The One Behind It All Chapter 37

Saudi Arabia has two holy cities, Mecca and Medina, and the annual pilgrimage to Mecca is the most grand religious event in Islam. The holy city of Mecca is only open to Muslims. During the Hajj in December of the Islamic calendar (Hijri) every year, nearly 3 million people in an area of dozens of square kilometers use international and domestic long-distance call and text message services, including the use of advanced 3G video calling technology. The huge amount of data transmission is an extremely severe test for both hardware equipment and network services, so this communication assurance project is quite difficult.

Before 2005, Lucent, Alcatel, and Ericsson all undertook this project, but the final results were not very satisfactory. Huawei began to take over some tasks in 2005, basically took over all of them in 2006, and continued to undertake them in 2007. Because non-Muslims are not allowed to enter the Holy Land, Huawei can only send Chinese Muslim employees and local employees to enter the base stations in Mecca and Medina. In terms of switch equipment supply, base station construction, and network services, Huawei occupies the vast majority of the market share in the Hajj communication service field. Three consecutive years of outstanding performance have made Saudi Telecom quite satisfied with Huawei.

In recent years, the Middle East has been Huawei's main "food-producing area." Of course, initial market development is also difficult. Oil-producing countries (GCC countries, namely Gulf Cooperation Council countries) such as Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar are very wealthy, and operators have a lot of room for choice. They have a certain degree of brand admiration or dependence on established European and American equipment providers.

Cost advantage is of course the traditional weapon to win orders, but more dedicated employees and closer personal service than competitors are also key factors. A Huawei employee who has worked in Saudi Arabia said, "When it comes to very urgent projects, everyone works hard and is very selfless. Huawei has a saying that 'If you succeed, toast to celebrate, if you fail, fight to the death to save each other.'" Many times we feel deeply about this."

Currently, Saudi Arabia has become Huawei's largest sales market in the Middle East, with more than 400 employees, more than 60% of whom are foreign employees. In addition to Saudi Telecom, Huawei's customers also include operators from outside Saudi Arabia. Although it cannot be said that it has an absolute leading market share in all fields, Huawei's position as a first-tier brand has been established.