Huawei steps up efforts to promote its own mobile services in UK, Ireland

LONDON -- Chinese tech giant Huawei launched its investment plan and developer tools at the company's first ever UK and Ireland Huawei Developer Conference on Wednesday, with the aim to support local developers looking to work with Huawei Mobile Services (HMS).

HMS is Huawei's dedicated mobile ecosystem. To mobile phone users, HMS brings them many essential features like Huawei ID, push notifications, payments and other services. Meanwhile, the integration of HMS will allow businesses to receive direct access to Huawei's hardware and artificial intelligence technology.

The 24 HMS core kits launched at the conference held in London is aimed at providing businesses and developers with access to open source developer kits so they could have an exceptional user experience when developing and then integrating their apps into the Huawei App Gallery, according to the company.

The company also announced an investment plan of 20 million pounds (around $26 million) to help promote UK and Irish developers working with HMS and intending to join the Huawei App Gallery.

The investment is part of a wider global plan presented by Richard Yu, CEO of Huawei's Consumer Business Group, in Munich last September, which provides a total investment of $3 billion.

"Ultimately, we envision an all-scenario intelligent consumer experience for the future of Huawei Mobile Services and will provide businesses and developers with the opportunity to reach new audiences, expand and monetize, as they prepare for the fully connected world," said Anson Zhang, managing director of Huawei UK's Consumer Business Group.

HMS already has four million users in the UK alone, according to figures provided by Huawei.