SHANGHAI: Chinese telecom giant Huawei said today it achieved a record profit last year, but revenue growth slowed sharply amid the pandemic and tightening US pressure that has pushed the company into new business lines to survive.
Bloomberg News reported that Huawei’s revenue in the fourth quarter of 2020 shrank for the first time on record.Before the US pressure began, revenue growth was routinely in the neighbourhood of 30% or more, though it slowed to around 19% in 2019. Smartphone sales have plateaued after the US cut Huawei off from key components and banned it from using Google’s Android operating systems in its handsets.
On top of all that, chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou – daughter of CEO and founder Ren Zhengfei – is in Canada fighting extradition to the US on charges that she and Huawei violated US sanctions against Iran.