Aye, pirates be the reason IE6 just won’t die

The tl;dr: China (and Asia in general) has a high piracy rate - 82%. People pirate Windows XP, which comes with IE6. 87.69% in China use XP.

Normally, Windows pushes an IE8 update, but it needs to authenticate the OS with Windows Genuine Advantage. Since the installation is pirated (and most people don't know how to spoof WGA), they are stuck with IE6.[1]

With over 400 million internet users in just China, IE6 is going to be around for a long time.

[1] Unless they download other browsers.

For what it's worth, the ie stats for Japan look like bullshit from where I'm standing.

Leaving out mobile browsers, a company I work for has almost 80% of it's users using IE6.

I would not discount piracy as a major cause but i wonder if there are other economic reasons at play (less money for corporate upgrades, individuals putting off computer upgrades, etc...)

So, China is the reason why IE6 won't die? I don't buy it.