China Cloud services spend exceeds $5 billion in Q3, Alibaba leads

Bengaluru: Alibaba Cloud remained the leader in the China Cloud services market in Q3 with a 41 per cent market share and continued strong growth.

The China Cloud infrastructure spend grew 65 per cent in Q3 2020 to exceed $5 billion for the first time, acceding to the data provided by the global market research firm Canalys.

Total expenditure was over $750 million higher than in the last quarter and nearly $2 billion more than in Q3 2019.

Huawei Cloud and Tencent Cloud both saw healthy growth, each taking a 16 per cent share.

Baidu AI Cloud was the fourth largest cloud service provider, accounting for 7 per cent of total spend in the country.

The top four vendors collectively accounted for 80 per cent of total spend in Q3 2020.

"Demand for cloud-based services reached new heights in China, as organisations reprioritised IT spending and accelerated digital transformation projects," Canalys Chief Analyst Matthew Ball said in a statement.

"Remote learning and working, as well as gaming, streaming, ecommerce and other online services continued to drive consumption of cloud infrastructure resources".

China remained the world's second largest market, accounting for 14 per cent of global investment.

Alibaba Cloud reported strong growth in finance and retail, while its existing customer base continued to grow.

Huawei Cloud has seen rapid growth in the finance, industrial manufacturing, Internet and government sectors.

Tencent Cloud saw rising demand for its PaaS solution while Baidu AI Cloud was boosted by growth in the transportation, healthcare and financial sectors.