China's cloud infrastructure service spending rises in 2021

BEIJING - China's expenditure on cloud infrastructure services posted a strong growth momentum in 2021 as COVID-triggered consumption demand and corporate digitalization push have propped up market growth, an industry report said.

The country's spending on cloud infrastructure services hiked 45 percent year-on-year to $27.4 billion last year, said technology market research firm Canalys.

COVID-triggered demand, including telework, online learning and e-commerce, remained a key growth driver, the market research firm said, adding that as more traditional companies became keen on digital transformation, demand for cloud services also increased.

Canalys expects the cloud infrastructure market in China to reach $85 billion by 2026.

The top four cloud service providers in the country were Alibaba Cloud, Huawei Cloud, Tencent Cloud and Baidu AI Cloud, which accounted for over 80 percent of China's total expenditure, the firm said.