Alibaba Cloud, the cloud computing division of Chinese e-commerce behemoth Alibaba Group, has launched its first data center in Thailand to capitalize on the country’s cloud market and support the country’s 20-year strategic plan.
Tyler Qiu, Thailand country manager for Alibaba Cloud Intelligence, stated in a virtual news conference that with a registered capital of over 1 billion baht, Thailand is one of the strategic countries to provide the company’s cloud services.
Bangkok is one of the 27 Alibaba Cloud Regions.
Alibaba Cloud has 84 availability zones for cloud services that span over 200 countries. In ASEAN, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Jakarta, and Manila also serve as Alibaba Cloud Regions.
The Chinese company has not disclosed the size of its investment in the data center, which includes equipment, technology, business partnerships, and training for local workforces and solutions.
According to Qiu, the cloud market in Thailand was valued at $620 million in 2020, with $430 million allocated to the platform- and software-as-a-service (PaaS and SaaS) system and the remainder to infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS).
The market is projected to reach $2.4 billion by 2025, expanding by more than 40 percent annually beginning in 2022. This amount is anticipated to be comprised of $1.1 billion for IaaS and $1.3 billion for PaaS and SaaS.
The digital media, finance, retail, and manufacturing industries are among the top cloud customers in the country.
Alibaba said it intends to provide services related to environmental, social, and governance issues, in accordance with Thailand’s 20-year national strategic plan, which began in 2018 and aims to improve the country’s security, prosperity, and sustainability.