Tencent Cloud has come a long way since its official public in 2013. Tencent Cloud and Smart Industries Group Senior Executive Vice President and CEO Dowson Tong shares his thoughts about the company’s cloud-computing journey and what businesses need to do to stay competitive amid accelerated digitalization.

By Dowson Tong

With the convergence of the digital and physical worlds, businesses need to leverage technology to stay competitive in the global marketplace and meet the needs of today's much more demanding mobile-native generation. We established the Tencent Cloud and Smart Industries Group (CSIG) in 2018 to provide innovative solutions for industries that are ripe for business transformation using digital technologies.

We’re fortunate that many global enterprises have chosen Tencent as a long-term strategic partner. Their overriding goal is to embrace the always-connected lifestyle and capture the next opportunities created by advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and automation with the explosive growth of all kinds of data.

Tencent has the broadest portfolio of online services among Chinese Internet companies. We have the largest computing infrastructure in China with over a million servers, half of which we use for our own services such as Weixin and QQ, while the other half is used by our partners and enterprise customers.

Cloud Services Grow at Tencent

We started offering cloud services for partners on the QQ open platform in 2010. Three years later, we officially launched Tencent Cloud to the public. Tencent Cloud has since then helped many Chinese Internet companies such as Little Red Book and Bilibili manage their exponential growth by meeting their computing needs.

In 2016, we established global partner networks in Asia, Europe and America to bring Chinese enterprises to the world and help global companies enter the Chinese market. Two years later, with the formation of CSIG, we rolled out a strategic upgrade to embrace the newest evolution in digitization – the industrial internet.

Last year was a meaningful year for us in this journey. We opened six new data centers in Bangkok, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, Jakarta, Tokyo, and Sao Paulo, accelerating our global business expansion. We now have data centers in 26 geographic areas on five continents with 70 availability zones and an exabyte-level storage capacity. In addition, our content delivery network has deployed 2,800 acceleration nodes, covering 70+ countries and regions.

Tencent Cloud Improves Streaming Experience

We have put in a lot of effort into optimizing the live video streaming experience in high quality and low latency, and ensuring reasonable response even under slow and unstable network conditions, domestically and overseas. This has created an enormous benefit for our customers.

For example, GE Healthcare provided intelligent equipment, data analysis, software applications and services for disease diagnosis, treatment and monitoring. With our help, the company sells a remote consultation solution built upon the Tencent Real-Time Communication (TRTC) platform.

With the TRTC, ultrasound operators perform on-site examinations in the clinic and medical specialists can remotely diagnose patients in real time based on the ultrasound imagery. Our technology delivers a much smoother playback experience with latency of below 300 milliseconds and a packet loss prevention rate of over 50%. The system is well received by medical teams in North and South America and other regions.

Network Security is a Priority

Tencent Security is recognized for its expertise in vulnerability and intrusion detection as well as network and data protection. We have won a series of international security competitions over the years.

We operate a large global network of nodes that enable us to quickly detect and protect our customers from the latest security threats. We aim to deliver secure, reliable and smart cloud technologies so businesses can thrive and stay protected in the digital age. 

This summer, we launched Tencent Cloud EdgeOne for the international market by integrating our security offerings for easier management. Tencent Cloud EdgeOne has enhanced attack protection, a web application firewall, network flow control features and various other upgraded capabilities to help our customers protect their services from network attacks and avoid business interruptions. 

Tencent Helps Overseas Customers Compete

We have many years of experience guiding our overseas business partners in their journey into the Chinese market by leveraging our comprehensive online ecosystem and the cloud technology that powers it.

For example, French pharmaceutical company Sanofi leverages Weixin Mini Programs to improve the user experience of patient interactions. They also use our enterprise messenger WeCom, Tencent Meeting and VooV Meeting to communicate with clinical practitioners.

As the world's largest automobile market, China is also the fastest-growing market for connected electric vehicles. Many global automotive manufacturers such as BMW and NIO are working closely with Tencent Cloud to develop intelligent cockpits with our voice AI technology and online services.

Many manufacturers also use Tencent's high-definition map technology to build next-generation smart navigation systems and our cloud data-management solution for regulatory compliance in the China market.

We are committed to helping our customers succeed. Going forward, we will continue to invest in the global market for our cloud and software businesses and expand our overseas infrastructure coverage, developing local integration and service partnership networks.

Our overriding goal is to use our unique strengths in cloud, video, AI, database, and network security for the international markets – all with the goal of building a competitive product portfolio and a sustainable technology business with a long-term commitment to our global customers and partners.