5 ms·

Huawei’s Revenue Hits Record $122B in 2019 Despite U.S. Campaign

44 points by vo2maxer 7y ago

rogerkirkness 7y ago
They are the Apple + Cisco of not-America parts of the world.
- Cyph0n 7y ago
  Huawei competes with Cisco mostly outside of EU and NA. Disclaimer: I work in Cisco’s SP routing group.
rolltiide 7y ago
That's pretty amazing, I feel like sanctioning as a tool will fall apart pretty soon and this is a validation of that
- PostOnce 7y ago
  Sanctions are a means to enforce either one nation's will--or the standards of the global community--without resorting to open war. Let us hope sanctions don't fall apart as a tool, lest we end up with a much less pleasant tool: war.
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
- Kurd 7y ago
  Nah, there is only so much $ the CPC can throw at them.
- wyxuan 7y ago
  Sanctions work best as a threat in theory, rather than a actual threat. They do work, just look at Iran. It has to be a United front though
lettergram 7y ago
52% of their business in 2018 came directly from China. I suspect China also supported them with additional spending in 2019 (for this headline). 11% of their business came from other south pacific countries (which they have a large stake in) 6% from the Americas. 30% of their revenue came from Europe-Africa-Middle East, which is the real "battle ground" for them. https://www.huawei.com/us/press-events/annual-report/2018 https://www.huawei.com/us/press-events/annual-report/2018
- avocado4 7y ago
  52% domestic, the rest heavily subsidized exports (essentially CCP giving out networking infra for free around the world). Rate of growth slower than expected, according the the article.
- atlasunshrugged 7y ago
  Yes, I'll be really interested to see what happens in Europe in particular as the US has longer term relationships with governments and others there and you would think this would lead to fewer contracts (at least on the govt/large company front). That said, many of my colleagues in Europe even though they know about Huawei's potential transfer of data to China and are no fans of the Chinese government still choose their phones based on price and many of the countries I visit (Kyiv, France, etc.) have nice Huawei showrooms and seem to be doing good business. When asking colleagues about why they would choose Huawei aside from price (all of them could afford Apple if they wanted) the common response I got was that everyone is spying on everyone anyways and usually a joke about is China really any worse than the U.S.
  - hrktb 7y ago
    > joke about is China really any worse than the U.S. Most people of my generation didn’t see that much of the cold war but still understood what was done during that time on both side, and that from very early in their life. A lot of people are not joking when they say they don’t trust the US, and tend to pay more attention to the control the US has on the tech and media sectors, even if the US is a long time ally.
neya 7y ago
I live in a Chinese dominated country. I can tell you this is because of the absurd nationalistic view that the Chinese hold. For example, I know atleast 5 co-workers who sold their iPhones to get a Huawei when the sanction was made. Part of the reason was Huawei phones' prices (even new ones) drastically dropped when the announcement of no more Android support was made, so these guys (and girls) got it at a super good price, but most of it is due to the nationalistic view that they hold towards China. "US is evil, I should support China at such times!" this was the explanation I was given. I was blown away that people could be so nationalistic. I'm neither Chinese nor American, so it was interesting to observe from a neutral standpoint, such nationalistic attitude from people who held double degrees / PhDs who simply believed US is evil and China is the victim. This was very noticeable when Huawei's CFO was arrested. I tried to understand why, so I threw many arguments at them such as Huawei was actually caught sending data back to 3rd party servers in China and I even tried explaining maybe the sanction is on them because they broke the law/agreement w/ the US. But it didn't seem to change anything about the way they thought. They still went ahead and purchased Huawei products like crazy.
- KorematsuFred 7y ago
  I live in India and not a big fan of China but I purchased a Huawei phone recently. I think Huwei benefited from the publicity they got through US campaign against them.
  - atlasunshrugged 7y ago
    I was wondering whether it would be a benefit for them to be knocked by the American govt in some places. I guessed for sure in the ME but I'm a bit surprised about India, I would have figured they would be more on the US side. Or is it that they just benefited from increased name recognition rather than name recognition tied to being harried by the US
    - nine_zeros 7y ago
      Indian people don't give any fs about politics. All they want is best value for price. At the moment, American bullying is not providing that.
monocasa 7y ago
I mean, I love Matebook Pro.
- throwaway1997 7y ago
  As far as ripoff items go, it's not bad
  - monocasa 7y ago
    It fits my use case way better than Macbooks these days, and the build quality is comparable.
neonate 7y ago
http://archive.md/Fcuc5 http://archive.md/Fcuc5
gjooberb 7y ago
Are military veterans a protected class for employment purposes? How does one steal technology that no other company posses?
ktln2 7y ago
Huawei is (essentially) a state-owned company - I don't think they are calculating revenue using external auditor and comply with GAAP. It is not comparable with any publicly traded companies.
- bigpumpkin 7y ago
  This is false. KPMG audits Huawei's financial statements, and the financial statements are prepared in accordance to IFRS.
  - atlasunshrugged 7y ago
    I've heard about quite a few times KPMG has worked hand in hand with the people it was supposed to be auditing so I'm not sure that's a big plus (ex. S. Africa scandals)
- Iwan-Zotow 7y ago
  1. They use external auditor - KPMG. "KPMG has been Huawei's independent auditor since 2000". 2. "and comply with GAAP" - they don't. Accounting in China is IFRS based, as far as I know.
elfexec 7y ago
Their revenue is below expectations. Their revenue growth is lower than a year ago. And they lowered expectations for 2020. In other words, the revenue is projected to hit $122B because of the US sanctions, not despite it. Otherwise, the revenue, growth and expectations would have been a lot higher. Wish the "news" would just print the facts without the spin for a change.

44 points by vo2maxer 7y ago

rogerkirkness 7y ago

They are the Apple + Cisco of not-America parts of the world.

Cyph0n 7y ago
Huawei competes with Cisco mostly outside of EU and NA. Disclaimer: I work in Cisco’s SP routing group.

rolltiide 7y ago

That's pretty amazing, I feel like sanctioning as a tool will fall apart pretty soon and this is a validation of that

PostOnce 7y ago
Sanctions are a means to enforce either one nation's will--or the standards of the global community--without resorting to open war. Let us hope sanctions don't fall apart as a tool, lest we end up with a much less pleasant tool: war.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
Kurd 7y ago
Nah, there is only so much $ the CPC can throw at them.
wyxuan 7y ago
Sanctions work best as a threat in theory, rather than a actual threat. They do work, just look at Iran. It has to be a United front though

lettergram 7y ago

52% of their business in 2018 came directly from China. I suspect China also supported them with additional spending in 2019 (for this headline). 11% of their business came from other south pacific countries (which they have a large stake in) 6% from the Americas. 30% of their revenue came from Europe-Africa-Middle East, which is the real "battle ground" for them. https://www.huawei.com/us/press-events/annual-report/2018 https://www.huawei.com/us/press-events/annual-report/2018

avocado4 7y ago
52% domestic, the rest heavily subsidized exports (essentially CCP giving out networking infra for free around the world). Rate of growth slower than expected, according the the article.
atlasunshrugged 7y ago
Yes, I'll be really interested to see what happens in Europe in particular as the US has longer term relationships with governments and others there and you would think this would lead to fewer contracts (at least on the govt/large company front). That said, many of my colleagues in Europe even though they know about Huawei's potential transfer of data to China and are no fans of the Chinese government still choose their phones based on price and many of the countries I visit (Kyiv, France, etc.) have nice Huawei showrooms and seem to be doing good business. When asking colleagues about why they would choose Huawei aside from price (all of them could afford Apple if they wanted) the common response I got was that everyone is spying on everyone anyways and usually a joke about is China really any worse than the U.S.
- hrktb 7y ago
  > joke about is China really any worse than the U.S. Most people of my generation didn’t see that much of the cold war but still understood what was done during that time on both side, and that from very early in their life. A lot of people are not joking when they say they don’t trust the US, and tend to pay more attention to the control the US has on the tech and media sectors, even if the US is a long time ally.

neya 7y ago

I live in a Chinese dominated country. I can tell you this is because of the absurd nationalistic view that the Chinese hold. For example, I know atleast 5 co-workers who sold their iPhones to get a Huawei when the sanction was made. Part of the reason was Huawei phones' prices (even new ones) drastically dropped when the announcement of no more Android support was made, so these guys (and girls) got it at a super good price, but most of it is due to the nationalistic view that they hold towards China. "US is evil, I should support China at such times!" this was the explanation I was given. I was blown away that people could be so nationalistic. I'm neither Chinese nor American, so it was interesting to observe from a neutral standpoint, such nationalistic attitude from people who held double degrees / PhDs who simply believed US is evil and China is the victim. This was very noticeable when Huawei's CFO was arrested. I tried to understand why, so I threw many arguments at them such as Huawei was actually caught sending data back to 3rd party servers in China and I even tried explaining maybe the sanction is on them because they broke the law/agreement w/ the US. But it didn't seem to change anything about the way they thought. They still went ahead and purchased Huawei products like crazy.

KorematsuFred 7y ago
I live in India and not a big fan of China but I purchased a Huawei phone recently. I think Huwei benefited from the publicity they got through US campaign against them.
- atlasunshrugged 7y ago
  I was wondering whether it would be a benefit for them to be knocked by the American govt in some places. I guessed for sure in the ME but I'm a bit surprised about India, I would have figured they would be more on the US side. Or is it that they just benefited from increased name recognition rather than name recognition tied to being harried by the US
  - nine_zeros 7y ago
    Indian people don't give any fs about politics. All they want is best value for price. At the moment, American bullying is not providing that.

monocasa 7y ago

I mean, I love Matebook Pro.

throwaway1997 7y ago
As far as ripoff items go, it's not bad
- monocasa 7y ago
  It fits my use case way better than Macbooks these days, and the build quality is comparable.

neonate 7y ago

http://archive.md/Fcuc5 http://archive.md/Fcuc5

gjooberb 7y ago

Are military veterans a protected class for employment purposes? How does one steal technology that no other company posses?

ktln2 7y ago

Huawei is (essentially) a state-owned company - I don't think they are calculating revenue using external auditor and comply with GAAP. It is not comparable with any publicly traded companies.

bigpumpkin 7y ago
This is false. KPMG audits Huawei's financial statements, and the financial statements are prepared in accordance to IFRS.
- atlasunshrugged 7y ago
  I've heard about quite a few times KPMG has worked hand in hand with the people it was supposed to be auditing so I'm not sure that's a big plus (ex. S. Africa scandals)
Iwan-Zotow 7y ago
1. They use external auditor - KPMG. "KPMG has been Huawei's independent auditor since 2000". 2. "and comply with GAAP" - they don't. Accounting in China is IFRS based, as far as I know.

elfexec 7y ago

Their revenue is below expectations. Their revenue growth is lower than a year ago. And they lowered expectations for 2020. In other words, the revenue is projected to hit $122B because of the US sanctions, not despite it. Otherwise, the revenue, growth and expectations would have been a lot higher. Wish the "news" would just print the facts without the spin for a change.