Huawei's self-developed OS hits 10 million users

Huawei's HarmonyOS 5.0 has surpassed 10 million users, marking a significant breakthrough for China's homegrown operating system.

The achievement represents China's first globally competitive OS outside the ecosystem of American tech giants, said Huawei consumer CEO Yu Chengdong during a program aired by China Media Group.

"Operating systems and chips constitute the most fundamental building blocks of today's digital information era. HarmonyOS represents China's first world-class operating system that aims to compete globally with Apple, Google and Microsoft in the device ecosystem," Yu said.

Yu highlighted several notable upgrades in HarmonyOS 5.0.

"Prior to HarmonyOS 5.0, versions 1 through 4 operated on a dual-framework system， maintaining both Harmony and Android architectures. While running on HarmonyOS, applications remained Android-based as we supported dual stacks. With version 5.0, we've completely rewritten and migrated all applications to run natively on HarmonyOS's own kernel space, including the exokernel, file system, graphics engine and the entire underlying architecture. This establishes our fully independent Harmony ecosystem," said Yu.

This transformation definitively dispels previous "Android shell" misconceptions, he noted.

The transition marks Huawei's full departure from Android compatibility since U.S. sanctions in 2019 cut access to Google's services.

"The U.S. sanctions imposed on May 16, 2019 revealed the supply chain security risks and long-term developmental vulnerabilities inherent in operating systems. These systems form the foundational security layer of national information infrastructure. Whether Windows or macOS for computers, or Android and iOS for mobile, all originate from American companies. This means operational control of our information infrastructure's core systems remains in others' hands. China requires a leading domestic operating system as a security safeguard for our national digital infrastructure," Yu said.

Huawei began OS research in 2012, commercially launching HarmonyOS in August 2019. Yu noted the Chinese name "Hongmeng" evokes primordial creation mythology, while English name "Harmony" reflects aspirations for an interconnected world.

China's outstanding aggregate social financing -- the total amount of financing to the real economy -- reached 442.12 trillion yuan (about 63.4 trillion U.S. dollars) as of the end of 2025, up 8.3 percent year on year, central bank data showed on Thursday.

The country's aggregate social financing stood at 35.6 trillion yuan (about 5.1 trillion U.S. dollars) in 2025, up by 3.34 trillion yuan (about 479 billion U.S. dollars) from the year 2024, said the People's Bank of China (PBOC), the country's central bank.

According to the data, the M2, a broad measure of money supply that covers cash in circulation and all deposits, increased 8.5 percent year on year to 340.29 trillion yuan (about 48.8 trillion U.S. dollars) as of the end of December.

In addition, outstanding yuan loans stood at 271.91 trillion yuan (about 39 trillion U.S. dollars) at the end of 2025, up 6.4 percent year on year.