Huawei Faces a Tiny but Tangible Tech Blunder
On New Year’s Day, a seemingly harmless tweet from Huawei’s official Twitter account turned into a digital drama. The brand’s celebratory shout—\”Happy #2019\”—was sent through Twitter for iPhone rather than the usual desktop, sparking a mild social media storm.
The Frosty Formulation
- Huawei’s P‑series phones have long been Apple’s competition, but on the day of dawn, a product from the very rival that served as the platform for the tweet caused a ripple.
- Huawei’s internal memo, released on Jan. 3, praised the mistake as damaging to the company’s image and credited the outage to a VPN hiccup.
- The commercial account, run by outsourced firm Sapient, needed VPN access to send a time‑zoned message; the team slipped to using a roaming iPhone for quick delivery.
- Once the tweet puffed up like a puffed up balloon, it was swiftly pulled down—yet screenshots scrambled across the internet like confetti.
Repercussions for the Two Loopholes
Inside the Huawei memo, senior vice‑president Chen Lifang sounded stern, calling the incident a sign of procedural lapses and mismanagement oversight. The outcome: both accountable staff received a demotion by one rung and saw their monthly salary wheel down by 5,000 yuan (≈S$992). One digital‑marketing director—already below the recent demotion—had his paystand frozen for a full year.
Who’s the Offender?
Although Sapient was initially evasive in their responses to comments, it’s clear the mis-step landed on two of its employees. The hurried use of an iPhone in China—where services like Twitter and other foreign platforms are blocked—posed a brand integrity problem.
A Spotted Pattern
Huawei isn’t the first tech giant to feel uneasy about crossing brand boundaries:
- Last year, Hu Xijin, editor‑in‑chief of the nationalist Global Times, shared that he used an iPhone to support Huawei’s local peer ZTE, only to be chased (and laughed at) online for what appeared a “hypocritical” act.
- In his statement, he casually assured critics that foreign devices aren’t to be banned under the pretense of patriotism.
In Short
From a quick tweet to a sharp reprimand, Huawei’s mishap reminds us that even big names can slip. A single impulse—sending a tweet from an iPhone—highlighted procedural gaps, drew public scrutiny, and triggered financial consequences.
