Huawei Makes $2.5bn In 2012 Profit: Bets Big On A Fat Pipe

Huawei's 2012 financial results are out, and the Chinese company with big phone ambitions saw profits rise 33-percent compared to the previous year. Global sales in 2012 reached 220.2 billion Chinese yuan ($35bn), with 15.4bn yuan ($2.48bn) of that being profit, with Huawei saying it is betting on users, carriers, and content companies all wanting a fatter pipe.

"The convergence of mobile internet, smartphones, the digital and physical world is likely to generate hundreds of times more data in the coming years, which presents tremendous challenges as well as unprecedented opportunities for development of the ICT industry" the company said. "Huawei believes that pipes with large bandwidth that can transmit and process massive data flow are the key to addressing these challenges and also Huawei's key growth driver in the future."

Huawei's business is split into three groups: carrier network, consumer business, and enterprise business. The carrier network division did best of the trio, contributing 73-percent of the overall revenue in 2012, while the consumer business added 22-percent, and the enterprise team the remainder.

Despite concerns in North America regarding data security, Huawei still made 31.8bn yuan ($5.1bn) there; in fact, two thirds of the company's overall revenue came from outside of China, it says. Europe, the Middle East, and Africa clocked in with the most revenue, adding 77.4bn yuan ($12.4bn).

Huawei says it expects overall revenue in 2013 to be up 10- to 12-percent compared to 2012's figures.