According to data made available by Canalys on June 23, the expenditure on cloud infrastructure services in the Chinese market grew by 55% in the first quarter of 2021, reaching $6 billion. As the Chinese government has made cloud computing its top strategic priority, it has promoted the development of cloud infrastructure services, with the Chinese market growing faster than the rest of the world.

China is the second largest market after the United States, accounting for 14% of global investment, higher than 12% in the first quarter of 2020. The country’s four major cloud service providers are Alibaba Cloud, Huawei Cloud, Tencent Cloud and Baidu AI Cloud, which together account for more than 80% of the total expenditure.

Canalys pointed out that Alibaba Cloud led the market with a 40% share, but its growth slowed to 38% in the first quarter. This is due to the termination of the contract by a major customer to comply with data ownership requirements outside China. Alibaba Cloud is also under strict scrutiny from China’s State Administration for Market Regulation, which led to a fine in April for violating anti-monopoly laws.

Huawei Cloud achieved the biggest increase in the quarter, surging 116% and accounting for 20% of the market share. Its rapid growth benefits from Internet customers and government projects, as well as major victories in the automotive industry. Huawei is currently building its largest data center facility in the Guian New Area, Guizhou province, to provide services for Southwest China.

Tencent ranks third with a 14% share. Baidu AI Cloud is the fourth largest cloud service provider, accounting for 7% of the total expenditure in the first quarter of 2021.

Cloud computing has been growing rapidly for many years, as more and more companies seek to work remotely, improve efficiency through automation and save money on IT infrastructure. According to a 2021 Gartner report, it is estimated that the global end-user expenditure on public cloud services will increase by 23.1% to $332.3 billion in 2021 from $270 billion in 2020.

According to Gartner, Google occupied 5% of the cloud infrastructure market in 2019, while Amazon had 45% and Microsoft had about 18%.

“Companies can use these services without purchasing or installing physical infrastructure. They can get exactly what they need when they need it, and expand or reduce services as demand changes,” said Dr. Scott Overmyer, Associate Dean of Information Technology at Southern New Hampshire University.

HONG KONG, June 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — With growing customer demand and increasing cloud computing spending all over the globe, Tencent Cloud, the cloud business of Tencent, today announced the launch of four new internet data centers (IDC) in Bangkok, Frankfurt, Hong Kong and Tokyo. The addition of the new IDCs places Tencent Cloud’s operation in 27 regions and 66 availability zones worldwide, ushering in the opening of the second availability zones (AZ2) in Bangkok, Frankfurt and Tokyo and the third (AZ3) in Hong Kong in order to addressing the ever-growing business needs around the world.

According to data from Frost & Sullivan[1], 52% of organizations globally are using cloud services as of 2020, with another 34% expected to add cloud infrastructure within the next two years. The latest information from Gartner[2] also indicates that worldwide end-user spending on public cloud services is forecasted to grow 23.1% in 2021 to total US$332.3 billion, up from US$270 billion in 2020, signifying more growth in the already burgeoning cloud industry in which Tencent Cloud intends to further flourish.

Poshu Yeung, Senior Vice President, Tencent Cloud International, said, “The cloud industry is quickly evolving and growing, making Tencent Cloud look forward to further demonstrating its commitment to provide customers with more diverse cloud products as well as stronger redundancy and backup options. The launch of the new IDCs in Bangkok, Frankfurt, Hong Kong and Tokyo at the same time is a significant development in our strategy to rapidly and efficiently expand our international portfolio. We are also planning to have over 30% growth in terms of our IDCs all over the world by end of this year.”

Keeping up with Tencent Cloud’s momentum of providing groundbreaking and state-of-the-art technologies, the new IDCs are all tier-3 design facilities and are located in prime network hub locations, providing highly-reliable and high-quality BGP integrated with major local and international network operators.

The launch of the new IDCs is the latest step forward in Tencent’s robust growth strategies in terms of global infrastructure. In late 2020, Tencent Cloud has opened its second availability zone in Korea, followed by the first IDC in Indonesia as well as the third availability zone in Singapore in April 2021. The company is set to launch its second Indonesian IDC and its first in Bahrain by the end of the year.

Tencent Cloud is a secure, reliable and high-performance public cloud service provider that integrates Tencent’s infrastructure-building capabilities with the advantages of its massive user platform and ecosystem, consistently enhancing its rich array of global services to both the public and private sectors.

Tencent Cloud

Tencent Cloud is Tencent’s cloud services brand, providing industry-leading cloud products and services to organizations and enterprises across the world. Leveraging its robust data center infrastructures around the world, Tencent integrates cloud computing, big data analytics, AI, Internet of Things, security and other advanced technologies with smart enterprise scenarios. At the same time, we provide a holistic smart enterprise solution for sectors including finance, education, healthcare, retail, industry, transport, energy and radio & television.