Short-video site to build data center in northern China

BEIJING - Kuaishou, a Chinese leading short-video and live streaming platform, has announced that it plans to build a data center in the country's northern Inner Mongolia autonomous region. This followed a government pledge to develop new infrastructure across the country.

The company will invest about 10 billion yuan ($1.41 billion) for the new data center to be built in Ulanqab city, which will mainly focus on big data and artificial intelligence, it said.

The Ulanqab data center will cover an area of about 500 mu (about 33.33 hectares) to hold some 300,000 servers, said Kuaishou, and the launch of the center was expected in 2021.

Inner Mongolia was listed as one of China's big data development zones in 2016, while Ulanqab is home to data centers of technology giants such as Apple and Huawei.

China has pledged fresh efforts to advance the construction of new infrastructure, including next-generation information networks and 5G applications, according to a government work report delivered at the annual national legislative session.

Kuaishou said it also plans to build data centers in other parts of the country to support its technological innovation.