Huawei Projects $2.7B Enterprise Revenue in 2013, Sets Sights on Europe

Huawei declares during the company’s annual Global Analyst Summit in Shenzhen, China that it is gearing up its enterprise platform business strategy over the next five years. The focus is on enterprise information and communications technology (ICT) solutions and integration with the ecosystem of the global enterprise. A Huawei exec also says that the company is “not interested in the U.S. market anymore” and has plans to expand its reach in the European market.

Huawei estimates “sales revenue to reach $2.7 billion in 2013”

“With the industry’s most comprehensive product line and Huawei's ongoing strategic investment in the enterprise domain, we expect Huawei Enterprise's sales revenue to reach $2.7 billion in 2013, achieving a sales revenue target of $10 billion by 2017,” said William Xu, CEO of Huawei Enterprise Business Group.

China-based Huawei sells enterprise platforms through its channel partners. The company claims that, at the close of 2012, it has over 3,500 channel partners, and that by the end of 2013, it will have 5,400.

“With product lines that cover various ICT fields, including: enterprise networks, information technology, unified communication and collaboration and enterprise wireless technology, Huawei features a more comprehensive product and solution portfolio than its peers,” remarked Patrick Zhang, president of Marketing and Solutions at Huawei Enterprise Business Group. Zhang also elaborated on how Huawei Enterprise aimed to address market needs. He said that the company would concentrate its resources to create “advanced and value-added products.”

In March 2013, Huawei announced the addition of an AnyOffice-based BYOD solution and eLTE broadband trunking products to its portfolio.

Huawei “not interested in the U.S. market anymore”

The South China Morning Post (SCMP) has quoted Huawei’s executive vice president Eric Xu saying that the company is “not interested in the US market anymore.”

“Today we face reality and we focus on the rest of the world,” said Li Sanqi, CTO of Huawei’s carrier network division, the segment of the company that generates close to three quarters of Huawei’s revenue.

It can be remembered that Huawei has reportedly mulled an IPO and countered the espionage-related suspicions of U.S. lawmakers. Ren Zheng-fei, the founder of Huawei, once served as the military technology officer of the People’s Liberation Army.

Li indicated that “a strong business case to be made in Europe” and a dominance in the European market would pave way for Huawei’s carrier network forays into the developing world.

Huawei’s consumer device division lent support to the company’s carrier network division CTO. Shao Yang, CMO for the carrier network division, said that the shifting of the company’s focus to the European market was a way to “touch more and more people.” Shao Yang characterized Europe as being able to “influence other regions and have networks in so many countries.”

However, Huawei faces hurdles in Europe.

On April 16, 2013, Reuters reported that the European Commission was gathering evidence for a possible case to be launched against Huawei. Huawei’s alleged Chinese state subsidies may have aided the undercutting of its European competitors. The Reuters story also indicated a possible reason the EU trade investigation was not precipitated by a company complaint, which was how EU trade investigations “normally” started. It was said that European manufacturers Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, and Nokia Siemens Networks would not cooperate with the European Commission for fear of being excluded—in retaliation—from the thriving Chinese telecoms market.

Talking to ZDNet Asia, Bryan Wang, vice president and Forrester Research China country manager, said that the European governments are “more positive” than the United States government with regard to Huawei’s presence. (KOM) Link. Link. Link.