Beirut, January 7, 2018: In a New Year letter sent by Huawei Rotating Chairman Guo Ping to the company 180 thousand employees worldwide, he expresses his confidence about the company business performance as Huawei never stopped pushing forward, and as a result the company 2018 sales revenue is expected to reach 108.5 billion US dollars, up 21% year-on-year.
Listing some 2018 milestones, he mentioned that Huawei has signed 26 commercial contracts for 5G with leading global carriers, and have already shipped more than 10,000 5G base stations to markets around the world. More than 160 cities and 211 Fortune Global 500 companies have selected Huawei as their partner for digital transformation. Huawei shipped more than 200 million smartphones, and has made remarkable breakthroughs in PC business and IoT ecosystem for smart homes. Huawei Cloud has launched over 140 cloud services in 18 categories, and Huawei is working with partners to serve global customers with 37 availability zones across 22 regions. This year, the company also announced AI strategy and launched a full-stack portfolio of AI solutions for all scenarios. This portfolio includes the world’s first all-scenario AI chips–our Ascend series–as well as related products and cloud services.
As a result of all the previously mentioned milestones, Gou Ping said: “Our business performance remains strong, and this is by far the most direct form of validation that we can receive from our customers. It is also our best response to negative conjecture and market restrictions”.
“In the coming year, we will see new waves of development in digitization and intelligence, and we may very well encounter even greater difficulties. In times like this, we must summon our inner strength, improve the quality of our operations, inspire passion across the organization, and continue forging ahead to satisfy customer needs and achieve strategic leadership”. He added.
About 2019, he said: “In 2019, we will focus on strategic businesses and strategic opportunities and build a more resilient business structure. He highlighted that Huawei products and solutions have earned the trust of customers in more than 170 countries and regions, and stressed that Huawei has a very strong track record in cyber security, emphasizing that “Huawei has never and will never present a security threat”.
In 2019, the company intends to look out for others, collaborate for shared success, and build a favorable business ecosystem. As the dynamic between world powers becomes more intense, we will see even greater uncertainty in the macro business environment. “We aren’t equipped to change the macro environment, but what we can do is keep our feet on the ground and improve the business ecosystem for our own industry”.
On compliance, Guo Ping said: “Going global means complying with the laws of all countries and regions where we operate. This is the most important basis for us to survive, serve, and contribute to the world at large. We must continue to incorporate compliance requirements into all business activities through carefully aligned policy, systems, organizations, processes, culture, training, and communications. These requirements must be ingrained in the awareness and behavior of each and every Huawei employee. We must not be discouraged by malicious incidents or temporary setbacks, and must remain determined to achieve global leadership. Setbacks will only make us more courageous, and incredibly unfair treatment will drive us to become the world’s number one”.
Huawei today is a member of more than 380 industry organizations, where we serve in 300+ key positions and submit more than 6,000 proposals each year. We are ahead of others in domains like wireless, optical, data communications, and smart devices.
Commenting on the current 5G challenges and allegations Huawei is faced with, Guo Ping said: “For 5G markets that choose to not work with Huawei–they will be like an NBA game without star players: the game will go on, but with less deftness, flair, and expertise”.
“As for new developments in technologies like AI, big data, and cloud, we are in sync with the industry and primed to take the lead” he added.
In his letter closing remarks, he said: “the years ahead, the ICT industry will continue to overflow with excitement and promise. Digital transformation is in full swing, and we find ourselves at the cusp of an intelligent world. Consumers are actively looking for more advanced, more trustworthy digital technologies and services. Going digital and intelligent will be a long process, so we need to keep innovating and delivering cutting-edge results”.
On a related note, Huawei said it will ramp up 5G development efforts. The company is rolling up its sleeves, vowing to push on with its 5G network development despite its technology being banned by some Western nations. Huawei Chairman Liang Hua told media last week that the firm’s operations remain “normal” even as it faces a “complicated environment”.
“In the face of a crisis of confidence from the West, first we must do our own work well, and continue to build Huawei’s competitiveness in the field of 5G,” Liang said. “We believe that customers will make their own decisions.” To that end, Huawei is planning to release its first 5G-enabled smartphone in the first half of 2019 and will achieve “commercial scale” of those phones by the second half of 2019, Liang added.