[ad_1]
- Huawei phones are still selling well in some parts of the world, but the Chinese tech giant on Friday reported earnings that nonetheless suggest a rocky road ahead for the company.
- While the company, the largest global technology company based in China, once spoke in broad and sweeping terms about its ambitions and strategy, Huawei’s mantra is now simply “survival.”
- Huawei’s fight is the result of an offensive led by the Trump administration against the company.
It wasn’t so long ago that Huawei’s billionaire founder and CEO Ren Zhengfei triumphantly insisted that the Trump administration’s blacklist banning Huawei phones and other components of the company’s business wouldn’t hurt him in the long run. In fact, Zhengfei once insisted that it wouldn’t matter if the company was kept on the blacklist indefinitely: “They may keep us there forever, because we’ll be fine without them,” Zhengfei promised in an interview in mid-November. just over a month before the coronavirus outbreak developed in China and brought its own set of problems.
Those were the days, when Huawei was still promising ambitious growth and credibly casting a shadow over rival phone makers Samsung and Apple. In early 2019, he became even more assertive, eliminating full-page and prominent ad space in major American publications ranging from The Washington Post to The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal Y USA Today, as much as Political Y Los Angeles Times. The ads encouraged readers not to assume that “everything they hear” about the company is correct and that “we would like the American public to know us better.”
Meanwhile, what a difference a year makes, along with sanctions, as well as a global pandemic. The mantra these days at Huawei no longer seems to be growth, but “survival.” Huawei’s rotating CEO Guo Ping recognized him during a conference in September, according to CNN, in which he said that the company “is in a difficult situation these days. The relentless aggression of the United States government has put us under significant pressure.
“Right now, survival is the goal.”
On Friday, the company released its latest earnings figures, including that it had generated 671.3 billion yuan ($ 101 billion) in revenue during the first nine months of 2020. That’s 10% more than in the year. Same period last year, but a clear slowdown from the 24% increase in revenue the company reported during the first three quarters of 2019.
“As the world grapples with Covid-19, (the) global supply chain came under intense pressure and its production and operations experienced increasing difficulties,” Huawei said in a statement on Friday of its latest earnings, to come. in conjunction with the launch of its latest flagship phone, the Mate 40.
Huawei, the company’s statement continues, “will do everything possible to find solutions, survive … and meet its obligations to customers and suppliers.”
Huawei rose to first place this year on the list of companies ranked by the number of smartphones sold, but analysts have speculated that it could be because the coronavirus pandemic has not affected all parts of the world or all markets in China. uniformly. As things get back to normal, the expectation is for Samsung to lead again.
Meanwhile, Huawei launched the Mate 40 on Thursday. And in remarks related to the launch, Huawei’s consumer business group CEO Richard Yu again noted that the company is “suffering” from the US-led crackdown and is in an “extremely difficult” spot in this moment.
Andy is a Memphis reporter who also contributes to outlets like Fast Company and The Guardian. When he’s not writing about tech, he can be found hunched over protectively over his burgeoning vinyl collection, as well as nurturing his whovianism and choking on a variety of TV shows he probably doesn’t like.
[ad_2]
