Huawei Releases 2021 Annual Report: Solid Operations, Investing in the Future

Huawei 2021 Annual Report

The Huawei released its 2021 Annual Report, revealing that the company had maintained solid operations throughout the past year. As per the report, Huawei achieved USD 99.9 billion in revenue in 2021, and USD 17.8 billion in net profits, an increase of 75.9% year-on-year. The company's R&D expenditure reached about USD 22.38 billion in 2021, representing 22.4% of its total revenue, and bringing its total R&D expenditure over the past 10 years to over USD 132.5 billion. Moving forward, the company also plans to continuously increase investment in R&D.

Guo Ping, Huawei's Rotating Chairman, stated at the press conference, "Overall, our performance was in line with forecast. Our carrier business remained stable, our enterprise business experienced steady growth, and our consumer business quickly expanded into new domains. In addition, we embarked on a fast track of ecosystem development."

Meng Wanzhou, Huawei's CFO, also spoke at the event, "Despite a revenue decline in 2021, our ability to make a profit and generate cash flows is increasing, and we are more capable of dealing with uncertainty." Thanks to the enhanced profitability of its major businesses, the company's cash flow from operating activities dramatically increased in 2021, amounting to USD 9.3 billion. Its liability ratio also dropped to 57.8%, and its overall financial structure has become more resilient and flexible.

In 2021, Huawei's carrier business generated USD44.1 billion in revenue and helped carriers around the world deploy leading 5G networks. Third-party test results have found that 5G networks built by Huawei for customers in 13 countries, including Switzerland, Germany, Finland, the Netherlands, South Korea, and Saudi Arabia, provide the best user experience. By working with carriers and partners, Huawei has signed more than 3,000 commercial contracts for industrial 5G applications. These kinds of 5G applications are currently seeing large-scale commercial use in sectors like manufacturing, mines, iron & steel plants, ports, and hospitals.

Thanks to continuing digital transformation trends, Huawei's enterprise business also grew rapidly, generating USD 16.06 billion in revenue during 2021. In the past year, Huawei launched 11 scenario-based solutions for key sectors such as government, transportation, finance, energy, and manufacturing. The company also established multiple dedicated teams, including a Coal Mine Team, a Smart Road Team, and a Customs & Port Team, to combine resources in a way that more efficiently serves the needs of its customers. Over 700 cities and 267 Fortune Global 500 companies have chosen Huawei as their digital transformation partner and Huawei now works with more than 6,000 service and operation partners around the world.

Huawei's consumer business zeroed in on consumer wants and needs, further building out the global ecosystem for a smart, all-connected era, as part of the company's Seamless AI Life strategy for consumers around the world. This business generated USD 38.17 billion in revenue in 2021 and continued to see steady sales growth in smart wearables, smart screens, true wireless stereo (TWS) earbuds, and Huawei Mobile Services (HMS). In particular, the smart wearable and smart screen segments both saw 30%+ year-on-year growth. In total, HarmonyOS was used in over 220 million Huawei devices as of 2021, becoming the world's fastest growing mobile device operating system.

During the past year, Huawei also focused on building out its openEuler, MindSpore, and HarmonyOS ecosystems based on the principles of open collaboration and shared growth. Over eight million developers are currently using Huawei's open platforms, open-source software, and development tools to explore new business scenarios and business models.

Guo stressed, "Moving forward, Huawei will advance its journey of digitalization, intelligent transformation, and low carbon. Relying on talent, scientific research, and an innovative spirit, we will continuously increase investment to reshape our paradigms for fundamental theories, architecture, and software, and build our long-term competitiveness."

All financial statements in the 2021 Annual Report were independently audited by KPMG, an international Big Four accounting firm. To download the 2021 Annual Report, visit https://www.huawei.com/en/annual-report/2021. 

Note: The 2021 closing exchange rate is USD1.00 = CNY6.3753

Huawei 2021 Facts List: 

•    Huawei ranked second in the 2021 EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard.
•    Huawei has one of the largest patent portfolios in the world. By the end of 2021, Huawei held more than 110,000 active patents, across over 45,000 families.
•    In 2021, Huawei had about 107,000 R&D employees, representing about 54.8% of our total workforce.
•    In terms of the number of patents granted in 2021, Huawei ranked No. 1 at both the China National Intellectual Property Administration and the European Patent Office, and No. 5 at the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
•    By the end of 2021, over 700 cities and 267 Fortune Global 500 companies worldwide had chosen Huawei as their partner for digital transformation.
•    By the end of 2021, over 30,000 partners were working with Huawei worldwide.
•    Huawei ranked eighth in Forbes' World's Best Employers 2021 list. 
•    Huawei was named among the top 25 Global Corporate Startup Stars by the European Commission's Startup Europe Partnership initiative.
•    By working with carriers and partners, Huawei has signed more than 3,000 commercial contracts for industrial 5G applications. 
•    Huawei is already exploring applications of 5G tailored for over 20 industries.
•    Huawei's revenue from the sales of devices such as smart wearables and smart screens increased by 30.3%.
•    More than 70 cyber security certifications were awarded to Huawei, giving our customers internationally recognized security assurances.
•    In 2021, Huawei rose from 49th to 44th place on Fortune Global 500.
•    According to WIPO, for the fifth consecutive year, Huawei was the top filer in 2021 with 6,952 published PCT applications.
•    Huawei leads 6G patent competition, making China stand first in the world.
•    By the end of 2021, Huawei had cumulatively shipped more than 100 million units of wearables. In Q3 2021, Huawei led the world in shipments of smart watches and bands.
•    In 2021, the number of HMS apps worldwide jumped by 147% compared to 2020.
•    Huawei Cloud service ecosystem currently has a 2.6 million developer base.
•    HarmonyOS has been deployed on more than 220 million Huawei devices. More than 4,500 products from over 1,900 vendors have joined HarmonyOS Connect. In 2021, over 100 million new HarmonyOS Connect devices were shipped.
•    Dell'Oro Group published a market analysis report in Q4 2021 highlighting that Huawei still leads the telecoms kit market despite US sanctions. Huawei represents 28.7% of global revenue share.