The pace of growth is that of an emerging country. But what emerges, in this case, is a telecommunications company. The Chinese giant Huawei, which is not listed on the stock exchange, recorded a +8,5% in turnover last year, to 28,2 billion euros. Net income was up 36%. Insensitive to the economic crisis that has hit its competitors, the group has scaled the sector and promises annual growth of 10%.
The take-off of Huawei will not be driven by the motherland China, which weighs no more than 35% of total revenues. Nor from the network for operators, which grew by just 4%. What makes the new smartphone dragon roar is the new telecommunications branch for businesses (+32%) and smartphone sales (+18%).
It has been at least 3 years since Huawei launched its offensive in the mobile device market, he explains to Les Echos Shao Yang, marketing director of the smartphone division: “We then announced our transformation: moving from mobile multimedia to smartphones, from enterprise to the general public, from contract manufacturing to our own brand.” Today, he adds, 95% of our devices are Huawei-branded, up from 3% 20 years ago.
Many European operators did not want to put the logo on their phones. Yet Huawei has managed to become the world's number 3, with 13,4 million smartphones sold in the third quarter of 2013 and 17,5 million in the fourth. It holds 5% of the market, according to IDC, far behind Samsung and Apple. The promise is to double sales to 80-100 million units this year.
