Alibaba announces plan to create a music service arm for Chinese consumers. (Photo : Reuters)
Tech giant Alibaba is taking its business into the United States and it has Amazon on its target. However, Alibaba is not competing with Amazon's retail business; the China-based company has a much bigger stake and wants to compete with Amazon's cloud computing services.
Alibaba revealed that the data center for its cloud-computing division, Aliyun, has already opened in Silicon Valley. This is the first time Alibaba will venture its cloud computing business outside of China. Additionally, Alibaba still want to operate in the market that it is most familiar with albeit in a different setting.
Aliyun vice president Ethan Sicheng Yu issued a statement saying, "Now Aliyun hopes to meet the needs of Chinese enterprises in the United States."
According to the company's official report, Aliyun serves more than 1.4 million customers through its cloud computing service. The company's data centers are located in some of the most important and strategic locations in China including, Qingdao, Hangzhou, Shenzhen, Beijing nad Hong Kong.
Alibaba said that its cloud computing expansion in the US turf will initially target Chinese enterprises based in the US and the company added that it will soon expand its services to international clients within the second half of 2015, according to Wired.
Cloud services is one of the biggest market in today's computing trend with some analysts estimating the industry at around $150 billion.
Amazon Web Services revolutionized the cloud computing industry but as the market grew larger many players has also come into the picture. Google and Microsoft have all established their own cloud computing infrastructure and now Alibaba will be added to the long list of Amazon's competitors, according to CNBC.
