SHENZHEN, March 29 (Xinhua) -- Chinese tech firm Huawei reported robust revenue and profit growth in 2018 "despite a challenging environment," the company announced Friday.

The company raked in 721.2 billion yuan (about 105.2 billion U.S. dollars) in global sales revenue, up 19.5 percent year on year, while its net profit increased 25.1 percent to reach 59.3 billion yuan, according to Huawei's 2018 annual report.

Huawei continued to invest heavily in research and development (R&D) in 2018, spending 101.5 billion yuan, or 14.1 percent of its sales revenue, in this field.

Over the last 10 years, Huawei's total R&D expenditure has exceeded 480 billion yuan, the report showed.

Led by its smartphones, the consumer business stood as Huawei's biggest revenue contributor, with sales reaching 348.9 billion yuan, up 45.1 percent year on year.

Sales revenue of the company's carrier business remained generally flat at 294 billion yuan, while that of its enterprise business reported a 23.8 percent year-on-year growth to reach 74.4 billion yuan as the company expanded technological support to build smart industries and cities.

Guo Ping, Huawei's rotating chairman, said cybersecurity and user privacy protection are at the absolute top of the company' agenda.

"We are confident that companies that choose to work with Huawei will be the most competitive in the 5G era. And countries that choose to work with Huawei will gain an advantage for the next wave of growth in the digital economy," Guo said.

Huawei will continue to strengthen operational compliance, ensure business continuity and sustainability, and cultivate an open ecosystem where all players collaborate and prosper together, Guo added.

Founded in 1987, Huawei is a private company fully owned by its employees and focuses on providing information and communications technology infrastructure and smart devices. The company operates in more than 170 countries and regions with more than 180,000 employees.