In the ever-changing external environment, the pressure-bearing Huawei is actively adjusting its strategy and looking for new market space.
Huawei's strategy has been greatly adjusted
Huawei's terminal business, led by Yu Chengdong, managing director and CEO of Huawei's terminal business, took the lead in responding.
On the afternoon of April 20, at the launch of Huawei's terminal commercial office new products, Yu Chengdong announced a major adjustment of the terminal business development strategy: Huawei's "consumer business" was officially renamed "terminal business" and fully entered the commercial market.
The commercial office market is included in the terminal business, which means that in the future, Huawei's terminal products will fully cover the two modules of consumer products and commercial products, expanding service users from mass consumers to government and enterprise customers, and the business model from toC to toBtoC goes hand in hand. At the same time, the consumer business scope focusing on C-end mass users will continue to expand, focusing on the field of IOT.
Yu Chengdong said that in the future, Huawei's terminal business will rely on the two ecosystems of hardware and software to continuously enrich the product categories of commercial notebooks, desktops and monitors, flat panels, smart screens, and wearables, focusing on providing commercial office solutions for six major industries such as government and education, medical care, manufacturing, transportation, finance, and energy.
In fact, as early as before the official announcement of the name change, in March this year, Huawei's 2021 annual report released the latest business architecture diagram, which has called the original consumer BG the terminal BG, and Huawei's official website has also made changes.
Not only that, Leifeng also learned that in June last year, when Huawei officially upgraded the HarmonyOS system to 2.0, it said that the new system can be applied to the commercial version of all-scenario smart devices.
From upgrading the system, to releasing new commercial office products, to formal official announcements, the preliminary preparation for commercial business to be included in the key areas of long-term strategic investment has been completed in stages.
For the renamed terminal BG, Huawei defines the end-to-end business organization for end product users and ecological partners, and is responsible for business results, risks, market competitiveness, and customer satisfaction. With users as the center, we create a full-scenario intelligent life experience, focusing on five major scenarios of smart office, smart home, smart travel, sports and health, and audio-visual entertainment, to achieve a commercial closed loop of user experience and services.
In recent years, Huawei's mobile phone business has performed strongly, once becoming the backbone of the consumer business, becoming Huawei's largest source of revenue in 2018 and peaking global shipments in 2020.
However, under the dual pressure of the epidemic and sanctions, Huawei's mobile phones, which rely on global supply chain systems, have rapidly shrunk in shipments in 2021, and the revenue pillar consumer business has declined for the first time in 2021. Huawei's 2021 financial report shows that the annual operating income of the consumer business was 243.4 billion yuan, down 49.6% year-on-year, and Huawei's total sales were affected by this, down 28.6% year-on-year, ending 18 years of positive growth.
At the end of last month, in the face of continuous suppression, Ren Zhengfei shouted slogans such as "actively adjusting the formation" and "adopting flexible and mobile strategies and tactics" at the inaugural meeting of the second batch of regiments.
For Huawei, this strategic adjustment is not only a positive response in the face of foreseeable revenue pressure, but also a further optimization of Huawei's product ecology and more living space.
Consumer businesses are looking for new ways out
Entering the commercial field is a realistic way out for Huawei's consumer business.
Huawei believes that the current commercial equipment market, after experiencing the 1.0 era centered on commercial desktops and the 2.0 era of multi-device integration, is entering the 3.0 era of cloud and AI, and full-scenario integration and intelligent interaction have become significant features.
In Yu Chengdong's view, "the name of Huawei's consumer business has gone through a decade of road", and Huawei has accumulated experience and capabilities in the field of commercial office for many years. It can help commercial customers build a perfect software and hardware ecosystem and service system, and help enterprises digitally transform.
The more immediate real-world reason is the impact of the global shortage of chips and key components. At a time when the revenue of consumer business is slashed, the incorporation of commercial business into the terminal business has become a new curve to drive the growth of consumer business.
According to Huawei insiders, the requirements for chips in commercial products are slightly lower than those for mobile phone chips, and for Huawei, the existing chip acquisition capabilities can cover the current demand, which is also taken into account.
In fact, as early as last year, Huawei has begun to explore the commercial market, and has gained initial recognition in the B-end commercial market through smart screens, printers and other products. A variety of commercial office hardware products released this time cover seven categories of notebooks, desktops, monitors, tablets, smart screens, wearables, and printers.
Yu Chengdong said that at present, Huawei's existing products have landed in many application scenarios in the commercial field. For example, it provides a variety of industry-level product solutions such as paperless office, smart classroom, computer classroom, mine employee safety operation collaboration, interactive insurance solutions for government and enterprise customers.
According to Huawei's official statement, Huawei's advantage in entering the commercial field lies in its differentiated customization capabilities and data security capabilities. On the one hand, relying on the standard customization capabilities and open customization capabilities of the HarmonyOS system, it can meet the diversified management needs of governments and enterprises for terminal devices and improve management needs, while on the other hand, Huawei's multi-level data security solutions can ensure safe and reliable data transmission.
It is worth noting that at this conference, "Huawei Payment", which previously won the payment license through the acquisition of Xunlian Zhifu but has not given an official response, was announced to be the first to be applied to the B-side scenario, which can provide full-scenario payment solutions including payment, capital management, liquidation, and account management for government and enterprise users.
According to Huawei's official website, so far, Huawei Pay has been bound to 134 domestic banks, covering tens of millions of merchants offline, supporting more than 16 million POS terminals, and supporting online payment of more than 200 online merchant Apps.
From products to payments, Huawei terminals have completed the first phase of the full-line layout in the commercial office field. However, if you want to take advantage of this to take a sufficient share and drive the terminal business to resume growth, there is still a lot of way to go.
As a global enterprise with an industrial chain involving thousands of listed companies, Hua's business adjustment has also made the entire commercial market nervous.