By Yifan Wang

Tencent Holdings Ltd. launched four new data centers in Bangkok, Frankfurt, Hong Kong and Tokyo, as the Chinese technology giant stepped up its overseas expansion in the booming industry.

The addition was the latest move by Tencent to push into data-center markets around the world, months after opening new facilities in South Korea, Indonesia and Singapore. The company also plans to launch a new site in Bahrain by the end of the year.

After the new launch, Tencent's cloud operations--renting processing power and data-storage services to external clients--would cover 27 regions globally, the company said in a statement Thursday. The decision to open four new centers across Europe and Asia at the same time "is a significant development in our strategy to rapidly and efficiently expand our international portfolio," said Poshu Yeung, a Tencent senior vice president in charge of its international cloud business.

China's top tech companies have increasingly forayed into the fast-expanding cloud market, as their traditional businesses face rising competition and slowing growth. Tencent's fintech and business-services segment revenue, which includes cloud computing, jumped 47% in the March quarter, compared to a 17% rise in its main games revenue.

Tencent is now the third-largest provider of cloud-infrastructure service in China, behind Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Huawei Technologies Co., but globally lags behind Amazon.com Inc.'s Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Corp.'s Azure and Google Cloud, according to market-research firm Canalys.

"We are also planning to have over 30% growth in terms of our IDCs all over the world by end of this year," Mr. Yeung said, referring to internet data centers.

Write to Yifan Wang at yifan.wang@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

06-03-21 0301ET