Huawei Q1 Revenue Jumped 39%, Deploys 5G Worldwide

Huawei, the Chinese telecom major has notched up nearly 40 percent increase in its year-on-year revenue in the first quarter, according to results announced Monday.

In Q1 2019, the networking equipment major had a revenue jump of 179.7 billion yuan or $26.8 billion.

This impressive feat was achieved despite a negative campaign by the U.S government that the company is close to the Chinese government, it has been receiving money from China’s state organs and evidence behind criminal cases against the top brass of the company in the U.S.

Message from the quarterly earnings report

It is the first time Huawei is releasing a quarterly earnings report departing from the practice of normal half yearly or full-year results.

It is a message that the company’s sales are growing handsomely. However, some glitches are there. Huawei was banned from involving in the rollout of 5G in Australia and Japan, two allies of the U.S.

The U.S. has been urging countries like Germany and the U.K. to keep out Huawei from 5G, but they are yet to oblige.

The U.S projects Huawei as a national security threat, saying its equipment could be the hidden gateway for the Chinese government to hack and indulge in pilferage. But Huawei denies those charges.

In a media interview, Huawei’s founder Ren Zhengfei mocked the U.S. saying it is doing free advertisement service for the company.

A powerful country like the U.S talking as if it is scared of a small company and then talking too much about Huawei is offering free advertising, Ren noted.

5G growth impressive

Huawei has stated, “2019 will be a year of large-scale deployment of 5G around the world” and hoped the carrier business will evolve into an area of unprecedented growth.

By March-end, for 5G, it signed 40 commercial contracts with leading global carriers and shipped more than 70,000 5G base stations to markets around the world.

Meanwhile, the U.S campaign against Huawei also shows no sign of abatement. Latest is the report by CIA claiming evidence of Huawei having received “funding from branches of Beijing’s state security apparatus.”

According to the CIA, the Chinese telecom company took money from the People’s Liberation Army, China’s National Security Commission, and Chinese intelligence network.

But the way Huawei is growing shows the world is not caring much about the U.S campaign.

Aiming to surpass Samsung on smartphones

In smartphones too, the first quarter shows Huwaei shipped 59 million smartphones, per a press release.

The hyper-growth of Huawei is set to fuel its ambition of overtaking Samsung. Huawei has set 2020 as the target for surpassing Samsung.

Unlike Huawei’s bullish results, Samsung had a lackluster Q1 result in April. The Korean smartphone major reported the “steepest Q1 profit slide in 4 years” after smartphone sales looked flat.

Shipping 59 million smartphones in Q1, Huawei had the best of growth in all major markets. In fact, the Chinese company’s Q1 growth has exceeded expectations, noted Zaker Li from IHS Markit.

Huawei is aiming to overtake Apple in phone shipments this year and may close the gap with market leader Samsung by year-end, reports said.