There is a variety of providers that offer free cloud storage. Although free solutions provide a limited amount of space, they may be a practical choice when you only need to store a few files. Even in China it is possible to find services that allow users to enjoy free storage and one of them even provides up to one TB of storage without charge. This sounds like an incredible offer, but it is unlikely that people outside China use a cloud storage service in that location.
The cloud storage industry in China
The main cloud services in China are Yunio and Weiyun and they work in the same way as other options around the world. Users can upload content and store it off-site in the cloud platform. They support desktop and mobile uploading and offer features like password protection and file sharing. That is where the similarity ends, because unlike their counterparts outside China, Yunio and Weiyun offer an incredible amount of storage space for free. While Dropbox gives users up to 2GB of free cloud storage, Yunio and Weiyun provides 1TB and up to 10TB respectively.
The outstanding amount of free storage service offered is what gives an important advantage to Chinese cloud storage providers. However, there are other factors to consider before moving to a Chinese cloud storage service. Many users don’t want their data to be stored outside their location and others may have concerns regarding the security and performance of a cloud storage service in China. Some of these services are not reliable and their infrastructure is not as solid as what leading global providers have implemented. There are limit on the amount of data that can be uploaded or shared at once. You may also experience significant delays when uploading data.
In addition, it is important to keep in mind that the laws in China are more strict when it comes to the content that can be stored. Some files may be considered as unacceptable and it is likely that the providers, under the government’s orders, monitor the data closely. In fact, some companies in China have been warned by the government to ensure that they keep an eye to the content that they store. For many users, this will be a major downside since it means that they are subject to restrictions on what they can keep on their cloud account.
It is also important to note that security threats can affect cloud storage users, regardless of the location of their service. However, things can be more complicated in China, given that the terms and conditions you agree too would be in Chinese. Although the large amount of free storage space that Chinese providers offer sounds very tempting, it should not be the only reason you consider when it comes to switching to a service in that country.
Hopefully anyone using cloud storage is encrypting the data before it is transferred. In that case, the Chinese service providers are unable to determine what content is being stored. I would not trust a cloud provider to guard my business data, whether they are located in China or not.