Technology Author：Jia Li Jan 20, 2019 07:18 PM (GMT+8)

The cloud computing arm of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group has the largest share of the Chinese cloud computing market and the third largest share of the global cloud computing market after Amazon and Microsoft, IDC Report Says.

Alibaba cloud has the largest share of Chinese cloud computing market. PHOTO: Credit to Alibaba Cloud

In the Chinese market, Alibaba Cloud ranks at the first place for three years and its total market share is greater than the sum total of the second to the ninth-ranked cloud computing players. IDC reports that Alibaba Cloud has increased its international market share 12 times over the five years from 2013 to the first half of last year, and now it ranks at the third place at the global cloud computing market outpacing IBM and Google. According to Wikibon Research, the global cloud market reaches USD 237 billion in 2018m and will reach USD 814 billion in 2027. The overall cloud computing market is dynamics, which involves Amazon, Microsoft, IBM, and Google etc. in the global cloud computing market and Alibaba Cloud, Tencent Cloud and Huawei as main players competing in the Chinese cloud computing market.

IDC also concludes that in both Chinese and American market, top cloud computing providers dominate the market. In the Chinese market, the top ten players take up 87% of the total market share and top five players take up 73% of the total market share. Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, spoke in a recent interview that they only have three key competitors which are Amazon, Alibaba, and Google in the cloud computing field. While in the states, Amazon Web Services is bigger than its other four major competitors combined and stayed above 30 percent market shares.

Ji Xinhua (季昕华), the founder and chief executive of UCloud (a small Chinese cloud provider) considers the underdevelopment of Chinese IT environments can actually become an advantage as more Chinese companies might choose to start from the cloud. Moreover, Economist, a newspaper, suggests that Chinese companies can rely on a huge home market not only because of regulation, but also a legal requirement that forces foreign cloud firms to partner with a Chinese-owned cloud firm. Simon HU (HU Xiaoming, 胡晓明), president of Alibaba Cloud, has the ambition to surpass Amazon’s AWS one day as Alibaba sees cloud computing as a part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative.