Kingsoft Cloud, the cloud computing arm of software powerhouse Kingsoft Corporation, has received a combined US$66.66 million of capital injection recently. The funding consists of two parts, Series B financing from its parent company and IDG, and a purchase of preferred stock in Kingsoft Cloud by the parent company and Xiaomi.
Upon completing the transaction, KingSoft Corporation, Xiaomi and IDG will hold 52.3%, 24.5% and 3.98% in the company respectively, when calculated at outstanding fully-diluted shares.
Kingsoft Cloud offers a variety of services to subscribers from data hosting and cloud storage to series particularly for developers. With a daily upload of over 258TB, Kingsoft Cloud’s current audience are mainly Xiaomi users since it is the default option on Xiaomi devices.
The company is also trying to explore enterprise service market through strategic cooperation with its parent company, Kingdee and China Telecom. Gaming, one of the top-grossing Internet services in China, is becoming another growth point for the company.
Kingsoft CEO Zhang Hongjiang said Kingsoft Cloud will expand in three directions: 1) providing cloud services for smart hardware such as smart wristbands, smart TV, etc 2) offering greater storage space for personal files, photos and video storage, 3) exploring cooperative opportunities with companies from traditional industries, .
Lei Jun, Kingsoft Corporation executive director who’s better known as Xiaomi CEO, announced an ambitious plan last year to invest US$1 billion in its Kingsoft Cloud service over the next three to five years – the “All-in on Cloud Services” strategy as he refers to it. This investment is likely part of that plan.
China’s public cloud service will be a market worth over a billion RMB by 2016 with a compound annual growth rate of 38.6%, according to IDC. The Chinese cloud market has been heating up with the entrance of domestic Internet giants Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent, as well as foreign players like AWS and Windows Azure.
Editing by Mike Cormack (@bucketoftongues)