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Tencent Accelerates Cloud Computing Expansion Oversea With More New Data Center In Indonesia, Thailand and South Korea

April 12, 2021 6:08 pm

Beijing (PingWest)- Chinese internet giant Tencent Holdings is making an aggressive move to increase its presence in the burgeoning cloud computing service market in Asia by launching more new data centers in Indonesia, Thailand and South Korea.

On Monday, Tencent launched a new data center in Jakarta’s central business district, its first data center in Indonesia, with another one scheduled to commence operation in a few months.

The Chinese social network and gaming giant will also launch new sites in Middle East, Europe and other Asian markets including Thailand, South Korea by the end of this year, according to Poshu Yeung, senior vice president of Tencent Cloud International.

“This year we are going to be a lot more aggressive building out our cloud infrastructure around the world,” said Poshu Yeung.

Poshu Yeung did not specify the exact number and the timeline, but he emphasized that Tencent plans to add 30% to 50% more data centers by the end of this year mostly in Asian region.

Yeung also said the company is seeking to expand more into the Middle East and Africa as potential growth markets in the near future.

Apart from cloud computing sector, Tencent’s core entertainment sector has already built significant presence in Indonesia, where its JOOX music streaming app was the second most popular in the country. The company also launched WeTV last year.  

Tencent’s cloud service currently encompasses 27 regions and 61 availability zones, most of which are located in China (40 data centres) and Asia-Pacific including regions such as Singapore, Tokyo, Mumbai, Seoul.

Tencent has already made heavy investment for cloud computing at domestic market, with a plan to invest CNY500 billion over the next five years in new digital infrastructure, focusing cloud computing, AI, blockchain technology and Internet of Things, and underlying infrastructure like servers, supercomputers, data centers and 5G mobile networks.

Tencent was the fourth largest player in the Asia-Pacific cloud market after Alibaba, Amazon and Microsoft.

Indonesia is one of the hottest battlegrounds for cloud services. Google, Microsoft, Amazon and Facebook have announced plans to build their first data centers in the country.

Tencent’s major rival Alibaba also has opened two data centers in Indonesia,

Tencent’s cloud expansion overseas come as demand for cloud service surged at both domestic and oversea market due to Covid-19 pandemic.

During the coronavirus pandemic, China has experienced astonishing growth in video conferencing, e-commerce, online education, gaming and livestreaming as people were confined to home for coronavirus lockdown.

China’s cloud service market surged 66 per cent to reach USD19 billion in 2020, while the global market rose 33 per cent to USD142 billion, according to analytics firm Canalys.