Yu Chengdong (余承东) of Huawei (华为): HarmonyOS (鸿蒙) added hundreds of thousands of users daily on the 5th and 6th; expects terminal devices to exceed 100 million before winter

Growth claims and targets

Huawei's (华为) top device executive Yu Chengdong (余承东) told viewers in a recent livestream that HarmonyOS (鸿蒙) is undergoing an accelerated user-growth phase and could cross the 100 million-device mark before winter. According to company statements, devices running HarmonyOS 5 and 6 have reached about 47 million units and the app ecosystem now offers roughly 350,000 apps and meta-services. Yu said the platform is adding tens of thousands of users each day; it has been reported that growth spiked to hundreds of thousands of new users on March 5 and 6.

Yu projected that a combination of new handset shipments and upgrades to existing devices could add roughly 53 million endpoints before year‑end, a pace that, if sustained, would push installed terminals past his 100 million target. He also told viewers that HarmonyOS app adaptation should be broadly on par with iOS and Android by March–April, promising a "more extreme, smoother" user experience and upgraded features such as built‑in anti‑fraud protections aimed at older users.

Context and implications

The rapid uptick follows a previously reported jump from about 23 million to 47 million devices in roughly four months, a trajectory Huawei frames as the start of an accelerated ecosystem cycle. The push for a larger native OS and app ecosystem is inseparable from geopolitics: HarmonyOS was developed while Huawei faced U.S. export controls that restricted access to Google services and certain advanced semiconductors, making a domestic software stack strategically important.

Can Huawei translate momentum into lasting market share? Yu has long spoken of achieving "one in three" devices in a segmented market. These numbers are company announcements and company forecasts; they have not been independently verified. For Western developers and policymakers, Huawei’s claims underscore growing Chinese alternatives to Android and iOS and the implications for app distribution, device supply chains, and global competition in mobile platforms.