- Globally, Alibaba’s cloud division grew 62% in the past year and its revenues already represent 8% of the group’s total;
- It competes directly with services such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, IBM Cloud and Oracle Cloud
Alibaba said on Monday it would invest 200 billion yuan ($28.26 billion) in its cloud computing division over the next three years, highlighting how critical an area this is to the ecommerce giant.
The money will be used to invest in infrastructure and technologies related to operating systems, servers, chips and networks, Alibaba said, adding that it was spurred by the coronavirus pandemic.
But Alibaba has been putting a concerted effort on cloud computing for some time. Earlier this year, it revealed plans to launch its cloud services in Colombia, potentially expanding an operation that is still modest in Latin America. It already operates in Mexico, in partnership with the Carso Group and Claro, and in Brazil it offers its services through local company Inova.
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“The Covid-19 pandemic has posed additional stress on the overall economy across sectors, but it also steers us to put more focus on the digital economy,” Jeff Zhang, president of Alibaba Cloud Intelligence, said in a statement.
Globally, the cloud division grew 62% in the past year alone and its revenues already represent 8% of the group’s total, reaching $1.5 billion.
The cloud division competes directly with services such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, IBM Cloud and Oracle Cloud.
Alibaba Cloud has adopted a step-by-step approach to Latin America. It already operates in Mexico, in partnership with the Carso Group and Claro, and in Brazil it offers its services through local company Inova.
