China's Alibaba to launch Asia-Pacific cloud services operation in Singapore, heating up rivalry with Amazon
PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 19 August, 2015, 5:22pm
UPDATED : Wednesday, 19 August, 2015, 5:22pm
Bien Perez
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As cloud computing gathers steam, Alibaba seems set on making Singapore a new hub in Asia-Pacific for its related services. Photo: Handout
Alibaba Group, the world's biggest e-commerce services provider, is opening a new data centre in Singapore next month as it sees the island state as a hub for expanding its cloud-computing business across the Asia-Pacific market.
That launch would signal a strong challenge to Amazon, which was first to establish a regional cloud operation in Singapore for subsidiary Amazon Web Services in 2010.
The new Singapore data centre for Aliyun, the company's cloud-computing arm, follows its recent initiatives in California's Silicon Valley and Dubai, the most populous city in the United Arab Emirates. The news was announced Wednesday.
Alibaba's new data centre is just the latest for Aliyun, its cloud-computing arm, outside the Chinese mainland. Photo: EPA
Ethan Yu Sicheng, a vice-president at Aliyun, said there was healthy demand for cloud-related data management services in Singapore "because of the ease of doing business there, the comprehensive transport and telecommunications connections, and robust intellectual property regime".
"The city-state is a natural springboard into the Asia-Pacific region, not only for us, but for our target audience," Yu said.
The initial focus for Aliyun will be to serve the cloud-computing needs of Chinese companies which are expanding their businesses into Southeast Asia.
Aliyun, which had 1.8 million customers as of June 30, is the leading provider of cloud-computing services in mainland China.
The company said it picked Singapore because of the ease of doing business there, its respect for intellectual property rights, and the convenient logistics and telecoms it offers. Photo: AP
Cloud services enable companies to buy, lease, sell or distribute software and other digital resources online, just like electricity from a power grid. Data centres host and manage cloud services and applications.
In July, New York-listed Alibaba revealed plans to invest as much as US$1 billion to build up Aliyun's network of data centres around the world.
Alicia Yap, the head of China internet research at Barclays, said in a report that Alibaba management was keen to invest in technology upgrades and new staff for Aliyun.
A survey by private equity firm North Bridge said the global cloud computing market is predicted to be worth more than US$150 billion this year.
Founded in September 2009, Aliyun has existing data centres in Hangzhou, Qingdao, Beijing, Shenzhen and Hong Kong.
