Homegrown players gain more shine on global database stage

Innovative efforts by academic units, enterprises key to sector's development

Chinese tech companies are emerging as competitive solutions providers in the database sector, an area that has long been dominated by US companies such as Oracle and IBM, experts said.

Database refers to an organized collection of information that can be searched, sorted and updated, and is of growing importance to the efficient management and use of data, which has now become a crucial production element and can create enhanced value.

He Baohong, head of the Cloud Computing and Big Data Research Institute at the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, said with the acceleration of digitalization in a wide range of sectors and the explosive growth of data volume, the global database industry is quickly developing.

In 2022, the market size of the global database industry was $83.3 billion, while the Chinese database market size was $5.97 billion, accounting for 7.2 percent of the global market, according to a report released by the institute.

The total size of the Chinese database market is forecast to reach about $18 billion by 2027, with a compound annual growth rate of 26 percent, the report said.

According to the report, China is gaining greater influence in global academic conferences focusing on databases, with Chinese enterprises and universities contributing immensely to academic papers in the field.

Zhang Ping'an, CEO of Huawei Cloud, the cloud computing arm of Huawei Technologies Co, said: "If we compare the entire software industry system to a towering tree, the database is at the core foundation of the tree. It gives birth to and supports almost all software ecosystems, thereby enabling the smooth operation of all core business systems across various industries in digital China."

The database is known as the root technology of the software industry and its high-quality development is of utmost importance for its growth and strength, Zhang said.

Despite Washington's ongoing restrictions, Huawei unveiled the latest version of its self-developed cloud database GaussDB in June, marking another breakthrough in crucial technology for the company.

The participation of Huawei and other Chinese companies such as Alibaba in the database market provides new choices in a market that has long been dominated by US companies, and it is setting a positive example for the whole cloud data storage industry in China, as the cloud and AI sectors grow rapidly and generate tremendous demand for data processing and management, experts said.

Xiang Ligang, director-general of the Information Consumption Alliance, said domestic companies are expected to gain a bigger share in the global database market amid growing geopolitical uncertainties, and such a trend is already being seen in the financial and telecommunications sectors.

Domestic database firms received at least 51 bids in China in 2022, according to data compiled by Modb.pro, a Chinese online community for data professionals. The largest bid amount was awarded to a consortium consisting of ZTE, OceanBase and another two companies who won a bid from China Mobile amounting to 146 million yuan ($20.5 million).

Huawei also said several major lenders such as Postal Savings Bank of China and China Merchants Bank have successfully adopted its database solutions for the core systems of their operations.

"Many Asian banks are already testing and using GaussDB and customers in South America are also showing an interest," Zhang from Huawei added.