China's cloud computing market to boom: report

BEIJING - China's cloud computing market is expected to be worth 37.2 billion yuan ($6 billion) in 2017 as demand for the service grows, the China Securities Journal reported on Friday.

The report, citing Wang Feng, manager of China Telecom's cloud computing company, said the global cloud computing business is on the rise and that China is one of the nations witnessing fastest development in the sector.

The average annual growth rate of the market is projected to stand at 26 percent in China between 2013 and 2017, higher than the global rate of 17 percent, Wang said. The market was valued at 13.4 billion yuan last year, according to the report.

China's three telecommunication giants -- China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom -- have shown great interest in tapping the potentially large market. At a cloud computing conference held in Beijing between Tuesday and Friday, the three vowed to continue investing in the sector.

China Mobile will inject billions of yuan in cloud computing facilities to construct large-scale data centers, said Li Huidi, the firm's assistant president.

China Unicom meanwhile plans to set up 10 cloud data centers across the country, said Jiao Gang, general manager of its cloud data company.

And China Telecom will aim to develop a hybrid cloud business in 2014 and 2015, Wang said, predicting that its compound annual growth rate in cloud business will surge by 156 percent in 2017 and take an 18-percent market share in China at that point.

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