EqualOcean has learned from Huawei's 2023 annual report that its sales in the Americas reached USD 4.89 billion, a 10.9% increase compared to 2022. This growth is primarily driven by Latin America as Huawei faces bans on operations in the United States and Canada. In 2022, Huawei's sales in Latin America amounted to CNY 31.8 billion (approximately USD 4.4 billion).
Despite U.S. efforts to restrict the use of Huawei's technology, the company has successfully expanded its sales of network equipment and cloud services in Latin America. Meanwhile, Huawei's main competitors, Nokia and Ericsson, have seen declines in sales of mobile network equipment.
In comparison, Nokia's revenue in Latin America last year was approximately EUR 1 billion (USD 1.1 billion), down 12% when calculated at fixed exchange rates and 14% when calculated at reported exchange rates. Globally, Nokia's net sales in 2023 decreased by 8% when calculated at fixed currency rates and by 11% when calculated at reported exchange rates, to EUR 22.2 billion.
Ericsson's net sales in various market regions including Europe and Latin America decreased by 3% in 2023 to SEK 64.9 billion (approximately USD 6.1 billion). Adjusted sales decreased by 9%. Ericsson stated in its fourth-quarter financial report, "Due to the high investment levels in 2022, our sales in Europe and Latin America have decreased, although the market share in Europe has increased." Ericsson's global sales also decreased by 3% in 2023 to SEK 263 billion.
EqualOcean has learned that Huawei's revenue in its 2023 report was CNY 704 billion, a 9.6% increase. The growth was only seen in the Chinese and American markets, while Huawei's sales in Europe, the Middle East, Africa (EMEA), and the Asia-Pacific region (Apac) faced declines.
In terms of business segments, Huawei's ICT infrastructure and consumer products (including smartphones and other devices) remain its main sources of revenue, with total revenue exceeding CNY 600 billion last year. However, the fastest-growing segments were smart car solutions and cloud computing, which grew by 128% and 21.9% respectively in 2023.
In recent years, Huawei has heavily invested in the cloud computing sector in Latin America. In this field, Nokia has also witnessed sales growth in Latin America. As reported by BNamericas, Huawei has established various scales and types of Huawei Cloud data centers in several countries in South America, Central America, and the Caribbean.
Huawei mentioned in its report, "In Latin America, Huawei Cloud is the cloud service provider with the most nodes in the region, driving digital transformation in thousands of local enterprises in finance, media, retail, logistics, and internet industries." For example, Chile's SMU Group has fully migrated its core systems to Huawei Cloud. SMU is Chile's third-largest retail chain, operating different brands in all 16 regions of the country and in Peru.
Huawei's expansion in Latin America comes amid escalating geopolitical tensions between the United States and China. Despite U.S. pressure on companies with American shareholders, listings on U.S. stock exchanges, or providing services to U.S. companies, to prohibit them from using Chinese technology, Huawei continues to maintain strong appeal among large operators in Latin America, most of which are customers of its 3G, 4G, and 5G technologies. In addition, Huawei is very popular among internet service providers due to its competitive prices and close customer support. For example, Brazil's second-largest ISP, Brisanet, and Colombia's Velonet rely on Huawei's equipment.
By the end of 2023, Huawei Cloud had covered 30 geographical regions and 84 availability zones, serving customers in over 170 countries and regions.