Huawei is giving up the US market

http://arstechnica.com/business/2013/04/huawei-exec-we-are-not-interested-in-the-us-market-anymore/

by rogerbraun • 13 years ago

43 57 13 years ago

I figured that eventually people were going to just start saying "screw it, the US is just too hard" for commerce, travel, and expatriate employment.

This is the country where a Russian got arrested for thought crime when he entered the country to give a speech at a conference for a product he produced in his own country according to its laws(1). I'm surprised its taken this long.

(1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._ElcomSoft_and_...

wslh2• 13 years ago

My experience is the contrary: I have experience with customers from 30 different countries and, in general, dealing with US customers is the best experience in the business sense. I am working with long term contracts on Fortune 100 companies and small size companies too.

The main factor is the search for a win/win goal and the focus in value.

The Huawei case is much more specific. It is a chinese company selling security products. A bad match for US. I sell security related products to the main security vendors in US without any issue, and top security companies like Core Security sells to US Government Agencies even when they were founded in Argentina (obviously now established in US)

ankitml• 13 years ago

You didnt read the wiki link above before commenting?

stefantalpalaru• 13 years ago

I already think twice about traveling to the US.

mcintyre1994• 13 years ago

I'm not going to defend that ridiculous case, but it wasn't 'thought crime'. He was arrested for breaking the DMCA, and I like to hope thought crime isn't illegal in America yet. Can I ask why you chose that wording?

ianstallings• 13 years ago

Yeah, no company can make money in the US..

CaptainZapp2• 13 years ago

  Huawei has recently focused on Europe, where it doubled its workforce.

In related news: Huawei's Zurich offices where raided yesterday and nine people where arrested.

Allegedly they have flouted labor - and immigration laws. As in getting Chinese employees into Switzerland on tourist visas and flouting other immigration related and labor laws (missing work permits and such).

hackerboos• 13 years ago

Source?

CaptainZapp2• 13 years ago

In German :

http://www.tagesanzeiger.ch/wirtschaft/unternehmen-und-konju...

Luc• 13 years ago

http://www.ictjournal.ch/fr-CH/News/2013/04/25/Huawei-Suisse... (French)

fakeer3• 13 years ago

Fcuk the source!

It's true for most Asian companies and I myself have worked for one; have done that, been there. There was a time(many years ago when I was a fresher in that company and was sent on site) I used to to hear NOO, YOOO NOO GO HOME. YOO DO WORK. FOOD NO. WORK FIRST THEN GO HOTEL FOR FOOD. WHAT TIRED? MY ENGINEERS WORK 48 HOUR IN A LINE AND NO TIRED and just the sight of any person with tiny eyes, little nose and yellowish/whitish pale colour[1] made me feel like I should scheme to strangulate him/her somehow.

What I was shocked to see that my manager was not alone. Almost(I could've avoided this word) everybody in the company was a workaholic. Felt like they were born this way and expected us to be the same. Though work on travel visa is one thing, work (backbreaking work) on business visa is such a standard procedure that nobody gives a damn anymore!

[1] I am deeply sorry to write this and ashamed to admit this but this was how I felt. It's true!

shared4you3• 13 years ago

Huawei bans Indians in India:

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2010-05-06/telec...

India bans Huawei and ZTE from sensitive government projects:

http://paritynews.com/government/item/571-india-bars-zte-hua...

codesuela• 13 years ago

Huawei has repudiated such plans:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/robertolsen/2013/04/25/chinas-hu...

shared4you3• 13 years ago

This should've been the headline.

mariusandra• 13 years ago

Time for the cold cyberwar between the US and China

Dirlewanger• 13 years ago

Wait, how exactly were they legally barred from setting up shop here? Is it because they were cited as supporting Chinese espionage or whatever not too long ago?

yardie• 13 years ago

Their products are currently banned from being used in government contracts. And that is as in no Federal government data can transverse their devices. There are a lot of companies involved in these contracts (think, office supplies, vehicles, weapons, computers) and they would rather not be on the wrong side of a government investigation. Can't have an office if you won't have any customers.

They were cited for selling equipment to Iran, then destroying the evidence when called out on it.

rickdale• 13 years ago

Huawei would have to defeat the general notion that Americans have that anything made in China is a cheap piece of crap. Americans don't realize that everything is made in China, even though all their products say so. Most Americans think Made In America means quality and are blinded to the fact that other countries have other brands and different ways to live. Huawei would have been screwed in America, it just sounds like a brand that would be selling electronics at the Dollar General.

S_A_P2• 13 years ago

I disagree- I think Huawei would have to defeat the notion that their products have a backdoor that allows the Chinese government to directly access them and spy on/ attack the US. I think the stigma of made in china being cheap or second rate is largely gone now and replaced with the fear of china is gunning for us.

shared4you3• 13 years ago

They even offered their source code for the government for review, but Australian govt refused. They clearly mean business, and not spying.

http://www.cso.com.au/article/440054/huawei_offers_australia...

ScottWhigham2• 13 years ago

I think the stigma of made in china being cheap or second rate is largely gone now

Do you actually live in America, or are you just speculating? That's an absurd statement for someone who actually lives in the US.

criley2• 13 years ago

I'm sorry but I think you're totally off base. And I do think a lot of Chinese goods are crap. What's the pinnacle of Chinese goods? Smartphones and gaming consoles? Two categories of goods known for their much-higher-than-average failure rates? I think you're just blind to the kinds of goods that Americans make since we tend to let the cheap and easy crap get produced abroad.

> Americans don't realize that everything is made in China, even though all their products say so

No, most people like you don't realize that China only accounts for a tiny fraction of consumer spending.

Did you know that Americans spend ~88.5% of their personal consumption expenditures on goods made in America and about 2.7% on goods made in China? [1]

Americans spend 32X more on goods made in America than they do on goods made in China.

Maybe stop shopping at Wal-Mart and buying crappy goods that will find their way to a landfill in under a year, and you'll stop seeing "made in china" everywhere. You'd be surprised what a little more money will buy you -- there's a lot of great, durable stuff out there that generally doesn't come from Wal-Mart or say "Made in China"

[1] http://www.frbsf.org/publications/economics/letter/2011/el20...

>Most Americans think Made In America means quality and are blinded to the fact that other countries have other brands and different ways to live.

Did you know that most Chinese also agree that Made in America is a symbol of quality? One survey found that while 80% of Americans believe made in America means higher quality, some 60% of Chinese surveyed agreed with that.[2]

Also, the insinuation that Americans don't realize that brands from other countries are good is a myopic, insulting joke. Yeah, we don't buy and love South Korean electronics, Japanese cars, French and Italian wines and cheeses, etc etc etc and on and on and on. Imported quality goods have always fetched a premium in American hearts. Low-quality Wal-Mart level goods earn the disdain they deserve.

[2]http://www.bcg.com/media/PressReleaseDetails.aspx?id=tcm:12-...

>Huawei would have been screwed in America, it just sounds like a brand that would be selling electronics at the Dollar General.

Americans used to think Japanese goods were total crap. Not many Americans wanted a "Honda" or "Toyota" car in the 70's or 80's. Japan turned their brands around and fought for respect -- and won it.

Then, as recently as a decade ago Americans largely dismissed South Korean goods. A Hyundai car? What a joke! Everyone knows South Korean goods are crap.

Except, South Korean brands fought for and won American loyalty through good products and good service.

Chinese brands could totally follow the same well trod path that brands from other East Asian countries have followed, and there is no reason to believe they would fail.

mpyne3• 13 years ago

I think that almost literally 50% of the cars in the 20-space parking lot where I live near DC (including my own) have a Hyundai badge.

The turnaround in both perception of quality and actual quality has been amazing.

Volpe5• 13 years ago

Apple manufacture in china.

Samsung manufacture in china.

Designed in California doesn't mean made in America.

BYD in my mind would be the one of the pinnacles of Chinese goods, but they only sell locally. As far as I know

RainforestCx• 13 years ago

I think this is a real shame. Huawei makes the best combo of cheap/quality Android phones I've been able to get my hands on. I use the low-end ones in hacking projects almost every day.

Huawai isn't going anywhere, and this article also neglected to mention how popular the IDEOS is in Africa. http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/111540-android-phone-huawei-...

swalsh2• 13 years ago

Incase anyone here is unfamiliar Huawei makes more then handsets. They also produce an eNodeB. There are legitimate potential security concerns there.

signa11• 13 years ago

well not even eNodeB's they also do all component of EPC core as well...

Volpe5• 13 years ago

What are those concerns exactly? Does Chinese hardware to prime factorisation faster than others?

swalsh2• 13 years ago

Generally speaking its a bad idea to outsource "critical infrastructure", and that seems doubly true for a software product. Imagine if the chinese government had an office set up in the Huawei office, and "conspired" to inject a backdoor into their base stations. There's the potential to completely commandeer our cellular network or worse to silently use it as a method to ease drop on conversations from government or business executives. According to news reports, these fears aren't as farfetched as they sound either.

nakedrobot2• 13 years ago

There is a lot of insider talk in the telecom industry about Huawei being complicit in hacking of various competitors, including Nortel (who were hacked and for four years did not close the security hole)

hrish20062• 13 years ago

Hard to say if it is protectionism or there are legitimate concerns. Most smartphones and computers manufactured by companies like Apple, Dell, Lenovo have their factories in China. What's the guarantee that those devices are free from hardware hacking? The hardware is so complex nowadays that it is near impossible to detect if you have a chip or a circuit to do something malicious. For more, the Scientific American article on hardware hacking here: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=the-hacker-...

hrish20062• 13 years ago

*read the

spitx• 13 years ago

Huawei's chairwoman, Sun Yafang, worked for Chinese intelligence before joining Huawei.

Source(s):

http://jeffreycarr.blogspot.com/2011/10/huaweis-chairwoman-w...

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-fSL5mPB_18Q/TphTDDqd2OI/AAAAAAAAAI...

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/oct/11/chinese-tele...

http://www.fas.org/irp/dni/osc/huawei.pdf

jokoon• 13 years ago

Yay to my 60 euros, 5 days battery life, android 2.2 huawei phone !

Thanks china ! Because who really believes you can have everybody have their ferrari...

turingbook• 13 years ago

An interesting guess: What if one day the government of China bans Apple, Android, Windows, Cisco, IBM and other USA brands for political or backdoor concerns?

Huawei is giving up the US market

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