BEIJING, January 2 (TMTPost)— Huawei Technologies Ltd suggested another stellar growth of revenue in 2023, a year the Chinese tech giant waged its long-anticipated counterattack with 5G comeback despite ongoing U.S. sanctions.

Credit：Visual China

Huawei expected sales of more than RMB700 billion (US$98.7 billion) in 2023, Huawei rotating chairman Ken Hu, or Hu Houkun, said in his 2024 New Year message. Though the yearly sales were still 20% below Huawei’s 2020 peak of RMB891 billion, the figure marks a year-over-year (YoY) increase of around 9% from the RMB642.3 billion reported in 2022.  Huawei’s revenue in the fourth quarter surged 27% YoY to RMB 243.4 billion based on its annual forecast. That represents a significant acceleration from the previous quarter. The company said in October revenue rose 2.4% YoY to RMB456.6 billion in the first three quarter, suggested a 1.5% YoY increase in the third quarter alone.

"After years of hard work, we've managed to weather the storm. And now we're pretty much back on track," Hu wrote in the message. “sales revenue is expected to exceed RMB700 billion in 2023, out of which the information and communication technologies (ICT)  infrastructure business remains stable, the consumer business is better than expected, the businesses of cloud services and digital power achieve excellent growth, and the competitiveness of intelligent automotive solutions is significantly improved.”

Hu expressed gratitude to Huawei’s clients for their trust and support as well as partners across the value chain for standing with them through thick and thin. He also thanked all the employees for their hard work and resilience and their family members for low-profile contribution.  “Shared conviction has helped us break the siege and forge ahead together," Hu said.

Consumers business, which includes smartphones and electric vehicles (EVs), has showcased robust momentum after Huawei suprisingly launched a presale for its flagship smartphone Mate 60 Pro in August without official release. While the company didn’t provide details about technical specifications or whether the phone supports the 5G network, multiple Chinese media outlets said online tests proved Mate 60 Pro can deliver the internet speed of 5G.

Smartphone sales in China dropped 3% YoY in the third quarter, but Huawei became the big winner, growing 37% YoY on the back of its newly launched Mate 60 series, which is powered by its SoC Kirin 9000S, Counterpoint Research estimated  in October. The global market research firm in the TMT industry believed Chinese mobile market could be closer to bottoming out as sales decline in the third quarter narrowed sequentially. Its senior analyst Ivan Lam commented that although the Mate 60’s sales are under the Pioneer Program and mostly carried out through the brand’s offline and online channels, the product has quickly garnered massive attention. “Huawei is striving to ramp up production to catch up with the demand,” Lam said.

Counterpoint also estimated Huawei has sold 1.6 million Mate 60 Pro handsets in six weeks, and more than 400,000 units out of the sales were sold in the two weeks when Apple launched its latest mobile iPhone 15 on mainland China. In the week ended October 8, or the 40th week of the year, Huawei took the first place with a 19.4% of market share by sales in China, according to BCI, a Chinese consulting firm focusing on research in the communications industry.

Huawei’s rotating chairman Hu cautioned various challenges remain in the coming year. “We have to be aware that changes in the business environment are not caused by geopolitical conflict alone, but also by fluctuating global economic cycles,” the executive said. He outlined major works Huawei will carry out as “all the business segments have to focus on value creation and produce more food  in the year 2024.” Specifically, the ICT infrastructure business shall gives full play to its comprehensive advantages in computing, storage, network and other fields, fully support the digital transformation and intelligent upgrade of various industries with its system engineering capabilities, and serve as the company's ballast; Operator services shall support customer network traffic filling, business innovation and network evolution, and help operators succeed in business; the consumer business shall stay to committed to creating kller products and building a high-end brand with passion. Hu also vowed to work with partners to accelerate HarmonyOS-backed transition of mobile applications to  achieve a historic leap of the HarmonyOS ecosystem.