Huawei’s revenue falls 29% as US ban continues to hurt its phone business

The company is shifting focus to its carrier and enterprise businesses.

What you need to know

• Huawei has announced its business results for the first half of 2021.
• The company’s sales declined 29.4% to 320.4 billion yuan ($49.5 billion).
• Huawei says its aim now is “to survive.”

Embattled Chinese tech giant Huawei saw its revenue decline by 29.4% in the first half of the year. It generated 320.4 billion yuan ($49.5 billion) in revenue during the January to June period. Unsurprisingly, Huawei’s consumer business performed the worst, with sales falling by almost 47% compared to the same period a year earlier.

Huawei’s carrier business, which has also been affected since it was blacklisted by the U.S. government, also saw revenue fall by 14.2% to 136.9 billion yuan ($21.1 billion). The company’s enterprise business was the only one to report an increase in sales. It brought in 42.9 billion yuan ($6.6 billion) in H1 2021, an increase of 18.2% over last year.

Eric Xu, Huawei’s Rotating Chairman, said in a statement that the company has already set its strategic goals for the next five years and that it aims to survive. Huawei is hoping to do this by “creating practical value” for its consumers and partners. It also expects its carrier and enterprise businesses to continue growing.

While Huawei has been under pressure ever since the U.S. added it to the “Entity List” in May 2019, the actual effect of the sanctions started taking a toll on the company’s consumer business last year. In the second quarter of 2020, Huawei was the world’s largest smartphone vendor. Due to the U.S. ban, however, the company’s smartphone sales began declining significantly from Q3 2020. In the second quarter of 2021, Huawei wasn’t even among the top five smartphone vendors globally.

The newer U.S. restrictions on Huawei, announced late last year, prevent the company from buying 5G chips. As a result, Huawei hasn’t been able to launch new 5G phones. The recently launched P50 Pro, which is its answer to the best Android phones, uses a 4G-only version of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 888 chipset.