From the aspect of enterprise services, both Kingsoft Group and members of Xiaomi’s ecosystem won’t use solely Kingsoft Cloud’ service. To ensure high safety standards and low risks, they have to have a second or third cloud service provider. After all, it’s a more appropriate choice whether taken into consideration service quality and fair price.

　　Kingsoft Cloud’s income was disclosed for the first time

　　Based on Kingsoft Software’s 2017 Q1 earnings report, its revenue totaled RMB 1.213 billion, an increase of 82 per cent year-on-year. It is worth noticing that Kingsoft included Kingsoft Cloud’s 2017 Q1 income in the report (RMB 268.4 million up by 108 per cent year-on-year).

　　According to Wang, this not only has to do with Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing’s requirement (timely disclosing income of rapidly-growing and major business), but also demonstrates Kingsoft Software’s confidence over Kingsoft Cloud’s future.

　　Wang ascribed Kingsoft Cloud’s achievement to three factors: 1) focusing primarily on cloud service and consistently carrying out “All in Cloud” strategy come up with by Lei Jun; 2) being clear-minded in choosing industries, especially promising ones such as game, video and AI; 3) possessing a competitive and potent team.

　　To maintain the advantage, cloud service providers have to center around core technology and always be driven by users’ needs. It is based on strong technology and service capability that a cloud service provider can achieve competitive advantage.

　　When Kingsoft Cloud first started, it already focused its attention primarily on the game and video sector. Today, Kingsoft Cloud has already become the biggest game cloud and video cloud service provider in China. Up till now, Kingsoft Cloud has accumulated over 1,600 game clients and provided cloud services for over 1,000 games, among which 40 per cent are quite popular.

　　With the boom of video streaming and short video platforms, the need for video cloud service rises substantially. As one of the key Chinese video cloud service providers, Kingsoft Cloud took on the challenge of streaming major events, including the military parade to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of World War Two, the Two Sessions and G20 Summit, provided reliable video cloud service for its clients and stood the test.

　　In addition, Kingsoft Cloud developed “Dami Cloud Host” to target entrepreneurs and developers. Featuring high quality-price ratio and easy-to-use functions, the product was widely spread among developers, entrepreneurs, small and mid-sized enterprises.

　　Speaking of competitive advantage, Wang believed that:

　　“First, it has to do with the pursuit of perfection. It turns out that this methodology applies not only to Xiaomi’s 2C business, but also to 2B business. Whether it’s individual users or enterprises, users’ needs are always the first driving force. As long as you find out users’ needs and meet them well with proper products, your reputation and business will grow hand in hand.

　　Second, one’s got to go with the flow. As long as one’s found the right direction and strived for perfection, everything will naturally be fine. While Alibaba Cloud is at an advantage in terms of scale, technology and capital, Kingsoft Cloud focuses more on vertical segments. This is what makes us differentiated.”

　　Speaking of Kingsoft Cloud’s future potentials and driving force, Wang told TMTPost that:

　　“The first future driving force for Kingsoft Cloud is the growth trend of the entire industry. We’ve chosen an industry whose potential is far beyond people’s imagination and will last a long time. Only insiders can sense the trend and feel awed. It is expected that market scale of the American public cloud market is to reach $100 billion by 2019 and will continue to grow at a high speed.

　　The second driving force is the synergistic effect of Lei Jun’s enterprises, represented by Xiaomi, Cheetah Mobile, and Xishanju Game Studio, over IoT and AI industry. More importantly, we have to be aware of the rapid growth of pan-entertainment sectors, including video, game and AI.

　　The third driving force is Kingsoft Cloud’s own business strategy. For example, what business direction will we choose? What products do we want to make? Whether our team is capable enough? Whether we can execute our plans? Whether we are hard-working enough?”

　　The first half battle in the Chinese IaaS public cloud market has come to an end

　　As a matter of fact, there are already multiple super and great powers in the Chinese public cloud market, from global players such as AWS, Azure, Google and IBM Cloud, to Chinese players such as Alibaba Cloud, Tencent Cloud and Kingsoft Cloud (top-tier) and UCloud, QingCloud, Baidu Cloud and Qiniu Cloud (second-tier).

　　In this background, what’s the major difference between Chinese and international (mainly American) cloud service providers?