Huawei reports growth in revenue for 2020
Huawei’s revenue and net profit continued to grow in 2020, despite the pandemic and US sanctions, the Chinese tech giant said on Wednesday.
The company will roll out its Harmony operating system on its smartphones and continue producing high-end smartphones in spite of the sanctions and a shortage of chips, Ken Hu, Huawei's rotating chairman, said during an online conference.
Huawei’s revenue reached 891.4 billion yuan (US$139.2 billion) last year, up 3.8 percent year on year. Its net profit hit 64.6 billion yuan, a growth of 3.2 percent from the previous year. Business growth slowed but was in line with company forecasts, Huawei said.
"We've held strong in the face of adversity," Hu said during a speech titled “Riding through the night.” He mentioned Huawei’s growth on consumer electronics, cloud and opportunities during the epidemic for information infrastructure upgrades.
Huawei’s consumer business growth slowed in 2020 with a 3.3 percent growth rate, due to US sanctions having a “direct impact,” Hu said, though tablets and wristbands partly offset the decrease in smartphone revenue.
US sanctions forbid US tech, covering chips, systems and applications, being used in Huawei’s smartphones.
Huawei developed its own Harmony system, which is now supported by over 20 hardware device makers and 280 application developers.
The company plans to roll out Harmony on Huawei’s new smartphones, Hu added. The models may include upcoming flagship models the P50 and Mate 50.
Huawei is to diversify its business in the intelligent car system sector, Hu said during a Q&A session.
In 2020, Huawei's carrier business grew steadily at 0.2 percent with its networks used in more than 170 countries and regions, including many 5G networks.
Its enterprise business grew 23 percent in 2020, thanks to booming demand for information structure upgrades such as cloud and artificial intelligence.
Demand will be fueled in the long term with applications such as gaming, online learning, e-commerce and digital transformation in various industries, Hu added.