diff --git a/icu4j/pom.xml b/icu4j/pom.xml
index 5242f4ea782..b8781e96a35 100644
--- a/icu4j/pom.xml
+++ b/icu4j/pom.xml
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@
 
   <groupId>com.ibm.icu</groupId>
   <artifactId>icu4j</artifactId>
-  <version>4.8</version>
+  <version>49-SNAPSHOT</version>
 
   <name>ICU4J</name>
   <description>