Alibaba and SoftBank have announced a new joint venture targeting Japan’s competitive cloud computing market.
The new company, SB Cloud Corporation, will open a new data centre in Japan and plans to provide public cloud computing services from the Chinese e-commerce conglomerate’s Alibaba Cloud subsidiary, according to an announcement by the companies.
In 2016 Japan ranked second among top markets for global cloud services according to a case study by the US Department of Commerce’s International Trade Administration. Despite an established market of local competitors, the administration noted that Japan “has no current trade barriers that offer preference to domestic cloud providers.”
SoftBank is a major shareholder in Alibaba and will hold a 60 per cent share of the new company.
Sicheng Yu, vice president at Alibaba Cloud, said: We are proud that Alibaba Cloud can leverage its cloud computing expertise in the joint venture with SoftBank. We look forward to helping more Japanese companies grow their business with our secure, scalable and innovative cloud computing services.