shenzhen guangdong native name type private industry telecommunications equipment networking equipment semiconductor founded 1987 ; 29 years ago 1987 founder ren zhengfei headquarters shenzhen guangdong china area served worldwide products mobile and fixed broadband networks consultancy and managed services multimedia technology smartphones tablet computers dongles revenue cn 395.009 billion 2015 1 us 60.839 billion 2015 operating income cn 45.786 billion 2015 1 us 7.052 billion 2015 profit cn 36.910 billion 2015 1 us 5.685 billion 2015 total assets cn 372.155 billion 2015 1 us 57.319 billion 2015 total equity cn 119.069 billion 2015 1 us 18.339 billion 2015 owner employee owned corporation 2 number of employees 170 000 2015 subsidiaries hisilicon website www.huawei.com huawei technologies co. ltd. simplified chinese traditional chinese literal meaning huawei technology limited company transcriptions standard mandarin hanyu pinyin hu w i j sh y uxi n g ngs ipa xu a u e i t i u i o u i n k s huawei simplified chinese traditional chinese literal meaning splendid chinese action achievement transcriptions standard mandarin hanyu pinyin hu w i listen help info huawei technologies co. ltd. hw we ; pinyin hu w i is a chinese multinational networking and telecommunications equipment and services company headquartered in shenzhen guangdong . 3 it is the largest telecommunications equipment manufacturer in the world having overtaken ericsson in 2012 . 4 huawei was founded in 1987 by ren zhengfei a former engineer in the people s liberation army . at the time of its establishment huawei was focused on manufacturing phone switches but has since expanded its business to include building telecommunications networks ; providing operational and consulting services and equipment to enterprises inside and outside of china ; and manufacturing communications devices for the consumer market . 5 6 huawei has over 170 000 employees as of september 2015 around 76 000 of whom are engaged in research and development r & d . 7 8 it has 21 r & d institutes in countries including china the united states 9 canada 10 the united kingdom 11 pakistan france belgium germany colombia sweden ireland india 12 russia and turkey 13 14 and in 2014 the company invested 6.4 billion usd in r & d up from 5 billion usd in 2013 . 15 in 2014 huawei recorded a profit of 34.2 billion cny 5.5 billion usd . 16 its products and services have been deployed in more than 140 countries and it currently serves 5 of the world s 50 largest telecoms operators . 17 contents 1 name 2 history 2.1 early years 2.2 international expansion 2.3 investment and partnerships 2.4 recent performance 3 corporate affairs 3.1 leadership 3.2 ownership 4 partners and customers 5 products and services 5.1 telecom networks 5.2 global services 5.3 ascend smartphones and devices 5.4 tecal servers 6 competitive position 6.1 sales 6.2 recognition 6.3 sponsorship 7 corporate social responsibility 8 criticism and controversies 8.1 intellectual property rights 8.2 security concerns 8.3 treatment of workforce and customers 9 see also 10 references 11 further reading 12 external links name edit huawei is the official transliteration of the firm s chinese name simplified chinese ; traditional chinese ; pinyin hu w i . the etymology of the character is derived from which means flower . this is hinted at in huawei s logo . the character can also mean splendid or magnificent but nowadays mostly refers to china or ethnic chinese see also names of china . it is common for chinese companies to use this word ; another example being the taiwanese company asus simplified chinese ; traditional chinese ; pinyin hu shu ; literally chinese eminent that was founded back in 1989 . the second character of huawei s name means action or achievement thus huawei literally means chinese achievement . citation needed it is pronounced wah way according to a gizmodo video that claims to provide the official pronunciation 18 as well as many other internet sources . however wah way is incorrect and is an unfortunate perpetuation of a mistaken combination of the cantonese and mandarin pronunciations for the first and second characters respectively . the cantonese pronunciation is wah waii 19 while the mandarin pronunciation is hwa way ipa hw we . although the company is based in the cantonese speaking area of guangdong the use of huawei as the spelling for its name refers to the mandarin pronunciation of hwa way . history edit early years edit during the 1980s china s government tried to modernize the country s underdeveloped telecommunications infrastructure . a core component of the telecommunications network was telephone exchange switches and in the late 1980s several chinese research groups endeavored to acquire and develop the technology usually through joint ventures with foreign companies . ren zhengfei a former deputy director of the people s liberation army engineering corp founded huawei in 1987 in shenzhen . rather than relying on joint ventures to secure technology transfers from foreign companies which were often reluctant to transfer their most advanced technologies to chinese firms ren focused on local research and development to produce the switches through reverse engineering of foreign technologies . at a time when all of china s telecommunications technology was imported from abroad ren hoped to build a domestic chinese telecommunication company that could compete with foreign competitors . 20 the company reports that it had rmb 21 000 in registered capital at the time of its founding . the far eastern economic review also reported that it received an 8.5 million loan from a state owned bank though the company has denied the existence of the loan . 5 21 during its first several years the company s business model consisted mainly of reselling private branch exchange pbx switches imported from hong kong . meanwhile it was reverse engineering imported switches and investing heavily in research and development to manufacture its own technologies . 5 by 1990 the company had approximately 500 r & d staff and began its own independent commercialization of pbx switches targeting hotels and small enterprises . 22 the company s first major breakthrough came in 1993 when it launched its c & c08 program controlled telephone switch . it was by far the most powerful switch available in china at the time . by initially deploying in small cities and rural areas and placing emphasis on service and customizability the company gained market share and made its way into the mainstream market . 23 the company also developed collusive joint venture relationships with local authorities whereby it would provide dividends to the local officials in exchange for their using huawei products in the network . ahrens writes that these methods were unorthodox bordering on corrupt but not illegal . 5 huawei also gained a key contract to build the first national telecommunications network for the people s liberation army a deal one employee described as small in terms of our overall business but large in terms of our relationships . 21 in 1994 founder ren zhengfei had a meeting with party general secretary jiang zemin telling him that switching equipment technology was related to international security and that a nation that did not have its own switching equipment was like one that lacked its own military . jiang reportedly agreed with this assessment . 5 another major turning point for the company came in 1996 when the government in beijing adopted an explicit policy of supporting domestic telecommunications manufacturers and restricting access to foreign competitors . huawei was promoted by both the government and the military as a national champion and established new research and development offices . 5 international expansion edit huawei office in voorburg netherlands huawei office in ontario canada in 1997 huawei won its first overseas contract 24 providing fixed line network products to hong kong company hutchison whampoa . 23 later that year huawei launched its wireless gsm based products and eventually expanded to offer cdma and umts . in 1999 the company opened a research and development r & d center in bangalore india to develop a wide range of telecom software . 22 from 1998 to 2003 huawei contracted with ibm for management consulting and underwent significant transformation of its management and product development structure . after 2000 huawei increased its speed of expansion into overseas markets having achieved international sales of more than us 100 million by 2000 24 and establishing an r & d center in stockholm sweden . in 2001 huawei established four r & d centers in the united states divested non core subsidiary avansys to emerson for us 750 million and joined the international telecommunications union itu . by 2002 huawei s international market sales had reached us 552 million . 22 in 2004 huawei continued its overseas expansion with a contract to build a third generation network for telfort the dutch mobile operator . 22 this contract valued at more than us25 million was the first such contract for the company in europe . 25 in 2005 huawei s international contract orders exceeded its domestic sales for the first time . huawei signed a global framework agreement with vodafone . this agreement marked the first time a telecommunications equipment supplier from china had received approved supplier status from vodafone global supply chain . the agreement established the terms and conditions for the supply of huawei s solutions to any one of the vodafone operating companies worldwide . 26 huawei also signed a contract with british telecom bt for the deployment of its multi service access network msan and transmission equipment for bt s 21st century network 21cn providing bt and the uk telecommunications industry with some infrastructure necessary to support future growth as these companies are multi vendor infrastructure . 27 in may 2008 huawei and optus developed a mobile innovation centre in sydney australia providing facilities for engineers to develop new wireless and mobile broadband concepts into ready for market products . 28 in 2008 the company embarked on its first large scale commercial deployment of umts hspa in north america providing telus s new next generation wireless network and bell canada with high speed mobile access . 29 huawei delivered one of the world s first lte epc commercial networks for teliasonera in oslo norway in 2009 . the company launched the world s first end to end 100g solution from routers to transmission system that same year to help meet the rapid growth of network traffic and enhance router efficiency and reliability . 22 in july 2010 huawei was included in the global fortune 500 2010 list published by the u.s. magazine fortune for the first time on the strength of annual sales of us 21.8 billion and net profit of us 2.67 billion . 30 in late 2010 it was reported that huawei is planning to invest around us 500 million rs 2 200 crore to set up a telecom equipment manufacturing facility in tamil nadu india and us100 million to expand its r & d center in bangalore . 31 32 in october 2012 it was announced that huawei would move its uk headquarters to green park reading berkshire . 33 the company also in an effort to increase its prominence in the united states became the main sponsor of the jonas brothers 2013 summer tour . 34 in september 2013 huawei opened a new canadian office in regina saskatchewan huawei had collaborated with the local carrier sasktel to build its hspa and lte networks . the company also announced that sasktel would carry its new ascend y300 smartphone . 35 in october 2013 huawei has been selected by tdc a s as a sole vendor to modernize the nationwide gsm umts lte network in denmark and provide managed services over a six year period . the value of the contract is over 700 million over the term of the agreement . 36 as per the latest rankings by the economist huawei is the number one telecom vendor