Huawei Cloud generated revenue of $5 million from the African region, the majority of which came from South Africa, with smaller contributions from Nigeria and Kenya. Last year Huawei saw good business growth in public cloud and hybrid cloud in South Africa with significant investments from the public sector and finance and telecoms industry. The cloud business now has over 1,000 partners in Africa. Huawei wants to become one of the top two market players in Africa going forward, with aggressive growth plans to take on the biggest cloud players Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure. Currently Huawei is the fifth biggest cloud player globally. With better solutions for [cloud adoption] issues, I believe the South African cloud market will be one of the biggest. The fourth industrial revolution featuring intelligent technology is coming.
Cloud business was becoming a big focus area for the Chinese company with big growth plans both globally and in Africa specifically. Huawei announced that it had restructured its Cloud and AI Business Group, separating the hardware and software divisions, with a focus on strengthening software engineering capabilities. The separated Cloud Business Unit will now focus on providing services at both global and local levels. Huawei Cloud SA also plans to invest heavily in cloud training and marketing support for its partners. Training is also being offered to consumers, tertiary students and SMME entrepreneurs.