(Yicai) Feb. 19 -- The cloud computing division of Chinese tech giant Alibaba Group Holding has officially opened its data center in Mexico, its first one in Latin America.

The data center offers advanced cloud computing products and services to Chinese enterprises expanding overseas and local customers, Alibaba Cloud Intelligent Group announced today.

The first batch of products offered by the data center includes core computing capabilities, such as elastic computing, cloud storage, and network services, with prices lower than those of international cloud firms, according to media reports. In the future, Alibaba Cloud will continue to increase its investment in the local market.

Mexico, as one of the leaders in Latin America in terms of digital economy, has an internet penetration rate of over 70 percent, with the number of its startups climbing 35 percent over the past five years, said Yuan Qian, vice president of Alibaba and president of Alibaba Cloud.

Alibaba Cloud will leverage advanced cloud technologies and resources to empower young innovators to achieve their dreams, driving Mexico's digital economy to higher levels of development, Yuan noted.

In recent years, cloud computing and big data technologies have been widely adopted in Latin America. Alibaba Cloud established its first customer service center in Mexico City in 2022 to provide local support. It also partnered with Latin American companies, including corporate management software solutions provider Contpaqi and internet technology companies Limac and Soft180.

Alibaba Cloud has experienced rapid growth in the international market in the past five years, with its market size widening 20-fold. Last May, it announced new global infrastructure expansion plans, with investments to build new data centers in Thailand, Mexico, Malaysia, the Philippines, and South Korea.

So far, Alibaba Cloud operates in 29 countries and regions worldwide, covering 87 availability zones.

Editor: Futura Costaglione