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Comment by gentro | Hacker News Reader

Don't forget there's also:

Tencent Cloud: https://www.qcloud.com/?lang=en Baidu Cloud (Chinese only): https://cloud.baidu.com/ Netease/163 Cloud (Chinese only): https://www.163yun.com/

I use Tencent Cloud for a small China-oriented SaaS. The SDK APIs are kind of a mess/lacking, but the service is otherwise pretty reliable and easy to use.

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I'd be super concerned about using Baidu and Netease. If the marketing materials aren't translated into English, then it's a near certainty that support for English speaking customers will be subpar.

That said, I'm curious about demand/non-SaaS-oriented use of these computing platforms.

Alibaba Cloud doesn't have full support for English-speaking customers either. The billing interface is only in Chinese, and some of the core features are only available on their Chinese site (there are two separate logins with a nearly identical UI). There are also some issues that require a Chinese national with a verified identity to take care of.

You can get by with most things but I've found that you really need someone who can read Chinese to use it properly.

I would not recommend using any of the Chinese cloud services unless you need to reach the Chinese market.

And yes, there are all sorts of bureaucratic surprises that will make your blood boil.

What payment service do you use for subscriptions? I'm in Shanghai and nothing like Stripe (yet) here... without that infrastructure, it makes it tough.

Have you looked at Alipay[1]?

[1]: https://global.alipay.com/

Yeah of course, but they don't provide Stripe-like subscriptions (i.e., recurring payments). Ali just made a deal with Stripe, so maybe ultimately Stripe is the best bet.

My service is not subscription oriented, but I take Alipay and WeChat pay, which together probably account for >80% of potential customers. But you need a registered Chinese business entity.

Can you add ssl certs to Tcloud now? That used to be a pita.

They have a certificate management system where you can register for a free one from TrustAsia, or buy an expensive one from another authority like Symantec. I just got a free one.

You could just as easily bring your own or deploy a LetsEncrypt certificate to a bare machine though.

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