Huawei revenues grew by a third in 2016

China’s biggest smartphone maker Huawei grew its revenues by almost a third in 2016, boosted by smartphone sales soaring during a disastrous year for its competitor Samsung.

The company shipped 139m smartphones last year, an increase of roughly a third from the previous year, cementing its status as the world’s third biggest smartphone manufacturer. Last year, Huawei released a line of high-end mobiles such as the P9 in an attempt to win over richer consumers in the west.

However, net profit margins continued to fall as a result of the company’s ongoing move towards smartphones, away from its more lucrative telecoms equipment business.

Over half of the company’s revenues come from its telecoms arm, but that proportion that has been falling. The company has built half of all the 4G base stations in the world, but is unable to supply telecoms infrastructure to the USA due to the American government’s concerns over security.

In its annual report released on Friday, the company wrote:

Huawei does not pursue high profitability; we share our profits with our customers and industry partners.

Revenues grew 32 per cent to Rmb521.6bn (US$75.1bn) from a year earlier, while net profits rose 0.4 per cent to Rmb37.1bn.