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AWS made cloud computing services mainstream, but it still hasn’t cracked China
- Existing government policies prevent Amazon Web Services from building and operating its own data centres in China
- AWS provides its services in the country through two local tech partners
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Andy Jassy, who will take over as chief executive of online retail giant Amazon.com, is best known for heading the development and operation of subsidiary Amazon Web Services (AWS), which pioneered the broad availability of cloud computing for companies around the world.
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Led by Jassy, who joined Amazon in 1997, AWS was launched in 2006 as a simple computing and storage service delivered remotely over the internet. It has since become a global cloud platform used by millions of start-ups, enterprises and government customers around the world.
While the 53-year-old Jassy succeeded in establishing the dominant provider in the global cloud services market, AWS has failed to make major inroads into China like its parent company.
In the world’s second-largest economy, AWS has lagged domestic players led by the cloud units of Alibaba Group Holding, Huawei Technologies Co, Tencent Holdings and Baidu. Alibaba is the parent company of the South China Morning Post.
AWS’ presence in China has remained so small that it is barely mentioned in market reports from the major tech research firms.
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