Alibaba Group’s cloud computing division, Aliyun, has opened its first data centre outside of China in Silicon Valley.
The new data centre will initially provide services to overseas Chinese businesses that deal with retail, gaming and internet, and conducts operations in the US.
However, the company is expected to widen its customer base by targeting US based business in the coming years.
The launch of its cloud-based services will put the company in direct competition with other dominant cloud players including Google, Amazon and Microsoft.
According to reports, Aliyun is expected to provide similar cloud based services offered by the top US cloud players.
The services include load-balancing for companies running websites, virtual serve along with a data processing and storage cloud.
Aliyun VP Ethan Sicheng Yu said: "Aliyun offers users top-notch cloud computing products and services at competitive prices.
"Now Aliyun hopes to meet the needs of Chinese enterprises in the United States, and the ultimate objective of Aliyun is to bring cost-efficient and cutting-edge cloud computing services to benefit more clients outside China to boost their business development."
Aliyun only holds 23% of the cloud computing market share in China because it has been facing fierce competition from both domestic players like China Telecom, and foreign players including Microsoft’s Azure and Amazon Web Service.
According to a survey conducted by North Bridge, 75% of the companies in US use cloud services and Alibaba might just bite a huge share with its new data centre.
