Zhang Hongjiang, chief executive officer of Kingsoft Corp. Ltd., has expressed desire for the firm to become the world's second largest cloud-computing operator. (Photo : www.scmp.com)
Kingsoft Corp. Ltd., one of China’s leading antivirus software and Internet services companies, is planning to lead in the growing domestic cloud-computing market, following a dramatic growth since the company launched its cloud operations in 2012, China Daily reported.
Zhang Hongjiang, chief executive officer of Kingsoft, said that its Kingsoft Cloud offshoot has also set its sights firmly on becoming the world's second largest cloud provider, behind Amazon Web Services Inc.
According to the report, Kingsoft Cloud continued to have an annual growth of around 80 percent in its first three years, and during the second half of last year, its growth soared to 300 percent, after it received a new round of funding worth $67 million in March.
Zhang said that Kingsoft Group chairman Lei Jun has assured the company of getting 1 billion yuan ($153 million) in investment over the next three years, which gave him the confidence to achieve and maintain market leadership in China.
When Kingsoft first embarked on developing cloud services, it only planned to focus on developing infrastructure rather than software, Zhang said. But as the market developed, more firms have started to target software development.
"The timing for us to enter the industry was just right," said Zhang, who was the former chief technology officer at Microsoft China R&D Group and managing director of Microsoft Advanced Technology Center before he joined Kingsoft in 2011.
"The first layer of companies has now formed, meaning it is very difficult for newly established firms to enter the cloud-computing industry right now, especially those wanting to focus on infrastructure, which is expensive and highly technical," the CEO added.
In 2014, Kingsoft entered the digital gaming industry and it expanded into the online video industry last year, which helped push the company into impressive growth.
Zhang said that the business's success can be attributed to overcoming three major barriers: technology, scale and service quality. As the company has put its processes firmly in place, it is now moving into other areas of cloud services that include medical, government administration and smart cities.
"To apply cloud technologies to such areas, especially traditional industries, we need more efficient system integrators to tailor-make applications using our technology. This level of system integration expertise is in short supply in China right now, and developing even more reliable integrators is likely to be our major target in 2016," Zhang said.
The report added that the company started looking globally last year, as it opened two centers in Hong Kong and the United States to serve its expansion into Southeast Asia and North America, respectively, by both sourcing international clients and finding the best ways to serve them.
