Tencent Cloud adds second data centre in Germany, Thailand, and Japan, plus a third in Hong Kong

Chinese web giant Tencent has announced its cloud service has expanded its presence in Germany, Thailand, Hong Kong, and Japan.

The company already operates its cloud in each territory but has now added a second “internet data centre” (IDC) in Bangkok, Frankfurt, and Tokyo. Hong Kong has been given a third IDC. Tencent uses the terms “IDC” and “availability zone” interchangeably.

The company says all the new bit barns are “tier-3 design facilities and are located in prime network hub locations, providing highly-reliable and high-quality BGP integrated with major local and international network operators.” Details of the new facilities’ scale, and whether they are Tencent-owned or co-located, were not revealed.

Senior vice president Poshu Yeung said Tencent Cloud plans further expansion in 2021.

“We are also planning to have over 30 percent growth in terms of our IDCs all over the world by end of this year,” he said. Tencent Cloud’s operation already covers 27 regions and 66 availability zones, and the company has already announced plans for new facilities in Bahrain and Indonesia.

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Most of Tencent Cloud’s operations can be found in Asia, with just five regions in the Americas and four in Europe. Local rival Alibaba Cloud has also preferred to target Asian customers.

Tencent Cloud recently revealed it plans to emphasise PaaS and SaaS, because big buyers treat IaaS as a commodity and have made price their main purchasing consideration. Pursuing SaaS and PaaS is seen as a strategy that will secure stickier and more lucrative customers.

Cloud remains a very small part of Tencent's business, which is dominated by gaming and social media concerns. However the company is a player in the wider cloud world as it has championed use of OpenStack, and uses it to power its consumer-facing services for over a billion users. ®