There is a global consensus on the importance of digital technology, a key enabler in today’s landscape as industries and businesses embrace innovation to build resilience. Stressing on the role of digital in his keynote speech for Huawei Connect 2021, Eric Xu, rotating chairman, Huawei, spoke in depth about Huawei’s on-going effort to innovate to accelerate digitalization, in line with national digital strategies undertaken by more than 170 countries.
With cloud being a critical pillar of digital technology, Xu announced the official launch of Huawei Cloud Ubiquitous Cloud-native Service (UCS) as the industry’s first distributed cloud-native product to deliver everything-as-a-service to every business scenario and accelerate the adoption of cloud-native applications in all industries.
Merely four years into its development, Huawei Cloud has amassed 2.3 million developers, 14,000 consulting partners, 6,000 technical partners, and released 4,500 marketplace products. A key enabler for pervasive connectivity and intelligence, Huawei Cloud partners public cloud to power 27 regions in more than 170 countries. According to Gartner, Huawei is the second cloud service provider in China, and the fifth globally.
As more enterprises join hands with Huawei to realize digital success, Xu shared that Huawei Cloud is currently the fastest-growing cloud service provider in the Asia Pacific market, perceived to be a key region for Huawei’s continued investment and development.
Huawei Cloud to empower startups and SMEs
Speaking at a media press conference, Xu reiterated Huawei’s commitment towards advancing the digital journeys of SMEs, which account for 97% of all businesses across the Asia Pacific and are the backbone of economies in the region.
SMEs and startups are regarded as pioneers, innovators, and disruptors that can contribute towards elevating societies and economies. High-growth startups, for instance, are regarded as key partners through which Huawei can build more robust ecosystems to digitally and sustainably transform businesses to create new value in a more connected and intelligent world.
“As part of our efforts to support SMEs and to develop the ecosystem around Huawei Cloud across the Asia Pacific, we have started the Spark accelerator program. Under this program, we will invest $100 million over the next three years to help SMEs in the Asia Pacific migrate to and grow with Huawei Cloud. Through this, we will establish a thriving Huawei Cloud ecosystem. We hope and believe that Huawei Cloud will become the cloud service provider of choice for governments and enterprises in the Asia Pacific region,” said Xu.
Launched in 2020, the Spark accelerator program in Singapore, Hong Kong, and Malaysia aims to propel startups to scale-ups, regarded as the future growth engine for economies. Given the emphasis on innovation, Huawei announced last month that the program will be expanded to Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and the Philippines to support the growth of new startup hubs, with an overarching aim to onboard a total of 1,000 startups to promote socioeconomic regeneration and growth.
Separating Huawei Spark from other accelerator programs is startups’ access to Huawei’s tech stack, as well as access to its global ecosystem comprising stakeholders such as governments, venture capitalists, and universities.
Huawei’s tech stack, which comprises of Huawei Cloud and Huawei Mobile Service (HMS) to provide capabilities in three areas including devices, carrier connectivity, and enterprise solutions, delivered $138 billion in value last year. Huawei HMS, for instance, supports 4.5 million developers globally.
Furthermore, startups benefit from being on a platform that connects ecosystems across the Asia Pacific to generate value across geographies to bring further impact to the region. This creates a more vibrant startup landscape, which in turn stimulates job creation and contributes to the rise of digital economies. Scale-ups also stand to benefit from the Spark Fire program to sell-to, sell-with, and sell-through Huawei to reap shared success in the ecosystem.
In addition to the Spark accelerator program, Huawei will also support startups through the Spark Developer Programme to nurture a developer ecosystem powered by Huawei Cloud; Spark Pitstop Programme to onboard and support start-ups on Huawei Cloud to accelerate product development; and Spark Innovation Programme (SIP), focused on facilitating enterprise innovation through the Spark ecosystem.
As an ICT leader and ecosystem partner, Huawei pledges to continually innovate to help businesses reap the full potential of digitalization going forward.
