The coronavirus pandemic has created lucrative investment opportunities in the global cloud application industry for the Asia Pacific region.
The rise in remote working across the globe has forced businesses to go digital and adopt several cloud applications to access data, maintain operations and work efficiently.
Rapid annual growth of 18.5% is expected in the Asia Pacific market until 2026 owing to a growing awareness of cloud application benefits, including cost reductions in deploying IT infrastructure, hiring skilled professionals and mobile accessibility.
But market growth could be impacted by weak digital infrastructures with limited bandwidth and high-speed internet in underdeveloped and developed economies.
Increasing cyberattacks, which are more prevalent than ever before during the pandemic, could also hinder the success of the market.
A new report by Research Dive revealed the cloud application market will deliver a revenue of more than US$450 billion. The majority of this market share is held by small and medium-sized enterprises and is expected to expand at a CAGR of 19.2%.
The pandemic has also brought significant adoption by the healthcare sector to maintain huge databases and assist governing bodies. But the retail and consumer goods sector will dominate the market, generating a revenue of US$36 billion.
Keeping up with the demand
The Malaysian cloud-based grocery service MyGroser saw a massive increase in demand of over 1000% and spikes in revenue during the past two months, as it stayed available during Malaysia’s Movement Control Order.
The CEO of MyGroser, Stephen P Francis, said: “We are accelerating our expansion plans to better meet the demand for everyday essentials and groceries that we are seeing from our consumer and business customers.”
The grocery service has announced it will raise its first public funding round to support their growth and implement new technology enhancements like machine learning based supply chain management to keep up with demand.
Research Dive’s report revealed that the supply chain management segment is anticipated to reach up to US$67.9 billion by 2026.
To keep up with the demand, cloud service providers like Google, Microsoft and AWS by enabling scalability for customers, monitoring and maintaining reserve capacity, prioritising essential customers, and offering free hardware and software.
