Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.

(/ˈhwɑːˌweɪ/; Chinese: 华为; pinyin: Huáwéi) is

a Chinese multinational technology company that provides telecommunications equipment and
sells consumer electronics, including smartphones[3] and is headquartered
in Shenzhen, Guangdong province.
The company was founded in 1987 by Ren Zhengfei. Initially focused on manufacturing phone
switches, Huawei has expanded its business to include building telecommunications networks,
providing operational and consulting services and equipment to enterprises inside and outside of
China, and manufacturing communications devices for the consumer market.[4][5] Huawei had over
188,000 employees as of September 2018, around 76,000 of them engaged in Research &
Development (R&D).[6][7] It has 21 R&D institutes around the world,[8][9] and in April 2019, opened the
dedicated Ox Horn Campus in Dongguan.[10] As of 2017, the company invested US$13.8 billion in
R&D.[11][12]
Huawei has deployed its products and services in more than 170 countries, and as of 2011 it served
45 of the 50 largest telecom operators.[13][need quotation to verify] Its networks, numbering over 1,500, reach
one third of the world's population.[14] Huawei overtook Ericsson in 2012 as the largest
telecommunications-equipment manufacturer in the world,[15] and overtook Apple in 2018 as the
second-largest manufacturer of smartphones in the world, behind Samsung Electronics.[16] It ranks
72nd on the Fortune Global 500 list.[17] In December 2018, Huawei reported that its annual revenue
had risen to US$108.5 billion in 2018 (a 21% increase over 2017).[18]
Although successful internationally, Huawei has faced difficulties in some markets, due
to cybersecurity allegations—primarily from the United States government—that Huawei's
infrastructure equipment may enable surveillance by the Chinese government. Especially with the
development of 5G wireless networks (which China has aggressively promoted), there have been
calls from the U.S. to prevent the use of products by Huawei or fellow Chinese telecom ZTE by the
U.S. or its allies. Huawei has argued that its products posed "no greater cybersecurity risk" than
those of any other vendor and that there is no evidence of the U.S. espionage
claims.[19] Nonetheless, Huawei pulled out of the U.S. consumer market in 2018, after these concerns
affected the ability to market their consumer products there.
U.S. measures intensified in May 2019; in the midst of an ongoing trade war between China and the
United States, Huawei was restricted from doing commerce with U.S. companies due to alleged
previous willful violations of U.S. sanctions against Iran. On 29 June 2019, U.S. President Donald
Trump reached an agreement to resume trade talks with China and announced that he would ease
the aforementioned sanctions on Huawei.

Contents

 1Name
 2History
o 2.1Early years
o 2.2Foreign expansion
o 2.3Recent performance
o 2.4Political controversies
 2.4.1U.S. business restrictions
 2.4.1.1Replacement operating systems
 3Corporate affairs
o 3.1Leadership
 3.1.1Board of Directors
  3.1.2Executives
o 3.2Ownership
 4Partners and customers
o 4.1Leica and Huawei
 5Products and services
o 5.1Telecom networks
o 5.2Global services
o 5.3Devices
 5.3.1History of Huawei phones
 5.3.2EMUI (Emotion User Interface)
 6Competitive position
o 6.1R&D centers
 7Controversies
 8See also
 9References
 10External links

Name[edit]
Huawei

"Huawei" in Simplified (top) and Traditional (bottom) Chinese

characters

Simplified Chinese 华为

Traditional Chinese 華為

Literal meaning Huaxia does

showTranscriptions

Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.

Simplified Chinese 华为技术有限公司

 Traditional Chinese 華為技術有限公司

showTranscriptions

According to the company founder Ren Zhengfei, the name Huawei comes from a phrase he saw on
a wall, Zhonghua youwei meaning "China has promise" (中华有为, Zhōnghuá yǒuwéi), when he was
starting the company and needed a name.[20] Zhonghua or Hua means China,[21] while youwei means
"promising/to show promise".[22][23] In Chinese pinyin, the name is Huáwéi,[24] and
pronounced [xwǎwéi] in Mandarin Chinese; in Cantonese, the name is transliterated
with Jyutping as Waa4-wai4 and pronounced [wȁːwɐ̏i]. However, pronunciation of Huawei by non-
Chinese varies in other countries, for example "Hoe-ah-wei" in the Netherlands.[25] The company had
considered changing the name in English as it was concerned that non-Chinese may find the name
hard to pronounce,[26] but decided to keep the name, and launched a name recognition campaign
instead to encourage a pronunciation closer to "Wah-Way" using the words "Wow Way".[27][28]

History[edit]
Early years[edit]
During the 1980s, the Chinese government tried to modernize the country's underdeveloped
telecommunications infrastructure. A core component of the telecommunications network was
telephone exchange switches, and in the late 1980s, several Chinese research groups endeavored
to acquire and develop the technology, usually through joint ventures with foreign companies.
Ren Zhengfei, a former deputy director of the People's Liberation Army engineering corps, founded
Huawei in 1987 in Shenzhen. The company reports that it had RMB 21,000 in registered capital at
the time of its founding.
Ren sought to reverse engineer foreign technologies with local researchers. At a time when all of
China's telecommunications technology was imported from abroad, Ren hoped to build a domestic
Chinese telecommunication company that could compete with, and ultimately replace, foreign
competitors.[29]
During its first several years the company's business model consisted mainly of reselling private
branch exchange (PBX) switches imported from Hong Kong. Meanwhile, it was reverse-engineering
imported switches and investing heavily in research and development to manufacture its own
technologies.[4] By 1990 the company had approximately 600 R&D staff and began its own
independent commercialization of PBX switches targeting hotels and small enterprises.[30]
The company's first major breakthrough came in 1993 when it launched its C&C08 program
controlled telephone switch. It was by far the most powerful switch available in China at the time. By
initially deploying in small cities and rural areas and placing emphasis on service and
customizability, the company gained market share and made its way into the mainstream market.[31]
Huawei also won a key contract to build the first national telecommunications network for
the People's Liberation Army, a deal one employee described as "small in terms of our overall
business, but large in terms of our relationships".[32] In 1994, founder Ren Zhengfei had a meeting
with Party general secretary Jiang Zemin, telling him that "switching equipment technology was
related to national security, and that a nation that did not have its own switching equipment was like
one that lacked its own military." Jiang reportedly agreed with this assessment.[4]
In the 1990s Canadian telecom giant Nortel outsourced production of their entire product line to
Huawei.[33] They subsequently outsourced much of their product engineering to Huawei as well.[34]
Another major turning point for the company came in 1996 when the government in Beijing adopted
an explicit policy of supporting domestic telecommunications manufacturers and restricting access to
foreign competitors. Huawei was promoted by both the government and the military as a national
champion, and established new research and development offices.[4]

Foreign expansion[edit]
Offices of Huawei

In Voorburg, Netherlands

In Markham, Ontario, Canada

In 1997, Huawei won a contract to provide fixed-line network products to Hong Kong
company Hutchison Whampoa.[31] Later that year, Huawei launched its wireless GSM-based
products and eventually expanded to offer CDMA and UMTS. In 1999, the company opened a
research and development (R&D) center in Bangalore, India to develop a wide range of telecom
software.[30]
In May 2003, Huawei partnered with 3Com on a joint venture known as H3C, which was focused on
enterprise networking equipment. It marked 3Com's re-entrance into the high-end core routers and
switch market, after having abandoned it in 2000 to focus on other businesses. 3Com bought out
Huawei's share of the venture in 2006 for US$882 million.[35][36]
In 2005, Huawei's foreign contract orders exceeded its domestic sales for the first time. Huawei
signed a Global Framework Agreement with Vodafone. This agreement marked the first time a
telecommunications equipment supplier from China had received Approved Supplier status from
Vodafone Global Supply Chain.[37][non-primary source needed] Huawei also signed a contract with British
Telecom (BT) for the deployment of its multi-service access network (MSAN) and Transmission
equipment for BT's 21st Century Network (21CN).[citation needed]
In 2007, Huawei began a joint venture with U.S. security software vendor Symantec Corporation,
known as Huawei Symantec, which aimed to provide end-to-end solutions for network data storage
and security. Huawei bought out Symantec's share in the venture in 2012, with The New York
Times noting that Symantec had fears that the partnership "would prevent it from obtaining United
States government classified information about cyberthreats".[38]
In May 2008, Australian carrier Optus announced that it would establish a technology research
facility with Huawei in Sydney.[39] In October 2008, Huawei reached an agreement to contribute to a
new GSM-based HSPA+ network being deployed jointly by Canadian carriers Bell Mobility and Telus
Mobility, joined by Nokia Siemens Networks.[40] Huawei delivered one of the world's first LTE/EPC
commercial networks for TeliaSonera in Oslo, Norway in 2009.[30]
In July 2010, Huawei was included in the Global Fortune 500 2010 list published by the U.S.
magazine Fortune for the first time, on the strength of annual sales of US$21.8 billion and net profit
of US$2.67 billion.[41][42]
In October 2012, it was announced that Huawei would move its UK headquarters to Green
Park, Reading, Berkshire.[43]
In September 2017, Huawei created a NarrowBand IOT city-aware network using a "one network,
one platform, N applications" construction model utilising IoT, cloud computing, big data, and other
next-generation information and communications technology, it also aims to be one of the world's
five largest cloud players in the near future.[44][45]
In April 2019, Huawei established Huawei Malaysia Global Training Centre (MGTC)
at Cyberjaya, Malaysia,[46] which is Huawei’s first training centre outside of China.

Recent performance[edit]

Huawei expo at IFA 2018 in Berlin

As of the end of 2018, Huawei sold 200 million smartphones.[47] They reported that strong consumer
demand for premium range smart phones helped the company reach consumer sales in excess of
$52 billion in 2018.[48]
Huawei announced worldwide revenues of $105.1 billion for 2018, with a net profit of $8.7
billion.[49] Huawei's Q1 2019 revenues were up 39% year-over-year, at US$26.76 billion.[50]

Political controversies[edit]
Huawei has been at the center of espionage allegations over Chinese 5G network equipment. In
2018, the United States passed a defense funding bill that contained a passage barring the federal
government from doing business with Huawei, ZTE, and several Chinese vendors of surveillance
products, due to security concerns.[51][52][53]
On 1 December 2018, Huawei vice-chairwoman and CFO Meng Wanzhou,[54] daughter of company
founder Ren Zhengfei, was arrested in Canada at the request of U.S. authorities. She faced
extradition to the United States on charges of violating sanctions against Iran.[55] On 22 August 2018
an arrest warrant was issued by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.[56] Meng
was charged with "conspiracy to defraud multiple international institutions", according to the
prosecutor.[57] The warrant was based on allegations of a conspiracy to defraud banks which were
clearing money that was claimed to be for Huawei, but was actually for Skycom, an entity claimed to
be entirely controlled by Huawei, which was said to be dealing in Iran, contrary to sanctions. None of
the allegations have been proven in court.[58] On 11 December 2018, Meng was released on bail.[59]
On 28 January 2019, U.S. federal prosecutors formally indicted Meng and Huawei with thirteen
counts of bank and wire fraud (in order to mask sale of U.S. technology in Iran that is illegal under
sanctions), obstruction of justice, and misappropriating trade secrets.[60][61] The Department also filed
a formal extradition request for Meng with Canadian authorities that same day. Huawei responded to
the charges and said that it "denies that it or its subsidiary or affiliate have committed any of the
asserted violations", as well as asserted Meng was similarly innocent. The China Ministry of Industry
and Information Technology believed the charges brought on by the United States were "unfair".[62]
U.S. business restrictions[edit]
In August 2018, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019 (NDAA 2019) was
signed into law, containing a provision that banned Huawei and ZTE equipment from being used by
the U.S. federal government, citing security concerns.[63] Huawei filed a lawsuit over the act in March
2019,[64] alleging it to be unconstitutional because it specifically targeted Huawei without granting it a
chance to provide a rebuttal or due process.[65]
On 15 May 2019, the Department of Commerce added Huawei and 70 foreign subsidiaries and
"affiliates" to its entity list under the Export Administration Regulations, citing the company having
been indicted for "knowingly and willfully causing the export, re-export, sale and supply, directly and
indirectly, of goods, technology and services (banking and other financial services) from the United
States to Iran and the government of Iran without obtaining a license from the Department of
Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC)".[66] This restricts U.S. companies from doing
business with Huawei without a government license.[67][68][69][70]
Various U.S.-based companies immediately froze their business with Huawei to comply with the
regulation,[71] including Google—which removes its ability to certify future devices and updates for
the Android operating system with licensed Google Mobile Services (GMS) such as Google Play
Store,[72][73] as well as Broadcom, Intel, Qualcomm, Microsoft, Xilinx[74] and Western Digital. The
German chipmaker Infineon Technologies also voluntarily suspended its business with Huawei,
pending "assessments".[73][75][76] It was reported that Huawei did have a limited "stockpile" of U.S.-
sourced parts, obtained prior to the sanctions.[77]
On 17 May 2019, Huawei voluntarily suspended its membership to JEDEC, as a temporary
measure, "until the restrictions imposed by the U.S. government are removed".[78] Speaking to
Chinese media, Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei accused U.S. politicians of underestimating the
company's strength, and explained that "in terms of 5G technologies, others won't be able to catch
up with Huawei in two or three years. We have sacrificed ourselves and our families for our ideal, to
stand on top of the world. To reach this ideal, sooner or later there will be conflict with the US."[79][80][81]
Kevin Wolf, an international trade lawyer and former assistant secretary of commerce for export
administration during the Obama administration, argued that Huawei could not even use the open
source Android Open Source Project (AOSP) code, as it could fall under U.S. trade regulations as
technology of U.S. origin because Google is the majority developer.[82] In China, it is normal for
Android phones (including those of Huawei) to not include Google Play Store or GMS, as Google
does not do business in the region. Phones are typically bundled with an AOSP-based distribution
built around an OEM's own software suite, including either a first-party app store run by the OEM
(such as Huawei's own AppGallery) or a third-party service.[83][84][85]
Google issued a statement assuring that user access to Google Play on existing Huawei devices
would not be disrupted. Huawei made a similar pledge of continued support for existing devices,
including security patches, but did not make any statements regarding the availability of future
Android versions (such as the upcoming Android 10, previously called Android Q).[86][87] On 19 May
2019, the Department of Commerce granted Huawei a temporary, three-month license to continue
doing business with U.S. companies for the purposes of maintaining its existing smartphone and
telecom products without interruption, whilst long-term solutions are determined.[88][89][90][91]
On 22 May 2019, Arm Holdings also suspended its business with Huawei, including all "active
contracts, support entitlements, and any pending engagements". Although it is a Japanese-owned
company based in the UK, Arm cited that its intellectual property contained technologies of U.S.
origin that it believed were covered under the Department of Commerce order. This prevents Huawei
from manufacturing chips that use the ARM architecture.[92] It was also reported that several Asian
wireless carriers, including Japan's SoftBank and KDDI, and Taiwan's Chunghwa
Telecom and Taiwan Mobile, had suspended the sale of upcoming Huawei devices such as the P30
Lite, citing uncertainties over the effects of the U.S. sanctions on the availability of the Android
platform. NTT docomo similarly suspended pre-orders of new Huawei phones, without citing any
reasoning.[93]
On 23 May 2019, it was reported that the SD Association had removed Huawei from its list of
members—implicating a revocation of its membership to the association.[94] The same
day, Toshiba briefly suspended all shipments to Huawei, as a temporary measure while determining
whether or not they were selling U.S. made components or technologies to
Huawei.[95] Panasonic also stated that it had determined its business relationship to be in compliance
with U.S. law, and would not suspend it.[96] The next day, the Wi-Fi Alliance also "temporarily
restricted" Huawei's membership.[78][97]
On 24 May 2019, Huawei told Reuters that FedEx attempted to divert two packages sent from Japan
and addressed to Huawei in China to the United States, and tried to divert two more packages sent
from Vietnam to Huawei offices elsewhere in Asia, all without their authorization. At first, FedEx
China claimed that "media reports are not true". On May 28, however, they apologized on their
Chinese social media account for the fact that "a small number of Huawei shipments were
misrouted", and claimed that "there are no external parties that require FedEx to ship these
shipments" .[98][99][100]
On 29 May 2019, it was reported that Huawei was once again listed as member of JEDEC, the SD
Association, and Wi-Fi Alliance.[101] In addition, while the science organization IEEE had initially
banned Huawei employees from peer-reviewing papers or handling papers as editors on May 30,
2019, citing legal concerns, that ban was also revoked on June 3, 2019.[102]
On 29 June 2019 at the G20 summit, Trump and Chinese president and general secretary Xi
Jinping agreed to resume trade negotiations. Trump made statements implicating plans to ease the
restrictions on U.S. companies doing business with Huawei, explaining that they had sold a
"tremendous amount of products" to the company, that they "were not exactly happy that they
couldn't sell", and that he was referring to "equipment where there's no great national security
problem with it." BBC News considered this move to be a "significant concession".[103][104][105]
Replacement operating systems[edit]
During the sanctions, it was noted that Huawei had been working on its own in-house operating
system codenamed "HongMeng OS": in an interview with Die Welt, executive Richard Yu stated that
an in-house OS could be used as a "plan B" if it were prevented from using Android or Windows as
the result of U.S. action, but that he would "prefer to work with the ecosystems of Google and
Microsoft". Efforts to develop an in-house OS at Huawei date back as far as 2012.[106][107][108] Huawei
filed trademarks for the names "Ark", "Ark OS", and "Harmony" in Europe, which were speculated to
be connected to this OS.[109][110]
In June 2019, Huawei communications VP Andrew Williamson told Reuters that the company was
testing HongMeng in China, and that it could be ready "in months". However, in July 2019,
chairman Liang Hua and senior vice president Catherine Chen stated that Hongmeng OS was not
actually intended as a mobile operating system for smartphones, and was actually an embedded
operating system designed for Internet of things (IoT) hardware.[111][112][113]
In September 2019, Huawei began offering the Chinese Linux distribution Deepin as an optional pre-
loaded operating system on selected Matebook models in China, as an alternative to Windows.[114]
Corporate affairs[edit]
Huawei classifies itself as a "collective" entity and prior to 2019 did not refer to itself as a private
company. Richard McGregor, author of The Party: The Secret World of China's Communist Rulers,
said that this is "a definitional distinction that has been essential to the company's receipt of state
support at crucial points in its development".[115] McGregor argued that "Huawei's status as a genuine
collective is doubtful."[115] Huawei's position has shifted in 2019 when, Dr. Song Liuping, Huawei's
chief legal officer, commented on the US government ban, said: "Politicians in the US are using the
strength of an entire nation to come after a private company." (emphasis added).[116]

Leadership[edit]
Ren Zhengfei is the founder and CEO of Huawei and has the power to veto any decisions made by
the board of directors.[117][118]
Board of Directors[edit]
Huawei disclosed its list of board of directors for the first time in 2010.[119] Liang Hua is the current
chair of the board. As of 2019, the members of the board are Liang Hua, Guo Ping, Xu Zhijun, Hu
Houkun, Meng Wanzhou (CFO and deputy chairwoman, currently out on bail in Vancouver,[120] after
being arrested there on December 1, 2018, after an extradition request of US authorities on
suspicion of Iran sanctions evasion[121]), Ding Yun, Yu Chengdong, Wang Tao, Xu Wenwei, Chen
Lifang, Peng Zhongyang, He Tingbo, Li Yingtao, Ren Zhengfei, Yao Fuhai, Tao Jingwen, and Yan
Lida.[122]
Executives[edit]
Guo Ping is the Chairman of Huawei Device, Huawei's mobile phone division.[123] Huawei’s Chief
Ethics & Compliance Officer is Zhou Daiqi[124] who is also Huawei’s communist party committee
secretary.[125] Their Chief legal officer is Song Liuping.[116]

Ownership[edit]
Huawei maintains it is an employee-owned company. Ren Zhengfei retains approximately 1 percent
of the shares of Huawei's holding company, Huawei Investment & Holding,[126] with the remainder of
the shares held by a trade union committee (not a trade union per se, and the internal governance
procedures of this committee, its members, its leaders or how they are selected all remain
unknown)[117] that is claimed to be representative of Huawei's employee shareholders.[127] The
company's trade union committee is registered with and pay dues to the Shenzhen federation of
the All-China Federation of Trade Unions.[128] This is also due to a limitation in Chinese law
preventing limited liability companies from having more than 50 shareholders.[129] About half of
Huawei staff participate in this scheme (foreign employees are not eligible), and hold what the
company calls "virtual restricted shares". These shares are nontradable and are allocated to reward
performance.[130] When employees leave Huawei, their shares revert to the company, which
compensates them for their holding.[131] Although employee shareholders receive dividends,[127] their
shares do not entitle them to any direct influence in management decisions, but enables them to
vote for members of the 115-person Representatives’ Commission from a preselected list of
candidates.[127] The Representatives’ Commission selects Huawei Holding's Board of Directors and
Board of Supervisors.[132] Scholars have found that, after a few stages of historical morphing,
employees do not own a part of Huawei through their “shares”. Instead, the “virtual stock is a
contract right, not a property right; it gives the holder no voting power in either Huawei Tech or
Huawei Holding, cannot be transferred, and is cancelled when the employee leaves the firm, subject
to a redemption payment from Huawei Holding TUC at a low fixed price”.[133]
There is a debate about whether or not the trade union committee structure is enabling
the government of the People's Republic of China to influence Huawei.[117] Chinese company trade