Alibaba has announced it will invest $1 billion into its cloud computing division as the Chinese ecommerce giant looks to ignite growth after a slowdown in its business.
The investment will consist of “financial and non-financial incentives, such as funding, rebates and go-to-market initiatives,” the company announced on Thursday.
It also said it will help set up a program to help its customers localise their cloud computing needs.
Alibaba is the world’s third largest cloud computing player behind its Big Tech rivals Microsoft and Amazon, according to data from Gartner.
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Despite its cloud computing division playing a small part in Alibaba’s overall business, the company’s management sees it as critical component for growth and profitability in the future.
The company has seen an unprecedented slowdown in growth due to the wider slowdown in the Chinese economy as a result of a tightening of laws for ecommerce companies.
In the April to June quarter, Alibaba reported its first flat revenue growth on record.
Cloud computing revenue also slowed from the previous quarter.
Over the past few years, Alibaba has pushed ahead with opening new data centres outside of China in order to win new custom in markets such as Thailand and Singapore.
