(Yicai Global) Sept. 20 -- Alibaba's cloud unit, which is now active in 24 countries, wants to start making more money outside of China, according to its President Simon Hu.

Hu hopes that Alibaba Cloud will bring in half of its income from foreign countries in future, he said at the firm's annual developer conference yesterday. Total revenue almost doubled over the first six months to CNY710 million (USD105 million), but the majority of that came from the domestic market, he said, without giving an exact breakdown between income from at home and abroad.

Alibaba Group Holding launched Alibaba Cloud in 2009 and it is now the largest provider of public cloud computing services for companies, government administrations and other institutions in China, Hu added. But exploration and development of cloud services is much more difficult than e-commerce and mobile payments, two other field where Alibaba is a major player, Hu said.

The cloud arm protects all client data by storing it locally when it operates overseas, he continued, adding that Alibaba Cloud strictly complies with the laws and regulations in the new territories it enters. There has been no litigation to date, Hu said.

One of the key foreign countries the company hopes to crack is India, where Hu believes there are many potential business opportunities. Alibaba Cloud began looking at India two years ago and has already recruited employees for the local team, he said when asked about the plans.

The firm expects to provide services for the digital transformation of small- to medium-sized enterprises in the country by localizing Alibaba Cloud technology, Hu added.

Editor: James Boynton