The company is going to enter the smart city industry, focusing on lower-tier cities.
Cloudy sky. Image credit: Nacho Rochon/Unsplash
Kingsoft Cloud (金山云), the cloud service affiliate of Kingsoft Corporation (金山软件,3888:HK), recently landed another USD 50 million in Series D+, led by CIIFund (China Internet Investment Fund;中国互联网投资基金). Previously, in early 2018, the company secured USD 720 million in its Series D.
Founded in 2012, the Beijing-based platform provides cloud storage and cloud distribution service. Its complete product portfolio now covers cloud servers, physical cloud hosting, relational database services, object storage, cloud security, cloud DNS and such – cloud-based solutions for vertical industries are also covered, which encompasses entertainment, financials, medical treatment and government affairs.
The company has data centers and branch offices around the globe, including Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, Guangzhou, Hong Kong and certain North American cities.
The cloud service, which operates under Kingsoft Cloud, is one of the main revenue generators of the Kingsoft Corporation. In the third quarter of 2019, revenue for Kingsoft Cloud witnessed a 62% year-on-year increase to reach CNY976.3 million (USD 138.1 million), representing 48% of the total revenue of the entire group.
Its continuing transactions and cooperation with Xiaomi (1810:HK) – an associate of Lei Jun (雷军), non-executive director and chairman of the board of Kingsoft Corporation – ensure the smooth development of the business of the cloud solution provider to a large extent.
As of the first quarter of 2019, Kingsoft Cloud accounted for 5.2% in China'sInfrastructure-as-a-Service (laaS) public cloud market, according to IDC. This share was comparable with Huawei Cloud and Baidu Cloud – however, it was still considerably lower than that of Alibaba Group (43.2%) and Tencent (12.2%).
Kingsoft Corporation has been having a very busy time in 2019. Kingsoft Office (金山办公, A17055:SH), its office software subsidiary, has just been listed (November 18) on the Shanghai Stock Exchange Sci-Tech Innovation Board (also known as the Star Market). According to Mr. Lei, the corporation is also preparing to spin off Kingsoft Cloud as an independent company and considering making it public.