FILE PHOTO: A Tencent sign is seen during the China Digital Entertainment Expo and Conference (ChinaJoy) in Shanghai, China August 3, 2018. REUTERS/Aly Song/File Photo

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Tencent Holdings on Friday said it has entered the cloud service market in Japan and the company targeted up to five-fold growth in international revenue of its cloud business this year.

Tencent Cloud, the second-largest cloud service provider in China behind Alibaba Cloud, said at a launch event in Tokyo that it would focus on servicing gaming firms and it would partner with Japanese companies including Pitaya and E-business.

Japan is a key market for Tencent Cloud’s internationalization strategy, and Tencent’s expertise as the world’s largest gaming company would help it provide cloud service to gaming firms, said Da Zhiqian, a vice president of Tencent Cloud.

The Chinese social media and gaming firm is undergoing a restructuring process in an attempt to expand into enterprise services. Its nascent cloud business contributed 9.1 billion yuan ($1.32 billion), or 3% of Tencent’s total revenue in 2018, according to its annual report.