Huawei's 2019 revenue expected to jump 18%

Huawei Technologies on Tuesday said its full-year revenue would likely jump 18 percent in 2019 to 850 billion yuan (121.84 billion U.S. dollars), lower than its earlier projections.

The U.S. in May banned Huawei, the world's biggest telecom network equipment manufacturer and the second largest smartphone maker, from doing business with its companies and accessing technology such as Google's Android operating system.

Huawei's Rotating Chairman Xu Zhijun revealed the numbers in a New Year's message to employees and customers in which he also forecast 2020 to be a "difficult year," saying that the firm was unlikely to grow as rapidly as it did in the first half of this year.

The company anticipates its growth in 2019 to be 18 percent, less than 2018 when Huawei's annual revenue rose 19.5 percent.

Despite being black-listed by the U.S., Huawei is leading global 5G development. To date, over 700 cities globally and 228 Fortune 500 companies have partnered with Huawei for their digital transformation, said Xu.

He also mentioned the company's emphasis for its work in the coming year. Huawei will develop its own eco-system - Huawei Mobile Service (HMS) - in full scale to support its overseas sales.

The HMS, an alternative to Google services, is a suite of apps required for the smooth functioning of mobile phones and includes messaging, navigation and other programs.

According to the Economic Times, Huawei's sub-brand Honor is in talks with some top 150 apps in India to get them integrated onto the platform.

"We have our own HMS and are trying to build a mobile ecosystem. Most of the key apps such as navigation, payments, gaming and messaging will be ready by the end of December," the Economic Times quoted Charles Peng, CEO of Huawei and Honor India, as saying.

Huawei secured India's approval for 5G trails on Monday, helping the world's second-largest internet market build its 5G network.

"As part of our commitment to ensure faster roll out of 5G services in India, we have decided to give 5G spectrum for trials to all the players," Ravi Shankar Prasad, the country's minister for technology and communications, announced at an event in New Delhi.