Huawei Posts Impressive $100B Revenue In 2018, ‘Shakes Off’ US Ban

Despite the United States slapping criminal charges on China’s telecom major Huawei, its business is soaring and it posted $100 billion-plus revenue for the year 2018.

On Friday, Huawei reported its annual results for 2018 at $105 billion.

Announcing the results, Guo Ping, the company’s Rotating chairman said the company recorded revenue growth of 19.5 percent in 2018 making it cross the $100 billion benchmark for the first time braving many political headwinds. The company reported profit growth of 25 percent to 59.3 billion yuan ($8.7 billion).

From the annual revenue point of view, Huawei has now joined the league of Microsoft and Google on a global scale.

Huawei is a global telecommunications equipment maker based in China and a rising smartphone brand as well, competing with Samsung and Apple.

Speaking at the company’s headquarters in Shenzhen, Guo said, “we will do everything to shake off outside distractions, improve management and make progress toward our strategic goals.”

Good profit yet carrier business slips

Despite the bumper profits in 2018 Huwaei reported negative growth in the globally appealing carrier business. The carrier business segment dropped 1.3 percent which covers telecommunications products including 5G equipment.

That may be reflecting the strain in the wake of the U.S-led campaign against buying 5G gear from the company.

But Guo defended the decline in carrier business citing the company’s higher investment in research and development in 2018.

The United States has been persuading allies not to use Huawei's equipment for the next generation wireless technology, or 5G saying it will lead to espionage and cyber crimes.

Impressive growth in the smartphone business

But the highlight of the annual earnings was the big revenue from Huawei's smartphones and consumer electronics business that exceeded the sales of its flagship telecom equipment.

The consumer business accounted for nearly half of the total sales. In 2018, Huawei sold 200 million plus smartphones taking the consumer business revenue to $52 billion, showing a hike of more than 45 percent.

Huwaei P20 is a high-demand smartphone. Huawei’s smartphone sales growth was 33 percent in 2018, compared with Samsung’s 8 percent and Apple’s 3 percent dip in sales, according to IDC figures.

Responding to a question on guidance for 2019, Guo said he expects double-digit growth in 2019, despite the headwinds.

“With the 5G investments made by the carriers this year, and industry digitalization opportunities and growing consumer demand, Huawei will still enjoy double-digit growth in this year,” Guo added.

US criminal charges against Huawei

In the U.S, Huawei faces criminal charges with its chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou facing extradition to the country. Meng is accused of violating US sanctions on Iran, which the company and Meng have denied.