In brief: Amazon Web Services to invest $1b in Indonesia

American tech giant Amazon is planning a US$1 billion foray into Indonesia, in another major investment in the Southeast Asian digital economy. The investment will be spread over a 10-year period. It will see the introduction of the firm’s cloud computing unit, Amazon Web Services (AWS), to the Indonesian market.

Source: The Straits Times

Currently, Indonesian startups using AWS are effectively transferring data out of the country, which means they may fall afoul of regulations that require companies to have local data centers. There are no AWS data centers in Indonesia, but that might change with this latest investment.

While AWS is the runaway leader in the cloud infrastructure space, its competitor Alibaba Cloud is also investing in Southeast Asia. It recently held an event in Singapore to promote its services.

Currency converted from Indonesian Rupiah. US$1 = IDR 14,000.