SAP, the Germany-based leading multinational software corporation, met or exceeded all of its outlook metrics in 2018, with a new target of more than three times of cloud revenue by 2023. Its CEO Bill McDermott expects a stronger 2019, emphasizing the company's ambitious strategy in China in the future.

SAP released its 2018 financial report this Tuesday, citing that "even after multiple guidance raised during the year, met or exceeded all of its 2018 outlook metrics." That came as revenues from cloud subscriptions and support surged 32 percent year-on-year.

Overall, SAP's cloud and software revenues were 20.6 billion euros (about 23.5 billion U.S. dollars), up five percent from the previous year. "We offered an extremely strong year… We kept the promise of having a great year," the CEO said.

SAP's rapidly-expanding cloud business together with solid growth in support revenue continued to drive the share of more predictable revenue. And McDermott elaborated the reason behind its fast growth.

"We perfectly design and engineer the software to work on the cloud. And there is no reason to add complexity anymore. Simplicity is the way of the day. Quick time to value is what our customers and partners want. And that's what we are doing and why we are growing so much faster than others," he elaborated.

Meanwhile, McDermott denies any concern over SAP's core business -- software, stressing that "our core business has obviously remained resilient and strong. [Do] not worry SAP's growth engine.”

The company forecasts another 33 to 39 percent revenue growth in its strong performing cloud subscription and support segment, and another 8.5 to 10 percent gain in software and cloud services for 2019. 

McDermott is also optimistic about the company's performance this year, noting that digital transformation would help amid uncertainties. "We are going to have an outstanding year again in 2019. The company is ready to continue to grow… When you look at this year, you cannot take a step back and say 'wow, the noise in the market has not been consistent with what we have been here for some time.' There are all economic uncertainties, but what is totally consistent is that every company is to meet the digital transformation," he claimed.

McDermott highlighted the importance of the Chinese market, defining it as its fastest growing market over the past years. 

"China has been the fastest growing market for SAP for quite some time. It's not the biggest, but (it) leads the fastest growing [market]… China has been a great partner of SAP. We have been doubling our investments almost every year in China. And we will continue to do so," McDermott emphasized.

Last year, SAP expanded the channels through which buyers can interact with and purchase SAP solutions to access Chinese Alibaba Cloud (AliCloud) Marketplace. In light of cooperation with Alibaba, the CEO has seen tremendous opportunities.

“We are honored by partnership we have in China… We felt we have tremendous opportunities with AliCloud," he added.

SAP announced an acquisition of global leading experience management provider Qualtrics last year. The CEO forecasted that the deal would add SAP's revenue in the coming years, and he is confident that the company's revenues are to hit 35 billion euros (about 40 billion U.S. dollars) in 2023. 

"We made a significant acquisition of Qualtrics… We basically said that we are going to triple our business by 2023," McDermott projected positively.