Alibaba-Meraas to open data centre in Dubai in 2016

Dubai-based Yvolv will offer big data and cloud computing services to government and private enterprises

19 October 2015

Dubai: A new joint venture between China’s e-commerce company Alibaba and Dubai’s Meraas Holding will open a data centre in Dubai in the first half of 2016, Ethan Yu, vice-president of the Alibaba Group, told Gulf News on Sunday.

Alibaba and Meraas are forming a joint-venture big data cloud computing services company called Yvolv to cover the Middle East region.

The two companies signed a partnership deal earlier this year and announced it on Saturday ahead of Gitex Technology Week.

“Dubai is the centre of Mena [the Middle East and North Africa], that is no doubt,” Yu said. “Dubai is the place to be if you want to get to the Mena area.”

Yvolv, which will be based in Dubai, is offering big data and cloud computing services to government and private enterprises in the Middle East.

Yu said the focus will be on enterprise, small and medium enterprises, developers as well as the oil and gas and aviation sectors.

In a presentation by Yu at Gitex, a slide stated the company will have a data centre in the emirate in “early 2016.” Yu later said it would “hopefully” start in the first quarter but “maybe in the second.”

Yu declined to reveal the start-up costs or how the joint venture is split between Alibaba and Meraas.

Traditionally, international companies stake a 49 per cent stake with the local Emirati partner holding 51 per cent.

The Dubai government is pushing through initiatives to develop smart cities and e-commerce within the emirate. Yu said that the agreement includes plans to train Emiratis.

New York-listed Alibaba will look to extend its reach across the Middle East and North Africa from Dubai, Yu said. He is bullish the company “will go well” in its first year.

“We will start with the UAE as a base location but eventually we will grow to cover the markets around us,” he said.