Tencent, the Chinese internet giant, today announced that its cloud computing arm, Tencent Cloud, plans to open five overseas data centers this year to cater to its expanding client base.
The first of these data centers, located in Silicon Valley, officially opened Tuesday. The other centers will be in Frankfurt, Mumbai, Seoul and Moscow. The company says that the new data centers will serve Chinese companies looking to go overseas, as well as international companies expanding their businesses in China or other parts of the world.
In addition to the new data centers, Tencent Cloud operates three other data centers outside mainland China – in Hong Kong, Singapore and Toronto, on top of the dozen data centers it has across mainland China
Rita Zeng, Vice President, Tencent Cloud said:
We want to enhance our overseas cloud capability to meet the rising demand from companies around the world as they look for fast, reliable, secure and cost-effective services during the global expansion and migration to the cloud era.I am confident that we can meet their needs with our technical capability, global network, as well as experience accumulated in serving the massive user-base in our home market.
The opening of Tencent’s American data center saw U.S. lawmakers citing concerns over China’s restrictions on cloud computing for foreign companies, as American companies face growing restrictions when they seek to offer services in China.