Huawei profit rises 76% to $17.8 billion in 2021

Satyendra Pathak Doha Chinese networking and smartphone giant Huawei on Monday unveiled its annual results at a briefing telecast live in a number of cou...

Satyendra Pathak Doha Chinese networking and smartphone giant Huawei on Monday unveiled its annual results at a briefing telecast live in a number of countries including Qatar.Many journalists from Qatar attended the live briefing where the company revealed that it had maintained solid operations throughout the past year. As per the annual report for 2021, Huawei achieved $99.9 billion in revenue in 2021, and $17.8 billion in net profits, an increase of 75.9 percent year on year. The company’s R&D expenditure reached about $22.38 billion in 2021, representing 22.4 percent of its total revenue, and bringing its total R&D expenditure over the past 10 years to over $132.5 billion. Moving forward, the company also plans to continuously increase investment in R&D.Speaking at the press conference Huawei Rotating Chairman Guo Ping said, “Overall, our performance was in line with forecast. Our carrier business remained stable, our enterprise business experienced steady growth, and our consumer business quickly expanded into new domains. In addition, we embarked on a fast track of ecosystem development.”Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou, who also spoke at the event, said, “Despite a revenue decline in 2021, our ability to make a profit and generate cash flows is increasing, and we are more capable of dealing with uncertainty.” Thanks to the enhanced profitability of its major businesses, the company’s cash flow from operating activities dramatically increased in 2021, amounting to $9.3 billion. Its liability ratio also dropped to 57.8 percent, and its overall financial structure has become more resilient and flexible.In 2021, Huawei’s carrier business generated $44.1 billion in revenue and helped carriers around the world deploy leading 5G networks. Third-party test results have found that 5G networks built by Huawei for customers in 13 countries, including Switzerland, Germany, Finland, the Netherlands, South Korea, and Saudi Arabia, provide the best user experience. By working with carriers and partners, Huawei has signed more than 3,000 commercial contracts for industrial 5G applications. These kinds of 5G applications are currently seeing large-scale commercial use in sectors like manufacturing, mines, iron and steel plants, ports, and hospitals.Thanks to continuing digital transformation trends, Huawei’s enterprise business also grew rapidly, generating $16.06 billion in revenue in 2021. In the past year, Huawei launched 11 scenario-based solutions for key sectors such as government, transportation, finance, energy, and manufacturing. The company also established multiple dedicated teams, including a Coal Mine Team, a Smart Road Team, and a Customs and Port Team, to combine resources in a way that more efficiently serves the needs of its customers. Over 700 cities and 267 Fortune Global 500 companies have chosen Huawei as their digital transformation partner and Huawei now works with more than 6,000 service and operation partners around the world.Huawei’s consumer business zeroed in on consumer wants and needs, further building out the global ecosystem for a smart, all-connected era, as part of the company’s Seamless AI Life strategy for consumers around the world. This business generated $38.17 billion in revenue in 2021 and continued to see steady sales growth in smart wearables, smart screens, true wireless stereo (TWS) earbuds, and Huawei Mobile Services (HMS). In particular, the smart wearable and smart screen segments both saw more than 30 percent year-on-year growth. In total, HarmonyOS was used in over 220 million Huawei devices as of 2021, becoming the world’s fastest-growing mobile device operating system.During the past year, Huawei also focused on building out its openEuler, MindSpore, and HarmonyOS ecosystems based on the principles of open collaboration and shared growth. Over eight million developers are currently using Huawei’s open platforms, open-source software, and development tools to explore new business scenarios and business models.Guo said, “Moving forward, Huawei will advance its journey of digitalization, intelligent transformation, and low carbon. Relying on talent, scientific research, and an innovative spirit, we will continuously increase investment to reshape our paradigms for fundamental theories, architecture, and software, and build our long-term competitiveness.”