Canalys, an independent analyst of the global technology market, has released business data related to the cloud service provider market in China for the first quarter of 2022.
Canalys data shows that spending on cloud infrastructure services in mainland China grew 21 percent year-over-year to $7.3 billion in the first quarter of 2022, up $1.3 billion compared to the first quarter of 2021, and accounting for 13 percent of global cloud infrastructure spending. Despite lower-than-expected total cloud services spending, the Chinese market continues to lead the growth of the global cloud services market.
Since March 2022, the new crown epidemic has resurfaced, affecting many projects as normal, thus dampening overall revenue in the Chinese cloud infrastructure services market. However, with China's accelerated deployment in the new infrastructure space , and the urgent need for digital transformation of enterprises, cloud service providers are poised for new growth opportunities.
In Q1 2022, the market landscape for cloud infrastructure services in China did not change significantly, with the top four cloud service providers remaining Ali Cloud, Huawei Cloud, Tencent Cloud, and Baidu Smart Cloud. Benefiting from the expansion of cloud usage, these top four cloud service providers accounted for 79 percent of total cloud service spending in China, up 19 percent year-over-year.
Specifically, AliCloud continued to lead the cloud infrastructure services market in Q1 2022, accounting for 36.7 percent of total spending, up 12 percent year-over-year. AliCloud has long been the market leader in China's cloud services market and continues to expand its influence.
Huawei Cloud was the second largest cloud service provider in the quarter, with 18.0 percent cloud service provider market share, up 11 percent year-over-year. Since launching its "cloud-cloud collaboration" strategy last year, Huawei Cloud has won the cooperation of more than 100 enterprises through ecological integration with Huawei's terminal business (PCs, smartphones, IoT).
As the third largest provider, Tencent Cloud's market share is 15.7%. Revenue from Tencent Cloud declined sequentially in the quarter due to its internal business alignment and strategic changes. 2022 will see Tencent Cloud's strategic focus gradually focus on profitable growth rather than business volume growth. Tencent Cloud's revenue for the quarter was mainly from the cultural and creative, retail and gaming sectors.
The fourth largest provider, Baidu Smart Cloud, had a market share of 8.4%, an increase of 43%. With the differentiation of combining cloud services with AI technology and significant investment in its business, Baidu Smart Cloud maintained high growth in the quarter.