Huawei overtakes Ericsson in revenue

Shenzhen-based Huawei Technologies Ltd surpassed arch rival Ericsson Inc for the first time in 2013 after it posted an 8 percent rise in revenue to 239 billion yuan (US$38.4 billion), China's biggest telecommunications equipment maker said Monday.

Huawei, which last year posted the fastest profit growth in four years, also expects revenue to grow 10 percent annually from this year to US$70 billion in 2018.

Huawei's net profit rose 34.4 percent to 21 billion yuan last year as it benefited from a steady carrier business and rapidly growing enterprise and consumer activities.

Its revenue in 2013 beat Ericsson's US$35.3 billion revenue.

"Thanks to the favorable global macro-economic and industry environment, as well as the effective execution of our company strategy, Huawei achieved our business targets for 2013," Eric Xu, Huawei's chief executive, said in a statement.

Huawei, now the world's No. 3 smartphone maker, benefits from companies investing heavily in cloud and mobile computing as well as selling more telecom devices and smartphones, industry insiders said.

Although Huawei's carrier network business grew only 4 percent, it still accounted for 166.5 billion yuan or 70 percent of its total income. The enterprise business surged 32 percent while the consumer business, including the phone unit, jumped 18 percent last year.