Business / Gadgets

Huawei forecasts $70b in revenue

By Sophie He in Shenzhen and Shen Jingting in Hong Kong (China Daily) Updated: 2014-04-24 07:20

A general view shows the headquarters of Huawei Technologies Co Ltd in Shenzhen, Guangdong province June 29, 2009. [Photo/Agencies]

Chinese telecom giant Huawei Technologies Co Ltd reassured worldwide analysts that it will maintain fast and stable growth in the coming years, despite facing a lot of uncertainty in the North American market.

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Huawei said revenue should rise by 10 percent year-on-year and hit $70 billion by 2018, according to Chen Fanchang, vice-president of Huawei's accounting department.

Chen made the remarks during an analysts' conference on Wednesday in Shenzhen, where the company is headquartered.

Though Huawei enjoyed robust development in both the network and consumer businesses in Latin American countries, its sales in the Americas overall slipped by 1.3 percent year-on-year to reach 31.4 billion yuan ($5.1 billion) in 2013. The United States has long accused Huawei of being "a threat to national securities" and has kept it from entering the country's telecom gear market.

Bryan Wang, principal analyst at Forrester Market Advisory (Beijing) Co Ltd, said North America remains a big uncertainty in terms of Huawei's realizing its future goals. "Every company hopes for the best, but the final result depends on what really takes place," Wang said.

Huawei, however, does hold some cards it can use to reach its target, he said. "The Chinese market will provide the most support for Huawei's revenue growth, thanks to the nation's 4G network deployment," he said. Huawei also had a vast business network, covering more than 100 countries, which will aid in the sales of its smartphones, Wang added.

Eric Xu, Huawei's executive vice-president and one of its rotating CEOs, said security issues are not likely to have a big impact on Huawei's business growth.

"But it has an impact on workloads, in communicating with and persuading current industry stakeholders (that products are secure), and that's more tiresome," Xu was quoted as saying in a Reuters report.