Alibaba Cloud recorded the fastest growth versus other global cloud service providers in the first half of last year, according to the latest Worldwide Semiannual Public Cloud Services Tracker from market research and advisory firm International Data Corporation (IDC).

Alibaba Cloud also kept its third-place ranking globally in the first half of 2019, continuing a steady climb that began in 2015.

With a year-on-year revenue increase of 68.7% in the infrastructure as a service (IaaS) market in the first half of 2019, Alibaba Cloud topped the sector’s growth rate and outstripped its nearest rival by 20 percentage points, the IDC report said.

Alibaba Cloud also sustained a high growth rate at 62% for the quarter ended December 31, 2019. Quarterly revenue for the data intelligence backbone of Alibaba Group exceeded the RMB10 billion threshold for the first time to reach RMB10.7 billion (USD1.5 billion), according to Alibaba Group’s latest financial results.

The IDC report also noted further convergence in the global cloud market, with the top three players (The 3As – AWS, Azure and Alibaba Cloud) garnering more than two-thirds of total revenue. 

The results are confirmation of Alibaba Cloud’s global strategy to grow its worldwide presence by enhancing its global infrastructure and network. Currently, it has 63 availability zones in 21 regions. Alibaba Cloud has also established the DAMO Academy, a global research institute that focuses on developing technological breakthroughs in cloud computing, artificial intelligence and other related areas.

In addition, global research and advisory firm Gartner Group ranked Alibaba Cloud first in the Asia-Pacific region in terms of IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) and IUS (Infrastructure Utility Services) market share for 2017 and 2018. Alibaba Cloud also retained its top-three global provider position in both categories.