By Wayne Ma And Don Clark
HAINAN, China--Internet giant Tencent Holdings Ltd. is getting
help from International Business Machines Corp. to attract business
customers, as the Chinese company diversifies its offerings beyond
games and online communication.
The companies said they signed a preliminary agreement to
develop cloud-based offerings that would be provided by Tencent to
sectors like banking, retail and health care, including services
like management tools and analytics. The offerings will be run from
Tencent data centers, the companies said, though Tencent has the
option to use an IBM data center in Hong Kong.
Financial terms of the agreement weren't disclosed.
Cloud computing typically refers to services that allow
customers to rent computing power and software over the Internet
instead of using their own server systems.
Tencent's agreement with IBM moves it into territory already
occupied by rivals such as Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., highlighting
the growing competition between the two companies. Since 2009,
Alibaba has worked with a number of Chinese data-center providers
such as Huawei Technologies Co. to offer cloud-computing services
to small- and medium-size businesses.
Tencent already has been building out its data centers across
China, with major facilities in Tianjin, Shanghai and its hometown
of Shenzhen. Last year, Tencent signed deals with Hutchison
Telecommunications Holdings Ltd. and Equinix Inc. to use their data
centers in Hong Kong as part of efforts to expand
internationally.
For IBM, the pact is the latest in a series of recent agreements
aimed at bolstering growth in the company's services and software
operations, which have slowed lately. Over the past few months, IBM
has announced partnerships with companies such as Twitter Inc., SAP
SE and Apple Inc. to provide services to corporate customers.
In the latest alliance, IBM is hoping to benefit from the
Chinese company's massive operations and volume of customer
contacts in Asia and elsewhere. Tencent claims it has nearly 1
billion users and operates around 400,000 server systems.
IBM also said its consultants and executives can learn from
Tencent's fast-moving operating style. "We are going to be
elevating our capacity to drive to their level of speed," said
Nancy Thomas, managing partner with IBM's business-consulting
services in China.
Juro Osawa in Tokyo contributed to this article.
Write to Wayne Ma at wayne.ma@wsj.com and Don Clark at
don.clark@wsj.com
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