Seznam has partnered with Huawei to preinstall the Czech internet company’s apps on Huawei phones. Huawei will offer Seznam’s List services, including news and search, on its AppGallery store.
“Huawei and Seznam.cz have agreed on partnerships and cooperation in many areas. Seznam.cz, as a major developer of many mobile applications in the Czech Republic, supports Huawei in building its application store. The recently introduced P40, P40 Pro, and P40 Lite phones are the first models, where we will show the partnership, and we believe that our customers will appreciate it,” Huawei spokesman said.
The deal with Seznam came about due to the ban on using Google services. Seznam is the default search engine on Huawei phones and other services such as Mapy.cz, Email.cz, Novinky.cz, and Televize Seznam are available.
“Huawei mobile devices form a large part of the market in the Czech Republic. We are pleased to work together to reach more users with List products,” Seznam Content Director Matěj Hušek said.
Huawei was the fourth best-selling smartphone brand in the Czech Republic in the first quarter. The first place belongs to Samsung, the second to Xiaomi, and the third to Apple.
Seznam.cz is popular in the Czech Republic and is used by a quarter of computer users, but it is not as popular on mobile platforms.
The United States accuses Huawei of stealing technology and suspects espionage of the Chinese government. The Chinese company refuses. As early as January, Britain partially restricted Huawei’s access to building fifth-generation (5G) mobile networks. The British government is now reconsidering its approach to Huawei due to new US restrictions on the Chinese company, and ministers suggest a total ban is likely, Reuters reported last week.
Last year, the Czech National Office for Cyber and Information Security (NÚKIB) also warned against the use of Huawei software and hardware. Prime Minister Andrej Babiš said that the warning surprised the government and was not supported by evidence, and the office did not consult with anyone. The head of NÚKIB, Dušan Navrátil, was removed from the head of the office within a year.
