VANCOUVER (Reuters) - Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou’s arrest was valid, but her ongoing detainment is illegal, defense lawyers told a Canadian court on Wednesday, in a slight deviation from China’s official stance on the case.
FILE PHOTO: Huawei Technologies Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou leaves her home to attend a court hearing in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada December 7, 2020. REUTERS/Jennifer Gauthier
Meng, 49, was arrested in December 2018 at Vancouver International Airport on a warrant from the United States, where she faces charges of bank fraud for allegedly misleading HSBC about Huawei Technologies Co Ltd’s business dealings in Iran.
She maintains her innocence and is fighting extradition while under house arrest in Vancouver.
Huawei lawyers have argued that Meng’s actions were so far removed from the United States that the country has no legitimate jurisdiction over them.
Prosecutors representing the Canadian government have argued in court that Canada had no choice but to arrest Meng under treaty obligations to the United States, given that there was an outstanding warrant for her arrest.
Defense lawyer Gib van Ert said on Wednesday that he agreed Canada had to arrest Meng, “having received what was, on its face, a bona fide extradition request.”
But he said her continued detainment was illegal.
“There’s nothing about it that is an arbitrary detention, but ... it is now revealed to be an unlawful detention,” van Ert said, pointing to the defense allegation that the United States broke international law by requesting her arrest.
China has said that it considers Meng’s arrest and possible extradition illegal. In the aftermath of her being detained, China arrested two Canadians on charges of espionage, which Canada has said it sees as retaliation.
Meng’s case is set to conclude in May.
Reporting by Moira Warburton and Sarah Berman in Vancouver; Editing by Peter Cooney
Huawei’s sales of telecommunications equipment in overseas markets also have suffered from a years-long U.S. campaign to persuade allied nations to abandon the gear over security concerns.
The U.S. effort has reduced Huawei’s global footprint and left it more reliant on the Chinese market, where much of its business is still growing, according to 2020 financial results the company released at its Shenzhen headquarters on Wednesday. Huawei’s sales in China grew 15 percent last year as revenue in many other markets, including Europe and North America, fell by double-digit percentages.
Last year was “a really tough year for Huawei,” a Huawei executive told U.S.-based journalists on Tuesday, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the official results had not yet been released. U.S. export controls have had “a huge impact to Huawei, especially for Huawei’s consumer business,” he said.
The company hasn’t seen any signs yet that the Biden administration will ease up on Huawei, the executive added, though he said it was early days.
The anti-Huawei campaign may give the company’s industrial rivals a leg up in the short term, he added, “but for the long run we believe this is damaging the reputation and also the competitive advantage of U.S. industry.”
U.S. semiconductor companies have voiced similar complaints, saying they have lost valuable sales to what was previously one of their biggest customers.
Yet some veterans of the campaign against Huawei said they are pleased to see the company losing some business as telecom companies choose rival equipment suppliers.
“A lot of [telecom] operators kind of see concern with using an untrusted vendor now and are working to find ways to replace the Huawei equipment and go with trusted vendors like Ericsson, Nokia, Samsung,” said Rob Strayer, a top State Department official for cyber matters until August 2020 who is now executive vice president for policy at the Information Technology Industry Council, a trade association.
Presenting the 2020 results on Wednesday, rotating chairman Ken Hu vowed that Huawei would survive and continue investing heavily in research in areas including 5G networks, artificial intelligence and autonomous driving. The company said it spent about $22 billion, or 16 percent of its revenue, on research and development last year.
U.S. officials began raising concerns about Huawei during the Obama administration, but the campaign to weaken the Chinese company accelerated in May 2019, when the Trump administration banned most U.S. technology sales to the company, calling it a security threat.
U.S. officials have long argued that the Chinese government could tap into Huawei telecom equipment installed overseas to spy on the West or disrupt infrastructure, though they have declined to publicly detail any evidence they hold. Huawei has denied the allegations.
The Trump administration also sought to punish Huawei for allegedly violating U.S. sanctions on Iran. Canada in 2018 arrested Meng Wanzhou, daughter of Huawei’s founder, at the request of the United States, which charged her with aiding the alleged sanctions violations. She has denied wrongdoing and is fighting extradition to the United States.
The decline of Huawei’s overseas smartphone business accelerated in the fourth quarter of 2020, as its worldwide shipments of handsets dropped by 42 percent from a year earlier, according to International Data Corporation (IDC), a market research firm.
That left Huawei in fifth place globally among smartphone makers, compared with its usual top-three position in years past, alongside Apple and Samsung.
The company’s inability to install the Google Play app store on its phones was particularly damaging in overseas markets, where previously the company had been gaining ground. That means consumers cannot easily access such apps as Google Maps or YouTube.
“From Africa to the high-end Gulf market, [Huawei] really overcame the negativity associated with Chinese things,” said Nabila Popal, research director for the global device market at IDC. But because the Google Android user base is so large, “it’s really hard to convert people from what they are used to,” she said.
A lack of some high-end semiconductors also has damaged Huawei’s smartphone sales overseas, the Huawei executive said.
He said the U.S. trade restrictions really began to bite when the White House toughened the measures last August, banning any semiconductor factory anywhere in the world from supplying Huawei if the factory used U.S. manufacturing equipment or software, which most do. Tech analysts also saw that as a turning point.
Global revenue at Huawei’s consumer unit, which includes phones, grew 3 percent last year thanks to the Chinese market. But even inside China, Huawei is losing ground to rivals including Xiaomi and Oppo, according to market research firm Canalys.
Canalys blamed U.S. sanctions, saying Huawei’s phone shipments inside China have fallen in recent months, with the company unable to meet high levels of demand.
China’s large appetite for 5G wireless network equipment is a bright spot for the company, helping boost its total sales by 3.8 percent last year to $136.7 billion, a modest level of growth compared with previous years.
China overall now accounts for about 65 percent of Huawei’s revenue, a significant increase from a few years ago, the Huawei executive said.
But excluding China, Huawei’s share of the global market for wireless network equipment fell by about 2 percentage points last year, as rivals gained ground, Stefan Pongratz, a Dell’Oro analyst, said in an interview.
Countries that have either banned Huawei 5G network equipment or created obstacles for its use include Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Belgium, France and Estonia, according to Roslyn Layton, a telecom consultant in Denmark for Strand Consult who also publishes the website China Tech Threat.
“There are places where you can see that the efforts of the U.S. government to curb the rise of Huawei are starting to pay off,” Pongratz said.
Yet over the past few months, Ericsson Chief Executive Börje Ekholm has gone on a lobbying campaign—on Huawei’s behalf.
Mr. Ekholm met Swedish politicians to protest the way the country barred Huawei equipment from the country’s 5G networks over national-security concerns. He complained to journalists in Europe and China. He sought law firms to help Huawei fight the ban.
Mr. Ekholm says that in an increasingly intertwined world he is just looking after his company’s interests. After the Swedish 5G ban, Beijing threatened to retaliate against Ericsson’s business in China, where it runs a major factory and gets 8% of its sales, versus 1% from Sweden.
“We depend on free trade,” Mr. Ekholm said in an interview. “It’s about having access to markets, and that is at the center of what we are.”
In 2015, China added the Digital Silk Road (DSR) to its massive Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). While Beijing uses DSR to offer a suite of technologies to BRI countries, Huawei’s effort to provide next-generation communication networks to countries has drawn the most scrutiny in the United States.
U.S. officials have frequently claimed that Huawei is effectively an extension of the Chinese Communist Party. Under China’s 2017 National Intelligence Law, Huawei, like all Chinese companies and entities, appears legally required to conduct intelligence work on behalf of the Chinese government. According to this analysis, the Chinese government has the ability to use Huawei-built fifth-generation (5G) networks to collect intelligence, monitor critics, and steal intellectual property. There are also worries that the company might bow to government demands and disable networks to exert coercive pressure on a country.
The United States also has commercial concerns. Once Huawei builds a country’s 5G network, that country is likely to choose Huawei to upgrade those systems when newer technologies become available, thus excluding U.S. companies for potentially decades. Huawei has already finalized more 5G contracts than any other telecom company, half of which are for 5G networks in Europe.
In response to growing concerns about Huawei’s reach, the Trump administration leveraged U.S. dominance in advanced semiconductors to bar sales of essential computer chips to the company without a specific license. Access to U.S. chips, particularly 5G-related semiconductors that enable wireless communications, network management, and data storage, is crucial to Huawei, which is reported to be running out of supply. The Trump administration also pressured countries not to use Chinese components in their 5G infrastructure.
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CFR experts investigate the impact of information and communication technologies on security, privacy, and international affairs. 2-4 times weekly.
As part of a CFR Independent Task Force on BRI, we analyzed every country’s official policy toward Huawei 5G and the extent to which this pressure campaign has succeeded. We found that in addition to the United States, eight countries have issued outright bans of the company. Almost all of these are close U.S. allies such as Australia, Japan, and the United Kingdom.
More countries have taken a quieter approach, attempting to simultaneously allay U.S. concerns and not provoke a Chinese response. Some have taken measures that amount to a de facto ban without actually barring Huawei. For example:
India has not formally banned the company but has begun to phase out the use of Huawei equipment in future projects, and is reportedly weighing a formal ban.
France announced telecommunications operators would not be able to renew licenses for Huawei equipment when they expired, effectively phasing out the company’s presence in the country.
Vietnam has not barred Huawei, but its service providers have avoided using its equipment in both their 4G and 5G networks.
Italy’s government vetoed a deal between Huawei and telecommunications provider Fastweb that would have used Huawei as the sole supplier of its 5G network.
Canada has put off a decision on Huawei for so long that its companies have chosen to exclude Huawei from their 5G networks due to the risk that they will be forced to replace the equipment in the future.
Still, others have chosen to use Huawei’s competitors without taking a public stance against the company. The largest telecommunications firms in Belgium, Croatia, Finland, Greece, Norway, Portugal, Singapore, and Spain have all contracted with Ericsson or Nokia to build their 5G networks.
While the U.S. pressure campaign has had some success, it is likely meeting its limits. The threat of the loss of intelligence sharing and security partnerships is unlikely to persuade countries that are not formal allies or close security partners with Washington.
Moreover, the United States has been unable to persuade all of its allies to avoid Huawei. The company is involved in 5G networks in NATO members Hungary, Iceland, the Netherlands, and Turkey. Some of the United States’ closest partners in the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, are also using Huawei.
A principal reason that the United States has not had more success in persuading countries not to use Huawei equipment is that it cannot offer an alternative. The United States does not and will not have a company that is competitive in the full stack of 5G equipment.
To make it easier for countries to avoid Huawei, our Task Force recommends that the U.S. Development Finance Corporation partner with its counterparts in Finland, South Korea, and Sweden to co-finance Nokia, Samsung, and Ericsson 5G projects.
The United States should also work with its partners to develop the nascent open radio access network, or Open RAN, architecture. While Huawei offers a full 5G stack, Open RAN allows multiple companies to supply different parts of a modular 5G network. The hope is that 5G networks built on an Open RAN architecture can better compete with Huawei on price. In addition, while no U.S. company offers an end-to-end 5G solution, they can better compete by specializing in individual components of a modular network, like end-user devices.
In the longer term, the United States must be better prepared for the arrival of 6G, which is likely to replace 5G within 15 years. U.S. policy-makers should fund R&D centers at universities that focus on 6G technologies, and consider tax breaks and other incentives to support private sector investment in 6G, so that there is at least one competitive U.S. company in this space.
Finally, recognizing that some U.S. allies and partners will adopt Huawei 5G despite U.S. pressure, the United States will need to develop mitigation plans for possible Chinese disruption of telecommunications infrastructure in those countries. In the words of one Pentagon-advisory group study, the U.S. military will need to “assume that all network infrastructure will ultimately become vulnerable to cyber-attack” and adopt a “zero-trust” network model.
Washington cannot expect countries to sit on the sidelines and forego upgrades to their networks while the United States gets its act together. Instead, the United States should work with allies and partners to offer a viable alternative and prepare for a future in which China controls a large part of the 5G infrastructure.
The electric car could become the new smartphone — it’s a bunch of chips wrapped inside a sleek body, just on a much larger scale.
Perhaps that’s Xiaomi’s thinking in announcing today it would put $10bn into building a smart car over the next decade. Or maybe the strategy is on the lines of Xiaomi could become the new Huawei.
The Chinese company overtook its smartphone rival in the fourth quarter of 2020, with sales increasing by a third to 43.4m, making it the Number Three maker globally behind Apple and Samsung, according to Gartner. Huawei, crippled by sanctions that have denied it access to Google services on Android, saw sales fall 41 per cent.
“The avalanche of new products from Xiaomi underlines its global ambitions,” said Ben Wood, chief analyst at CCS Insight. “Xiaomi is vying to take over the mantle that Huawei has been forced to relinquish,” said Richard Windsor of Radio Free Mobile.
The car idea challenges Huawei’s plans for one as well. Phonemaker ZTE and search engine Baidu are also pushing into electric vehicles and autonomous driving. Like Baidu, and supposedly Apple, Xiaomi may partner with a carmaker, with Great Wall Motors being a reported candidate.
So tech companies could become the new car companies, aided by contract manufacturers like Foxconn, best known for assembling the iPhone. Lex says the Taiwanese company already has useful experience in auto electronics and its goal of taking a tenth of the global electric car market as early as 2025 is not far-fetched.
However, like carmakers, it is currently being hit by the global shortage of electronics components. Young Liu, Foxconn chair, told investors on an earnings call on Tuesday that the shortage would persist until 2022.
Japan’s Renesas Electronics, one of the world’s largest makers of chips for the automotive industry, has the added problem of a fire this month at one of its factories that it said would have a massive impact on global chip supplies. Japan’s national champion for semiconductors is one company actually trying to diversify itself away from cars, with deals such as its €4.9bn acquisition of Apple supplier Dialog.
The Internet of (Five) Things
1. Keep on electric truckin’
From cars to trucks, Patrick McGee in San Francisco reports self-driving start-up Aurora has signed a multiyear partnership with Volvo Trucks — as heavy-duty lorries emerge as a main battleground for autonomous technology as the mass rollout of robotaxis falters. Leo Lewis in Tokyo has been looking at Japan’s quest to re-establish its dominance in batteries.
2. Deliveroo sets basement price
Deliveroo has set the final price for its initial public offering at £3.90 a share, the bottom of its initial range and valuing the food delivery company at £1.3bn less than the top end of its original expectations. The final price per share will leave its market capitalisation at £7.6bn when trading begins on Wednesday morning.
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3. Oxford Nanopore picks London for IPO
DNA sequencing technology start-up Oxford Nanopore has chosen to list in the UK for its initial public offering later this year. The Oxford-based company is likely to be one of the largest floats this year in London, with analysts valuing it at £4bn to £7bn.
4. Netflix to clean up its carbon act
Netflix, the maker of the Attenborough climate documentary, plans to banish dirty diesel generators from film sets and use more virtual production techniques, after a review found that more than half of the company’s carbon emissions came from film production rather than from streaming video from data centres.
5. Improbable dreams fade Nostos is the latest in a string of scrapped games built with Improbable World’s SpatialOS software, raising questions about a technology that won a $500m investment from SoftBank in 2017, then the biggest ever investment in a UK start-up. Kadhim Shubber has been looking at how the company has fallen far short of its lofty ambition to build “something like The Matrix”.
Tech tools — Google’s AI Maps
The search giant announced today it is on track to bring over 100 AI-powered improvements to Google Maps this year. They include helping you find your way better indoors using Live View’s visual aids and new weather and air quality layers so you can quickly see current and forecasted conditions in the area. A new routing model works out lower fuel consumption options, based on factors like road incline and traffic congestion.
There is also a pilot this summer with the US supermarket chain Fred Meyer for kerbside pick-ups — “After you place an order for pick-up on the store’s app, you can add it to Maps. We’ll send you a notification when it’s time to leave, and let you share your arrival time with the store. Your ETA is continuously updated, based on location and traffic. This helps the store prioritise your order so it’s ready as soon as you get there. Check in on the Google Maps app, and they’ll bring your order right out for a seamless, fast, no-contact pick-up.”
The Huawei P50 series may have been delayed yet again. It is believed that Huawei originally had an end of March event planned at which it would have announced the release of HarmonyOS 2.0 and the first phones to run it out of the box – the P50 models.
However, the phone launch was pushed back – to June, according to unconfirmed info – and the company didn’t want to hold back the release of its Android replacement OS. So, Huawei officially confirmed that HarmonyOS is coming in April.
As for the P50 series, Weibo users are claiming that the new launch date has been tentatively set for May. Of course, this is far from a solid commitment and can change again as the company tries to sort out its supply chain.
Huawei P50 • Huawei P50 Pro • Huawei P50 Pro+, Renders by HoilNDI
The Weibo users are also preparing their smartphone fantasy football game, noting the Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra from yesterday and its 1/1.12” sensor, which is supposed to be surpassed only by P50’s 1” IMX800 sensor. That is if and when the P50 actually launches (the stats on the IMX800 are based purely on rumors too).
What of HarmonyOS then? We already know that Huawei Mate X2 will be the first device to be updated to the stable release (the foldable currently runs Android 10). With the P50 out of the running, a tablet may become the first mobile device to run Harmony out of the box – the Huawei MatePad Pro2 is listed at MIIT with HarmonyOS.
Huawei MatePad Pro2 (WGR-AN19) details by MIIT reveal HarmonyOS software
The tablet, WGR-AN19 (“Wagner”), has popped up in a few other places. From what we can gather so far, it will be powered by the scarce Kirin 9000 chipset. It will have two versions, one with a 12.2” display from BOE and one with a 12.6” display from Samsung (presumably an AMOLED). Additionally, it will support 40W fast charging, as per 3C data.
Xiaomi Launched the Mi 11 Ultra smartphone at an event on Monday, March 29. The Chinese smartphone giant is hoping the Mi 11 Ultra will help it push into the premium segment of the market.
Xiaomi
GUANGZHOU, China — Xiaomi launched a slew of new smartphones on Monday, with one high-end device aimed at international markets as it looks to push into the premium segment and fill the void left by rival Huawei's troubles.
The devices are:
Mi 11 Lite and Mi 11 Lite 5G
Mi 11 Pro
Mi 11 Ultra
The Mi 11 Ultra is the smartphone aimed at international markets in the premium segment. It will start at 5,999 yuan ($914) and go up to 6,999 yuan ($1,066) for a higher spec version. Xiaomi has not yet said what markets it will be available in outside of China.
With the Mi 11 Ultra, Xiaomi is entering into stiff competition with leaders Samsung and Apple, but also Chinese rivals including Oppo and Vivo, which have looked to boost their high-end credentials and expand into more mature markets such as Europe in the last few years.
"Early last year, we started to move into the high range market," Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun said at a launch event on Monday. "I think we have found a foothold in the high-range market."
The CEO spent a lot of time talking about the camera on the Mi 11 Ultra which boasts three sensors. The camera takes up a large amount of real estate on the back of the phone. Lei talked up the low-light photography and zoom as well as the algorithm behind the camera.
Other features include:
A 6.81-inch display
5G connectivity
Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 chipset inside
"These days, the camera makes the phone. Xiaomi knows it and went all-out with the Ultra," Bryan Ma, vice president of client devices research at IDC, told CNBC.
"Xiaomi may be thumping its chest after tonight's launch, but the competition from rivals is so intense that it can't sit comfortably for long."
Huawei void
Xiaomi will likely be hoping to take advantage of some of Huawei's issues in the smartphone market that have come as a result of U.S. sanctions on the telecommunications equipment giant.
In 2019, Huawei was put on a U.S. blacklist known as the Entity List which restricted American firms from exporting technology to the Chinese company. Google had to cut ties with Huawei meaning the Chinese firm could not use the Android operating system on its devices. That's not a big deal in China where Google services such as Gmail and search are blocked. But overseas, consumers are used to using such apps.
The U.S. maintains Huawei is a national security threat, a claim the Chinese company has repeatedly denied.
Xiaomi has also faced scrutiny from the U.S. The administration of former President Donald Trump designated Xiaomi a "Communist Chinese military companies" or CCMC. That restricted American investors from buying shares or related securities of Xiaomi. But a judge temporarily blocked that move after Xiaomi brought a lawsuit against the U.S. Xiaomi said at the time that it was "not owned, controlled or affiliated with the Chinese military."
Huawei saw its global shipments fall 41% year-on-year in the fourth quarter, according to Counterpoint Research. In Europe alone, shipments plunged 62%.
Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo all saw double-digit smartphone shipment growth in the fourth quarter of 2020, according to Canalys. Xiaomi was the third-biggest smartphone maker by market share during the same period.
But Xiaomi may not be the best positioned in the premium segment versus some of its rivals, Neil Shah, research director at Counterpoint Research, said.
"Xiaomi is doing well to fill to the void left by Huawei in low-to-mid segments especially in Europe, Latin America." Shah said. "The premium segment is still up for grabs. While Samsung and Apple are very well positioned to capture these volumes, among Chinese brands OnePlus & Oppo should be better beneficiaries."
Shah said that Xiaomi's Chinese rivals have ramped up marketing and distribution investments overseas.
SHENZHEN, China, March 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- At the Huawei Industrial Digital Transformation Conference 2021, Huawei unveiled its latest CloudFabric 3.0 Hyper-Converged Data Center Network Solution. This future-proof solution is ideal for building lossless computing and storage networks based on an all-Ethernet architecture, and has been designed to unleash 100% of computing power. In addition, as an L3 autonomous driving network trendsetter, this solution also stands out by offering full-lifecycle network automation and network-wide intelligent O&M, reducing OPEX by up to 30% and empowering enterprises' intelligent upgrades.
Kevin Hu, President of Huawei's Data Communication Product Line, said, "Data center stores large amounts of valuable data. Data is the main production factor of the intelligent world. During digitalization of enterprises, we need to use data every moment, so data needs to be efficiently stored and transmitted. To this end, storage and network must highly collaborate in data centers."
He continued: "most of the storage devices are all-flash, and more services are moving to the cloud. With these changes, data center networks are transforming towards all Ethernet. However, traditional Ethernet is now faced with multiple challenges, such as how to eliminate network problems caused by packet loss. These include losses of computing power and data as well as complex service deployment and network O&M."
To overcome these challenges, Huawei has launched the latest CloudFabric 3.0 Hyper-Converged Data Center Network Solution. The following are just some of the innovations that separate this solution from the competition:
Ethernet for High-Performance Computing: Eliminates Ethernet Packet Loss and Unleashes 100% of Computing Power
Huawei has introduced an intelligent lossless (iLossless) algorithm to network connectivity, which dynamically adjusts parameter settings based on the real-time network traffic status to enable zero packet loss on data center networks and maximize computing power.
Active-Active All-Ethernet Storage Network: Enables Long-Distance Lossless Transmission on the Ethernet and Boosts Active-Active Storage Performance
Huawei has made a significant step forward in long-distance data transmission by unveiling the iLossless-DCI algorithm, which extends lossless transmission distances on Ethernet to a maximum of 70 km. Compared with conventional storage networks, this feature-rich active-active all-Ethernet storage network improves IOPS by more than 80%.
Full-Lifecycle Network Automation: Implements NaaS and Service Provisioning in Seconds
Huawei's CloudFabric 3.0 also innovates with 3D modeling, which enables automated design and optimal recommendation of network solutions via multi-dimensional, comprehensive optimal solving. The resulting benefits include NaaS, service provisioning in seconds, and full-lifecycle network intelligence encompassing network planning, construction, maintenance, and optimization.
Huawei also ushered in a new wave of network-wide intelligent O&M by introducing knowledge graphs to data center networks, implementing rapid fault locating in minutes, and proactive prediction of up to 97% of network risks. Thanks to network-wide intelligent O&M capabilities, Huawei's CloudFabric 3.0 enables a beneficial transformation from passive to proactive O&M, ensuring 24/7 always-on services.
This latest data center network solution is built on joint innovation between Huawei and global leading industry customers. Looking ahead, the trend towards energetic digitalization is truly revolutionizing networks. To keep pace, Huawei will continue enhancing network capabilities to maximize computing power and enable intelligent upgrades for enterprises of all sizes. To date, Huawei's data center network solutions have been deployed in more than 12,000 data centers around the world, delivering optimal services to a wide range of industries, including finance, government, ISP, manufacturing, and energy.
Chinese behemoth Huawei Technologies has reportedly landed a mobile payments license in China after buying Xunlian Zhifu Network. Huawei has previously used UnionPay’s mobile payment service.
The Huawei Pay app, launched in 2016, has allowed Huawei phone owners to pay for goods online and in brick-and-mortar stores.
That app, however, is based on near-field communication, a technology that is not widely used in China, KrAsia reported. Zhang Yu, an analyst with iResearch, said, “It is necessary for Huawei to hold a payment license since the company wants to provide more payment and other financial services.”
In theory, that brings Huawei into competition with Ant Group’s Alipay and Tencent Holdings’ WeChat Pay. Taken together, the two account for about 98 percent of the country’s mobile payments market.
With a payments license, Zhang said, Huawei won’t challenge those powerhouse apps. That’s because Huawei will still promote its mobile payment services primarily within its own ecosystem, he said.
“Huawei made this acquisition with the goal of offering a wider range of secure, easy-to-use smart services,” a company spokesperson told KrASIA.
The company bought Xunlian from Shanghai’s Wo Rui Ou Information Technology Co., China Securities Journal reported on Sunday (March28).
Shenzhen-based Huawei has come under suspicion due to security concerns. The U.S. has pressured the European Union to be cautious of Huawei, due to fears that the company could use its equipment to spy on other nations. Huawei, a competitor of Nokia and Ericsson, has repeatedly denied that it performs any clandestine operations.
Guidelines from the EU, issued in 2020, allow for countries to restrict or exclude “high-risk” 5G providers from important parts of their telecom networks. This meant that 5G provider Huawei could be affected.
These guidelines warn about security interference from a third country as well as the dangers of relying on only one vendor.
SHENZHEN, China, March 29, 2021 — At the Huawei Industrial Digital Transformation Conference 2021, Huawei unveiled its latest CloudFabric 3.0 Hyper-Converged Data Center Network Solution. This future-proof solution is ideal for building lossless computing and storage networks based on an all-Ethernet architecture, and has been designed to unleash 100% of computing power. In addition, as an L3 autonomous driving network trendsetter, this solution also stands out by offering full-lifecycle network automation and network-wide intelligent O&M, reducing OPEX by up to 30% and empowering enterprises’ intelligent upgrades.
Kevin Hu, President of Huawei’s Data Communication Product Line, said, “Data center stores large amounts of valuable data. Data is the main production factor of the intelligent world. During digitalization of enterprises, we need to use data every moment, so data needs to be efficiently stored and transmitted. To this end, storage and network must highly collaborate in data centers.”
He continued: “most of the storage devices are all-flash, and more services are moving to the cloud. With these changes, data center networks are transforming towards all Ethernet. However, traditional Ethernet is now faced with multiple challenges, such as how to eliminate network problems caused by packet loss. These include losses of computing power and data as well as complex service deployment and network O&M.”
To overcome these challenges, Huawei has launched the latest CloudFabric 3.0 Hyper-Converged Data Center Network Solution. The following are just some of the innovations that separate this solution from the competition:
Ethernet for High-Performance Computing: Eliminates Ethernet Packet Loss and Unleashes 100% of Computing Power. Huawei has introduced an intelligent lossless (iLossless) algorithm to network connectivity, which dynamically adjusts parameter settings based on the real-time network traffic status to enable zero packet loss on data center networks and maximize computing power.
Active-Active All-Ethernet Storage Network: Enables Long-Distance Lossless Transmission on the Ethernet and Boosts Active-Active Storage Performance. Huawei has made a significant step forward in long-distance data transmission by unveiling the iLossless-DCI algorithm, which extends lossless transmission distances on Ethernet to a maximum of 70 km. Compared with conventional storage networks, this feature-rich active-active all-Ethernet storage network improves IOPS by more than 80%.
Full-Lifecycle Network Automation: Implements NaaS and Service Provisioning in Seconds. Huawei’s CloudFabric 3.0 also innovates with 3D modeling, which enables automated design and optimal recommendation of network solutions via multi-dimensional, comprehensive optimal solving. The resulting benefits include NaaS, service provisioning in seconds, and full-lifecycle network intelligence encompassing network planning, construction, maintenance, and optimization.
Network-Wide Intelligent O&M: Achieves Fault Self-healing and Ensures 24/7 Always-on Services. Huawei also ushered in a new wave of network-wide intelligent O&M by introducing knowledge graphs to data center networks, implementing rapid fault locating in minutes, and proactive prediction of up to 97% of network risks. Thanks to network-wide intelligent O&M capabilities, Huawei’s CloudFabric 3.0 enables a beneficial transformation from passive to proactive O&M, ensuring 24/7 always-on services.
This latest data center network solution is built on joint innovation between Huawei and global leading industry customers. Looking ahead, the trend towards energetic digitalization is truly revolutionizing networks. To keep pace, Huawei will continue enhancing network capabilities to maximize computing power and enable intelligent upgrades for enterprises of all sizes. To date, Huawei’s data center network solutions have been deployed in more than 12,000 data centers around the world, delivering optimal services to a wide range of industries, including finance, government, ISP, manufacturing, and energy.
SINGAPORE, March 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- HUAWEI Video, the video-on-demand (VOD) streaming platform by Huawei, is looking to celebrate its first-year anniversary with its fans in Singapore. In conjunction with its anniversary, the streaming platform today announced the launch of its limited-time 'HUAWEI Video Turns 1' contest, where users in Singapore can compete to win Huawei's latest products and free subscription to its service.
HUAWEI Video, the video-on-demand (VOD) streaming platform by Huawei, is looking to celebrate its first-year anniversary with its fans in Singapore. In conjunction with its anniversary, the streaming platform today announced the launch of its limited-time ‘HUAWEI Video Turns 1’ contest, where users in Singapore can compete to win Huawei’s latest products and free subscription to its service. (PRNewsfoto/Huawei Mobile Services)
Since launching its all-in-one video streaming app on March 2020, HUAWEI Video has become one of the fastest-growing video streaming services in Asia Pacific. The app, which comes pre-installed on HUAWEI devices, offers an extensive library of video content for its users – ranging from child-friendly content, to dramas, movies, documentaries, as well as concerts. Currently available across six markets in the Asia Pacific region, including Hong Kong (China), Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand, the platform is also set to launch in Indonesia later this year.
"The growth of HUAWEI Video in the past year shows that there is a huge demand for streaming content in Asia and we are committed to delivering quality content through our curation and new partnerships," said the Director of Huawei Asia Pacific Consumer Cloud Service, Shane Shan.
HUAWEI Video Announces Exciting New Content and Deals
Ahead of its one-year anniversary, the streaming platform has announced the addition of exciting simulcast content such as the hit Chinese reality series Sisters Season 2 from MangoTV, and TVB Drama Beauty and The Boss. The app also features popular content such as The World of the Married from dimsum entertainment, A Quest to Heal from Mediacorp as well as Say Yes to the Dress from Discovery.
In conjunction with the celebration, HUAWEI Video is also launching the 'HUAWEI Video Turns 1' contest exclusively to all HUAWEI Video users in Singapore, starting from now to 4 April 2021. Users can complete different tasks and earn chances to spin the lucky draw wheel to win HUAWEI prizes such as HUAWEI devices and HUAWEI Video subscription package.
A view of a Huawei store in Central China's Henan Province in November 2020 Photo: cnsphoto
Chinese telecommunications firm Huawei has received a mobile payment license in China through acquisition, expanding its presence in a lucrative business, according to media reports.
Analysts said Huawei's new move could pose a direct challenge to the market dominance of Ant Group and Tencent, which have already drawn close attentions from regulators.
According to a report from the China Securities Journal on Sunday, Huawei acquired the license by purchasing licensed digital payment provider Shenzhen Sharelink Network Co. Data from company information provider Tianyancha also showed that Huawei holds 100 percent of Sharelink.
Huawei has had a presence in the mobile payment field for years, but the license may help it avoid working with Alipay or WeChat as well as saving a large amount of third-party fees, Liu Dingding, an independent tech analyst, told the Global Times on Sunday.
In August 2016, Huawei started to operate Huawei Pay, a payment service that uses near field communication technology. But at that time, bank card provider China UnionPay was responsible for transaction processing, according to previous media reports.
"With the new license, Huawei may be able to operate online stores with its own financial system or offer paid services through its vast range of equipment without paying commissions to third-party payment companies," Ma Jihua, a Beijing-based independent tech industry analyst, told Global Times on Sunday.
Smartphone maker Xiaomi, ByteDance and e-commerce platform Pinduoduo have all received payment licenses.
"With Huawei's large base of phone users and its complete ecosystem and software, it has an advantage in developing the payment sector and posing a threat to its counterparts," Liu said.
Nevertheless, it may still be hard for Huawei to compete with Alipay and WeChat in the short run due to its late entry, analysts said, while noting that Huawei may have already seized the initiative in the future payment scenario.
During the launch of its Mate 40 phone series in October last year, Huawei said that the series was the world's first smartphone that supports digital yuan hardware wallets, paving the way for using the digital Chinese currency that's been under rapid development by China's central bank.
Ma believed that there are also possibilities for Huawei to push its payment method into the international market, but it still needs to cooperate with local financial authorities in other countries.
Huawei's acquisition also comes as Chinese regulators have tightened regulations governing the fintech sector, which could have deep impact on operations of industry giants, including Ant Group.
I became a professional writer and editor shortly after graduation. My degrees are in biomedical sciences; however, they led to some experience in the biotech area, which convinced me of its potential to revolutionize our health, environment and lives in general. This developed into an all-consuming interest in more aspects of tech over time: I can never write enough on the latest electronics, gadgets and innovations. My other interests include imaging, astronomy, and streaming all the things. Oh, and coffee.
