Spending on cloud infrastructure in China surges 62%: Canalys

Spending on Cloud infrastructure services in China increased 62 percent to $5.8 billion during the fourth quarter of 2020, according to the latest Canalys data.
China Cloud infrastructure spendingGrowth in cloud infrastructure services in China continued to outpace the rest of the world, with the government making it one of its top strategic priorities.

China was the second largest Cloud market after the US, accounting for 14 percent of global investment, up from 12 percent in Q4 2019.

The top four cloud service providers were Alibaba Cloud, Huawei Cloud, Tencent Cloud and Baidu Cloud, which collectively accounted for over 80 percent of total spending.

Alibaba Cloud was the market leader with 40 percent share. Alibaba Cloud reported growth in Internet, retail and public sectors. Hybrid cloud is a key focus in 2021, following the launch of its Hybrid Cloud Partner Program and on-premises appliances.

Huawei Cloud ranked second with 17 percent market share. Huawei Cloud made progress with e-Gov clouds, as well as Internet, genomics, automaker, and financial services accounts, while expanding its ecosystem of consulting partners and developers.

Tencent was third with 15 percent share. It saw rising demand in government, finance, healthcare and education sectors. Enterprise expansion is a key focus, with developer enablement initiatives to help identify and deploy cloud-native services.

Baidu AI Cloud was the fourth largest cloud service provider, accounting for 8 percent of total spend in Q4 2020. It was boosted by growth in government, enterprise, Internet, transportation, healthcare and financial sectors.

Cloud infrastructure services spending in China grew 66 percent to $19 billion in 2020 from $11.5 billion in 2019.

“Remote learning and working, as well as gaming, streaming, ecommerce and other online services were key areas driving consumption of cloud infrastructure services in China throughout 2020,” said Canalys chief analyst Matthew Ball.