Judging from the recent mid-year financial reports of the three major operators in 2024, Tianyi Cloud generated RMB 55.2 billion in revenue, Mobile Cloud RMB 50.4 billion, and Unicom Cloud RMB 31.7 billion. These figures line up, showcasing the robust development capabilities of operators in the cloud computing field. They also reiterate that with a strong channel system and resources, public cloud and related business ventures are bound to yield remarkable results.

However, for any cloud service provider, achieving remarkable success in cloud computing requires a comprehensive strategic vision.

First, we must look inward. No matter how impressive the clouds of the three major operators may be, only one of them can rival Alibaba Cloud in terms of scale.

Although the other two, Mobile Cloud and Unicom Cloud, are already formidable, they still cannot match Alibaba Cloud.

Alibaba Cloud's revenue for the first quarter of fiscal year 2025 (the three months ended June 30, 2024) increased by 6% to RMB 26.549 billion. In the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2024, Alibaba Cloud's revenue was RMB 26.363 billion, representing a year-on-year increase of 3%, compared to RMB 25.595 billion in Q4 of fiscal year 2023. Based on these figures, Alibaba Cloud's revenue for the first half of calendar year 2024 is calculated to be RMB 52.912 billion.

It's worth noting that we haven't even mentioned Huawei Cloud, which is adept at disrupting the status quo. In 2023, Huawei Cloud achieved revenue of RMB 55.3 billion, and the situation in 2024 is expected to be even better, although official figures have not been released. I speculate that Huawei Cloud's revenue in the first half of 2024 will not be lower than that of Unicom Cloud.

Second, we must look outward. The revenue of any of the top three global cloud vendors – AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud – exceeds RMB 100 billion. According to Canalys statistics, when considering global cloud infrastructure services expenditure (excluding PaaS and SaaS), AWS generated USD 50.544 billion in revenue in the global cloud infrastructure market in the first half of 2024, equivalent to RMB 361.127 billion. Azure earned USD 35.59 billion, equivalent to RMB 254.283 billion. And Google Cloud brought in USD 15.069 billion, equivalent to RMB 107.665 billion.

It is evident that, when it comes to the global cloud computing market, Tianyi Cloud, Mobile Cloud, and Unicom Cloud are not in the same league as AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud.

Of course, even if Alibaba Cloud and Huawei Cloud are directly compared with Amazon AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud, there is still a significant gap in revenue scale.

Seeing the gap is not frightening; what's concerning is entering a state of self-delusion while acknowledging the gap. Even the clearest-eyed observer may struggle to awaken someone in such a state.

Fortunately, the three operator clouds, Alibaba Cloud, and Huawei Cloud are all wise and rational. Even amidst fierce market competition, they adhere to their development principles, which is commendable.