Commenting on the Southeast Asian cloud landscape, Poshu Yeung, senior vice-president, Tencent Cloud, says, “If you look at the overall cloud business, it’s basically everything.” In the wake of Covid-19, real-world functions are increasingly being brought onto cloud networks, resulting in a significant rise in demand for cloud services in Asia. Tencent is looking in particular at government-related projects, financial services, internet and e-commerce, entertainment, gaming and education.
It is almost cliche by now to say that Southeast Asia is one of the leading cloud markets in the world. And with 202.6 million internet users — a 16% increase from 2020 to 2021 — and an internet penetration rate of 73.7% as of January, Indonesia sits right at the heart of this story of digital transformation. Going digital, says consulting firm McKinsey, could see Indonesia unlocking US$150 billion ($200.4 billion) in annual economic impact by 2025.
It is therefore no surprise that global tech giants are swarming around the island nation, fighting for a place in its lucrative tech market. In a show of intent, Chinese cloud computing firm Tencent Cloud announced on April 12 that it will open its first internet data centre in Jakarta. This is the latest addition to its growing infrastructure network. It currently spans 27 regions and 66 availability zones.
