Huawei, a big Chinese tech company, is trying to grow its cloud business in Nigeria and get a good share of the market. The company, which expects to make $98 billion in revenue in 2023, will give $10 million worth of free cloud credits to 100 Nigerian startups.
This move is similar to what cloud giants like AWS, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure do. They offer free cloud credits to attract new customers. These free credits help companies get started with the cloud, and once the free credits are used up, the companies often stick with the same cloud provider because it’s hard to switch.
However, Huawei knows that free cloud credits alone won’t be enough to win a big share of the Nigerian market, especially since many startups want to reduce their costs for cloud services that are charged in US dollars. While Huawei currently charges in US dollars too, they plan to start accepting payments in local currencies.
Even though Huawei is quite new to the cloud computing market, they have already signed up some major clients. OPay, a Chinese fintech startup, is one of Huawei’s biggest cloud clients, according to a report from TechCabal in March. Huawei also has companies like Eden Life and Feather Africa as clients.
The cloud market in Nigeria and Africa is growing fast, with businesses and cloud providers like AWS, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure investing more in the region. A report from Xalam Analytics shows that the demand for cloud computing services in Africa is increasing by 25% to 30% every year.
Huawei says they want to focus on affordability, and they plan to sign up 10,000 startups globally by 2025. So far, they have already signed up over 3,000 startups, some of which are in Africa.
As the cloud market in Nigeria and Africa continues to grow, Huawei’s strategy of offering free cloud credits and exploring local currency payments could help them become a strong player in this growing market.
(Report Curated from Tech Cabal)
