It seems like the Chinese smartphone giant Huawei wants to cement its global presence stronger amidst a tussle with the US. A report by Reuters says that it is planning to build its largest store outside of China in Saudi Arabia.
The Saudi government says that Huawei has signed a leasing contract with Saudi Arabia’s Kaden Investment. Apparently, this contract is for the new flagship store that the company plans to open in Riyadh. On successful implementation, this could be the largest store of Huawei outside China.
Back in June 2020, the company opened its world’s largest Huawei flagship store in Shanghai, China. This store is located in Nanjing Building with a business area of nearly 5000 square meters. Prior to that, the company also opened its “first Global flagship store” in Shenzhen, China in 2019.
Anyway, the latest report doesn’t specify any data on how large the store is going to be or its launch date. Either way, this development comes at a time when there is a grave demand for digital products and services in the Arabian Kingdom. Saudi’s internet usage will reportedly be accessible to 82.6% of the population by 2022 which is a 9.4% up from 2017.
it’s open to use Huawei’s technology, Saudi Arabia signed an MOU with Huawei in October 2020. This was a joint effort to recognize Arabic language and characters using AI technology.
Huawei is facing a lot of challenges in retaining the sales figures outside of China thanks to the US’ pressure. The company has already lost its position as the world’s largest smartphone brand to Samsung after briefly capturing it in Q2. It is also facing a lot of stress in providing its 5G technology to other countries as the US is pressuring them not to encourage Huawei.
That said, it is really appreciative of the Saudi Arabian government to act against the will and strengthen ties with the Chinese giant. To ascertain this, the Gulf countries, including Zain’s Saudi unit Zain KSA, have reportedly signed deals to use Huawei’s 5G tech.
