Hong Kong Data Center Market - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2022 - 2027)

Hong Kong Data Center Market - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2022 - 2027)

The Hong Kong data center market was valued at USD 1.94 billion in 2020, and it is expected to reach USD 4.12 billion by 2026, registering a CAGR of approximately 12.58% from 2021 to 2026 (forecast period). Hong Kong is one of the critical data center locations in the Asia-Pacific region due to the low tax rates and electricity costs, rich network capability, and suitable climate conditions. These factors are mainly attracting investments from across the world to support the growth of data centers in the country. For instance, in July 2020, China Mobile acquired an industrial site in Fo Tan for data center development for HKD 5.6 billion. The accommodation value of HKD 5,967 per sq ft is the highest on record for an industrial site.

Key Highlights

• Nearly all the central cloud and hosting service providers globally have established a presence in Hong Kong. According to Datacenters.com, there are presently 22 service providers and 43 data centers in Hong Kong. This comprises 42 colocation facilities, 29 cloud nodes, 13 Internet exchanges (IX), and ten disaster recovery and business continuity (DRBC) sites.
• Hong Kong is a principal financial and international trading and logistics hub and is home to several regional offices and headquarters of global corporations. This generates a strong demand for secure data center facilities and services. Its proximity to China's Mainland is also a core strength, thus stressing the need for data centers in the region.
• In particular, hyper-scale and international digital media content and public cloud service providers such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Facebook, Google, and Alibaba Cloud have been fundamental in pushing demand for data center services, significantly enhancing their uptake of data center capacity in Asia and particularly in Hong Kong over the past few years, by building massive-scale platforms.
• In July 2021, The Hong Kong-based telecom services provider PCCW agreed to sell its data center business to a New York-listed infrastructure REIT DigitalBridge Group for USD 750 million in a bid to focus on its main telecom business. PCCW operates facilities at nine data center locations in Hong Kong, Mainland China, and Malaysia. However, DigitalBridge only acquired the Powerbase HK (Hong Kong) and DC Malaysia (Malaysia) subsidiaries from PCCW.
• The government of Hong Kong is adopting a multi-pronged approach in facilitating the development and application of the 5G network and plans to launch 5G services very soon. The low latency rate of 5G technology would likely drive the demand for cloud storage, real-time data accessing and streaming. Data centers would likely not only expand but also need upgrades amid this network transformation.
• However, with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, different supply chains across many industries are affected, including data center infrastructure. All significant components of a data center are built off-site, delivered, and then installed, indicating vulnerable breakage points for the market's supply chain.
• Despite the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak and geopolitical uncertainties, the Hong Kong data center market activity has remained stable. In one of the most significant leasing transactions this year, the US-based data center, REIT Digital Realty, announced in July 2020 that it agreed to lease a newly established high computational data center at 11 Kin Chueng Street in Kwai Chung, the vendor's second data center facility.

Key Market TrendsIncreasing Demand for Cloud Computing is Boosting the Data Center Market Growth

• The growth of cloud computing, the development of the Internet of Things (IoT), and the growth of data consumption from emerging industries like fintech, digital media, and e-commerce have become the catalyst for the increasing demand for colocation (or offsite third-party) data centers in Hong Kong.
• According to the 2020 Cloud Readiness Index by the 'Asia Cloud Computing Association' (ACCA), Hong Kong has reemerged as the most cloud-ready state in the APAC region, claiming the top spot from Singapore. This new development in Hong Kong would strengthen Digital Realty's presence within the Asia Pacific region, where the company currently operates a network of industry-leading data centers located in Tokyo, Singapore, Sydney Osaka, Hong Kong, and Melbourne.
• According to a report by Nutanix Inc. 2020, while public cloud investment will remain relatively flat over the coming year, planned investment in the private cloud is predicted to nearly double, while traditional datacentres look set to plummet 37.5% over the same period. Over the next few years, Hong Kong respondents plan to triple their hybrid cloud investment, from 13% to 38%, as 70% of those surveyed locally agree or fully agree that the hybrid cloud is the perfect cloud model for their IT environment.

Telecom and IT Sector Holds a Major Share of the Market

• IT service providers such as Fujitsu and IBM frequently rent wholesale data center space from specialist data center providers as they strengthen their data center footsteps into a smaller number of newer, larger, and more effective data centers. Rather than paying for expensive refurbishments, they are closing down more minor, less efficient non-strategic data centers and improving their services. Local Hong Kong telecom firms are also fortifying their data center footprint. For instance, according to Hutchison Telecommunications forecast, there would be around 3.32 million HT mobile subscribers by 2020.
• With Long Term Evolution (LTE) accelerated expansion and a slowdown in 2G and 3G services, the Hong Kong telecom market grows fast. For instance, according to GSMA, in 2019, around 74% of all mobile internet connections in Hong Kong used 4G technology. However, encompassing mobile connectivity, cloud services, IoT, and smartphones has become essential for telecom businesses. Operators across the value chain are forced to adjust to these emerging market changes to maintain revenue and profit.
• With the adoption of artificial intelligence, IoT, and big data analytics, the need for high-performance computing infrastructure grows. The requirement for supercomputers is also increasing with the increase in investment towards cryptocurrency mining. Furthermore, the growing development of Hong Kong facilities and a high-speed 5G network implementation in 2020 will encourage the data center network market.

Competitive Landscape

The Hong Kong data center market is moderately competitive, with significant players adopting strategies like product and service innovation and mergers & acquisitions. The market consists of several major players. Some of the major players in the market are China Mobile Limited, Cyxtera Technologies Inc., Global Switch Limited, SUNeVision Holdings Ltd, Digital Realty Trust, Inc., among others. The growing adoption of IT infrastructure is a principal driver in the data center market in Hong Kong, with the high adoption of servers, storage, and networking infrastructure.

• January 2021 - HGC Global Communications Limited (HGC), a full-fledged fixed-line operator and ICT service provider with extensive local and international network coverage, services, and infrastructure, announced the availability of its hyperscale-focused fiber-optic network at AirTrunk's latest hyperscale data center in Hong Kong.
• April 2020 - SUNeVision Holdings added a new Microsoft Azure ExpressRoute site in Hong Kong (HK) to give customers in the city and throughout Asia enhanced resilience and performance. This new site leverages the robust connectivity on MEGA Campus and HK's position as a regional information hub. With the launch of the new site, enterprises can now connect to Azure in MEGA-i through an onsite point of presence (PoP) or telecommunications partners, managed service providers (MSPs), or cloud exchange platforms already available MEGA Campus.

Additional Benefits:

• The market estimate (ME) sheet in Excel format
• 3 months of analyst support

Companies Mentioned
 
SUNeVision Holdings Ltd.
PCCW Limited
Towngas Telecommunications Company Limited
Telehouse Hong Kong CCC
China Mobile Limited
Colt Group Holdings Limited
Digital Realty Trust Inc.
Equinix Inc.
Global Switch Limited
NTT Communications Corporation
Cyxtera Technologies Inc.
CITIC Telecom International CPC Limited
OneAsia Network Limited
HGC GlobalCentre Limited
HKEX Group

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