With each passing day we see an increase in tension between the two biggest world powers of the moment: United States of America and China. This confrontation is centered on the affirmation of who will lead the 5G market worldwide and all the logic of telecommunications, artificial intelligence and future automation, which will affect almost all sectors of activity.
For many years, the United States has tried everything to prevent Huawei from penetrating its country, connoting the company’s practice with political issues that could affect data security and individual and collective privacy. However, this fact did not prevent it from growing in many geographical areas and obtaining ever greater competitiveness gains, having reached US $ 123 billion in turnover in an operation that extends to 170 countries.
It is, by the way, the most valuable Chinese brand at the moment, according to Forbes or Interbrand, with a value close to 8 billion dollars. Leads the world in manufacturing telecommunications equipment with around 28% market share, followed by Scandinavians Nokia and Ericsson, with respectively 16 and 14% and as a smartphone product brand it gets about 20% of the market , second only to Samsung.
Its diversification into other business areas is part of its strategy. Huawei Technologies Cooperatief acquired 20% of Vision Semantics, a company that develops algorithms that allow people to be identified in a crowd and that serves the police and espionage market. It also holds a minor position in Graphcore, a company valued at US $ 2 billion, which operates in the field of artificial intelligence applied to the car of the future and which has a partnership with BMW or Bosch. Or at Oxford Sciences Innovation, which cooperates with Oxford University in the research area and is a shareholder in Vaccitech, currently trying to develop a vaccine to combat Covid 19.
The most recent US imposition on Huawei’s entry into its market is not limited to selling the brand, but extends to all product components, including its suppliers. More recently, the United Kingdom joined this position and pushed Huawei out of the market, which culminated in the dismissal of its CEO John Browne, former BP leader for many years. In addition to the Five Eyes (USA, UK, Australia, New Zealand and Canada), similar positions are beginning to be taken by other countries like India, at the same time that Singapore announces plans to work the entire 5G market with Ericsson and Nokia.
In this context of constant threat, the position of the European Union and its main countries in terms of economic robustness such as Germany or France may determine the degree of success of the brand in the coming years. Latest news reports that MEO, Vodafone and NOS will not use Huawei technology in their 5G networks.
It is curious that this tension occurs at a time when for the first time the CEOs of the 4 aces (Apple, Google, Facebook and Amazon) were testified at the North American Congress in order to ensure that they do not use the data, tools and other information they have about their customers and users to monopolize the market, thus preventing new companies from competing on a global scale in the areas of commerce, online communication and navigation. They all appealed to the need to value American patriotism, claiming that if they do not innovate, they will give way to the role of Chinese companies.
On the Chinese side, it is answered with proverbs: Whoever does not know how to endure setbacks will never have access to great things.