On July 6, 2023, attendees at the Shanghai World Artificial Intelligence Conference witnessed the presence of an AI mark.
The surge in investments in cloud solutions in mainland China is not only driven by enthusiasm over artificial intelligence, as reported by Reuters’ Aly Song.
A recent report from Canalys, a software market research company, highlighted that the Taiwanese cloud services market remains open but heavily dependent on government and state-owned enterprises for growth stimulation.
The growing interest in ChatGPT-like solutions suggests that training AI models in the cloud will drive the expansion of these technologies.
Alibaba, holding the largest market share in the country at 39%, experienced a mere 2% year-on-year revenue growth in the quarter ending on Sept. 30. The company also decided to withdraw its plans for a public listing of its cloud operations in November.
Huawei, the second largest player in the cloud market, and Tencent, listed in Hong Kong, did not disclose their cloud revenue for the third quarter.
The overall growth of the cloud segment in China slowed to 10% in 2022, with expectations to reach 12% by 2023, a significant drop from the 45% increase seen in 2021. The three major cloud players in China maintained their market shares from the previous quarter.
Domestic cloud service spending saw an 18% year-over-year increase to $9.2 billion in the fourth quarter, according to the report.
However, CNBC’s analysis of Canalys data revealed a notable decrease from 13% to 5.7% in the second quarter.
Canalys reported that 12% of global cloud spending in the fourth quarter originated from the Chinese cloud industry. International cloud spending rose by 1.5% from the previous quarter.
The sector has been heavily investing in IoT and aims to market AI products by establishing “partner communities,” which consist of engineers, tech firms, and professionals.
Despite these efforts, significant progress in the cloud sector has not yet materialized.
Canalys pointed out that while the complexity of AI systems poses challenges for adoption, it also presents opportunities for a more extensive AI ecosystem to thrive.
Companies like Alibaba, Huawei, Tencent, Baidu, and others in China have introduced new AI models and products this year.
