Alibaba's cloud computing arm has outpaced American rivals Amazon and Microsoft in the Asian market in 2018, a Gartner report revealed. Analysts said the uptrend is expected to continue further in the coming years.
According to Bloomberg, the widened lead in cloud computing will further accelerate co-founder Jack Ma's vision of having Alibaba earn half of its profits outside home-turf China. The developments also put the Chinese e-commerce giant on a more superior position in global markets.
"Internationalization is a key strategy for Alibaba and cloud. We want to grow even faster," vice president and head of strategy, Lancelot Guo, said through a phone call interview.
Guo revealed that Alibaba is looking to establish data centers in Malaysia and Indonesia as a way of assisting the company in complying with requirements involving local data. He added that the company wants to partner with U.S. firms that are interested in investing.
Globally, Amazon is still on the lead in the cloud business. However, analysts pointed out that Alibaba's dominance in Asia is a significant step in the tech giant's goal of expanding internationally.
This is supported by the latest Gartner report that indicated Alibaba's cloud arm has been profiting in triple digits over the past three years, overtaking figures in the overall cloud market that' expected to blow up by 55 percent in the next three years.
In terms of policies on cloud computing in other countries, Alibaba is cooperating with "a lot of third parties" in a bid to have a clearer understanding of laws in each country that it provides services for.
Alibaba's cloud computing arm, Alibaba Cloud, is not limited to business-related activities. Global Marketing Manager Sharon Song recently said the firm is hoping that its "Tech for Change" initiative will help open opportunities for other people and communities.
"We want to tell the story of how technology can change lives. And that technology is for all human beings," Song said during the Mobile World Congress, The Drum reported. Alibaba Cloud is working with iamtheCode to help female programmers make a name for themselves in the cloud and big data industry.
Song further explained that "Tech for Change" is a project that aims to send Alibaba's message that its cloud computing arm is "ready for a global audience." Alibaba Cloud was established in 2009 and has since been servicing online businesses as well as its parent's company's online retail systems.
Alibaba is the world's sixth largest company. Established by Ma in 1999, the company now has multiple arms aside from cloud computing. It leverages on e-commerce, entertainment, digital media, financial services, and more. It is valued at $499.4 billion.
