Tencent, the Chinese technology giant best known for its dominance in gaming and social media, is now accelerating efforts to expand its cloud computing footprint in Europe. According to Dowson Tong, CEO of Tencent Cloud, the company aims to leverage its unique strengths to carve out space in a market dominated by American hyperscalers.
In an interview with CNBC, Tong highlighted Tencent’s intent to bring proprietary technologies—developed through years of experience in China—to European customers. “We have strengths and competence in very specific technology areas, as well as industry verticals,” Tong said. “We intend to bring a lot of this technology expertise to Europe. We’re talking to a lot of interested potential customers.”
Challenging U.S. Cloud Giants
Tencent’s European cloud ambitions place it in direct competition with the likes of Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud, which together command around 70% of Europe’s cloud market share. Rather than attempting to match these heavyweights on scale, Tencent is betting on specialization to differentiate its services.
Among the areas of focus are cloud technologies that optimize video streaming quality, enhance gaming experiences through reduced latency, and support the creation and hosting of “super apps” — versatile applications with integrated services like messaging and payments. Tencent’s own WeChat is often cited as the original model of a super app.
One recent example of Tencent’s international cloud work is its partnership with French telecom giant Orange, helping support the company’s Max it app across African markets. In gaming, Tencent Cloud offers advanced latency reduction technologies to improve responsiveness — a critical factor in competitive gaming.
Multi-Cloud Strategy
A key pillar of Tencent’s European strategy is to embrace multi-cloud environments, an approach that Tong believes will appeal to European firms wary of dependence on a single provider. “It’s a deliberate strategy of ours to make the customers feel more comfortable using our technology, especially in a multi-cloud environment,” Tong explained.
AI as a Differentiator
Like its global peers, Tencent is also leaning heavily into artificial intelligence to drive growth. The company has developed its own foundational AI model, Hunyuan, and also integrates models from partners such as DeepSeek. Tong said that in Europe, Tencent aims to provide flexible AI tools that support various foundational models, giving customers the freedom to choose the best fit for their needs.
“Our focus would be providing tools that work with different foundation models,” he noted, emphasizing a customer-first approach to AI services.
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As Tencent ramps up its European cloud push, its mix of gaming expertise, super app capabilities, multi-cloud flexibility, and AI innovation could offer a compelling alternative to entrenched competitors.
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