Huawei expands operations in European nations

Compared with Huawei's expansion in the US, which has run into roadblocks, the company has been welcomed in most European countries. Provided to China Daily

The Chinese telecommunications company's fortunes continue to rise globally

After the Chinese telecommunications company Huawei opened an exhibition center near Amsterdam recently, Eberhard van der Laan, the city's mayor, sang the company's praises to business leaders in a speech.

"I learnt the concept of clouding technology during my visit to Huawei headquarters in Shenzhen two years ago," he says.

The telling of that anecdote is typical of Van der Laan's unstinting praise of Huawei's contribution to his city and his country.

Yet 10 years ago when Huawei, now a global leader in its field, sent Patrick Zhang to Europe to explore market opportunities, he says he was unsure about what kind of reception it would receive.

The company ended up receiving such a good hearing and gaining such widespread recognition that recently local radio in the Netherlands broadcast live when Huawei hosted a half-day forum on trends in global information technology and big data.

Reflecting the company's growing presence in Europe, it has become the biggest Chinese investor in the Netherlands after 10 years of expansion.

"When we first went to Europe, we virtually wandered the streets like tourists looking for customers," says Zhang, now president of marketing and solutions at Huawei Enterprise Business Group, in an interview in Amsterdam.

"It was very hard. The first steps were particularly difficult."

Huawei has been highly successful in Europe thanks to its strategy of localization and attaching great importance to research and development. It now has ties with 560 European channel partners in telecommunications operations, had a turnover in the continent of $4.17 billion last year, and has more than 7,500 staff, most of them Europeans.

With that success, the company decided in 2011 to take a new tack, offering information and telecommunications services to businesses directly rather than through other telecommunications companies.

That business is now growing rapidly, Zhang says, and the company expects it will have annual turnover of $1 billion in the coming three to five years.

Compared with Huawei's expansion in the US, which has run into roadblocks, Zhang says his company has been welcomed in most European countries and will diversify its service portfolio in the continent.

In Europe, Huawei has been "treated fairly", Zhang says, "unlike in the US, where we have encountered access difficulties for groundless reasons given by the US side".

Huawei has 13 R&D sites in eight European countries (Belgium, Britain, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy and Sweden) and operates dozens of innovation centers in partnership with local telecom and ICT operators.