Chinese Internet company Sohu.com has announced plans to build a new research and development center in Wuhan, Hubei province, and it will set up a joint laboratory in collaboration with Huazhong University of Science and Technology.

According to Zhou Lin, vice president of Sohu.com, the new Wuhan R&D center will focus on new businesses such as cloud computing. The initial projects of the new center will be reportedly located in the Optical Valley International building, which is close to Huazhong University of Science and Technology. The new R&D center will have nearly 100 employees by the end of 2012.

Zhou told local media that cloud computing and mobile Internet are the new trends for Internet industry development. Sohu.com is committed to promoting technical products, and providing quality Internet content and service experiences to users. They believe that Wuhan R&D center will further enhance the company's advantages in technical product competitiveness.

Sohu.com said that Wuhan has over one million university students, which will become rich talent resources. Meanwhile, as the largest city in central China, Wuhan is a core region for the future development of the nation. Prior to this, Sohu.com cooperated with the Wuhan Optoelectronics National Laboratory of Huazhong University of Science and Technology in the joint development of a large file storage project. Based on the cloud storage technology, this project will provide the key structural basis for Sohu.com's cloud computing platform and will offer strong support to the technical development of the company.