10月在ASF支持下主办Apache中国路演；2016年起连续举办中国开源年会，获得ASF支持与合作。共同推动Apache项目在中国的发展。
• 华东师范大学coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 20152019年在华东师范大学捐赠设立'中国开源软件教育基金'，是中国首个开源教育基金，资金用于开源教育相关的学生培养、开源创新创业等活动。
• OSS-Watch (欧洲)coreTechnology or Integration · 1 January 20142014年开源社与欧洲最知名的开源治理社区OSS-Watch合作，在开源社官网提供开源治理工具，是开源社最早的国际合作之一。
• Linux FoundationcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2014开源社参与Linux基金会主权AI圆桌等国际合作，积极对接Linux基金会生态项目，推动国内外开源社区交流。
• 腾源会 (Tengyuan)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 20142021年联合腾源会发起'WeOpen Good开源公益计划'，推动用开源技术赋能公益组织。
• CSDNcoreGTM or Marketing Partner · 1 January 2014CSDN为中国顶级开发者社区，也是开源社的长期合作媒体伙伴，共同推广开源文化和活动。
• SegmentFault 思否coreGTM or Marketing Partner · 1 January 2014SegmentFault 思否与开源社联合发起'中国开源先锋榜'，共同推介年度最值得关注的开源人物。COSCon年会多次获思否评选为'中国最受开发者欢迎的技术活动'。
• 开放原子开源基金会 (OpenAtom)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2014开放原子开源基金会是开源社重要的战略合作伙伴，李明康担任开放原子开源基金会教培顾问，开源社与开放原子在开源教育和项目孵化方面深度合作。
• CNCF FoundationcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2014CNCF Foundation是开源社的国际合作伙伴，在云原生开源领域开展合作，支持KubeCon China等活动。
• FOSSASIAcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2014FOSSASIA是开源社的长期国际合作伙伴，自2015年起在FOSSASIA峰会上介绍开源社，共同促进全球开源生态交流。Mario Behling是开源社的老朋友，2025 COSCon十周年之际给予鼎力支持。

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Regional players

• SegmentFault 思否: Chinese developer Q&A and community platform that has co-launched the "中国开源先锋榜" with KAIYUANSHE and awards COSCon as "China's most developer-welcome tech activity." Closest commercial Chinese community analog for developer recognition and event prestige.
• CSDN: China's largest developer portal and media platform and a long-term KAIYUANSHE media partner. CSDN is a commercial counterpart — comparable audience (Chinese developers) but operates as a for-profit media/community rather than non-profit community organization.
• OSCHINA: Long-running Chinese open source code hosting and community news platform. Comparable as a Chinese-language open source community hub, but operates as a commercial platform (similar to GitHub ecosystem) rather than a non-profit membership organization.

Direct peers

• FOSSASIA: Asia-based open source community organization running developer events, mentorship and projects. Listed as a long-term partner of KAIYUANSHE since 2015, FOSSASIA is the closest peer in community-led, non-corporate open source community model across Asia.
• OpenAtom Foundation (开放原子开源基金会): China's most prominent open source foundation, governing projects like openEuler, openAnolis, openGauss and OpenHarmony. Directly comparable to KAIYUANSHE in mission (fostering Chinese open source) but operates at much larger scale with corporate backing — the closest domestic competitor for project incubation and developer mindshare.

Broad incumbents

• Apache Software Foundation (ASF): Global, vendor-neutral open source foundation governing 350+ top-level projects. KAIYUANSHE worked with ASF since 2014 to run Apache China Roadshow and ASF-supported COSCon — making ASF the principal international counterpart for cross-border open source collaboration.
• Eclipse Foundation: International open source foundation supporting working groups, IoT and enterprise Java projects. Structurally comparable to KAIYUANSHE in operating a vendor-neutral governance and standards model, though much larger and project-incubation-focused.
• Linux Foundation: The largest global open source umbrella, hosting Linux, Kubernetes, Hyperledger and many others. Invited KAIYUANSHE to its 2025 Sovereign AI Roundtable as the Asia-Pacific delegate — the benchmark for open source convening and standards-setting power.
• Free Software Foundation (FSF): Long-standing global advocacy and stewardship organization for free/open source software. Comparable to KAIYUANSHE's "vendor-neutral, public welfare" advocacy position but anchored to the GPL/Free Software philosophy rather than OSI's open source definition.
• Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF): Sub-foundation of the Linux Foundation focused on cloud-native open source. A long-running KAIYUANSHE partner supporting KubeCon China activities; comparable as a sub-foundation model that KAIYUANSHE-style Chinese foundations could emulate for vertical niches.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/kaiyuanshe
• GitHubgithub.com/kaiyuanshe
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/kaiyuanshe

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles13 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Open Source Alliance