In a letter to his employees for the new year, Huawei chairman Guo Ping announced that the company’s revenue was down 29% from last year. The businessman ensures that these losses were already predicted by the Chinese giant, and says that its other activities continue to develop optimally.
Smartphone sales continue to tumble
Clearly, it is very difficult for Huawei to go up the slope. Hard hit by the American sanctions decided by Donald Trump since 2019, the firm is still strongly impacted by them. Unable to obtain electronic equipment from American companies or even from allies of the United States, Huawei has notably lost its Google license, and can therefore no longer run its smartphones on Android.
Xi’an lockdown threatens global RAM and flash memory production
If recently, the company rubbed shoulders with Samsung and Apple at the head of the biggest sellers of smartphones in the world, it continues to tumble in the rankings. As a result, it had to separate from its Honor division, and now equips its devices with its own operating system, HarmonyOS. In 2021, Huawei thus garnered nearly 99 billion dollars, a loss of 29% compared to 2020.
The good news for the manufacturer in 2021 was undoubtedly the return of its CFO, Meng Wanzhou. She had been detained in Canada for almost three years after being wanted by the United States on bank fraud charges related to the company’s alleged activities in Iran.
Huawei continues to bet on its telecom equipment. Illustration: Remy Lewandowski / Siècle Digital
A restructuring not efficient enough?
According to Guo Ping, the company is on a road ” bumpy, but rewarding “, And 2022 should bring him” its share of challenges “. To cope with US sanctions, Huawei has indeed broadly diversified its activities, announcing in particular a heavy investment in the field of autonomous driving, but also by developing in the sectors of health, finance and cloud computing. .
In addition, the firm remains one of the largest sellers of 5G equipment in the world. Although many Western countries have decided to ban them, this branch remains ” stable According to its president. But despite its many efforts to offset losses in smartphone sales, Huawei is unlikely to fully recover. ” Huawei’s smartphone business, which accounted for about half of the company’s revenue in 2020, is falling apart. Even with heroic efforts, Huawei will not be able to maneuver into new lines of business quickly enough to stop this bleeding. “, Declared Dan Wang, technology analyst at Gavekal Dragonomics, at Wall Street Journal.
While the United States absolutely does not seem to want to turn back, it now seems almost impossible for Huawei to catch up in the global smartphone sector … It remains to be seen whether its restructuring will bear fruit in this new year.