Huawei is one of the biggest tech firms in the world—they produce smartphones and networking equipment, in particular the USB sticks that get us on the Internet when we’re mobile. Today, it announced that they would not be focusing on one of the biggest tech markets in the world—the United States.
“Apparently, due to whatever the geopolitical reasons, we are not focusing on the U.S. market,” said Li Sanqi, Huawei’s chief technology officer. These geopolitical reasons happen to be outlined in a U.S. congressional report that advised U.S. telecom companies to not buy Huawei’s networking equipment because of their ties to the Chinese government. Huawei was trying to establish a relationship with U.S. telecom companies, but U.S. officials feared that Huawei technology could be used by China to secretly conduct cyberespionage or hacking attacks, a claim that Huawei has denied.
“Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to get into the U.S. market. Thirty percent, it’s a high-value market,” Li said. But the carrier business in other parts of the world continues to grow, which he said was an encouraging sign for the company. “We today face reality. We will focus on the rest of the world, which is reasonably big enough and is growing significantly.”
Huawei plans to focus on China, where new 4G networks will be rolling out. Huawei also plans to focus on Europe as well, where Huawei has doubled its workforce and invested USD$2 billion in research and development in the United Kingdom.
Sources: Ars Technica, PC World