E-commerce giant Alibaba is set to intensify its efforts to expand abroad, as it eyes to put up more data centers overseas, the highlight of which is a second data center in the United States, as stated by the firm's cloud computing unit.
According to Li Jin, Aliyun Cloud Computing senior product director, the move is part of Alibaba's broad plan to be a leading global cloud service provider.
Li shared during a news conference in Beijing that the new U.S. data center will be built in the next several months, adding that such hub will also be established in Singapore, Japan and Europe within a year.
Aliyun, founded in 2009, has continuously seen steady growth both at home and overseas amid accounting for only a small portion of Alibaba's business.
Earlier in May, Aliyun forayed into the Middle East market as it linked with Meraas Holding LLC to provide cloud services in the said area. The recent venture came after the firm opened its first overseas data center in U.S.'s Silicon Valley in March.
Gene Cao, an Internet consultancy Forrester Research Inc. senior analyst, said that Aliyun has the potential to become a big name in the global cloud computing arena. However, he noted that it "is not competent enough to take clients from international players such as Amazon.com Inc. and Microsoft Corp."
"Its target customers are Chinese companies that are expanding overseas," Cao added.
Currently, Aliyun is the biggest public cloud services provider in China, serving over 1.4 million customers.
Nonetheless, the Aliyun executive said that operating domestically is not enough.
"Going global is one of the key strategies of Alibaba. Aliyun will help realize the goal with an overseas content delivery network," Li further stated.