SHANGHAI, March 30 (Xinhua) -- Tech giant Foxconn Industrial Internet (Fii) Friday evening announced that the company has registered a net profit of more than 16.9 billion yuan (2.52 billion U.S. dollars) in 2018, up 6.52 percent year on year.

Its revenue rose 17.16 percent to 415.38 billion yuan, the Shenzhen-based company said in its financial report for 2018 filed to the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

Last year, Fii raked in 259.15 billion yuan in sales revenue of communication network equipment, up 20.82 percent year on year, accounting for 62.76 percent of the company's main business revenue and 2 percentage points higher than the previous year.

The company had more than 23,000 R&D staff and invested a total of almost 9 billion yuan in research and development in 2018, up 13.43 percent from a year ago.

Foxconn Industrial Internet is a subsidiary of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. Ltd., which is the world's largest contract electronics manufacturer and a major supplier for Apple Inc. It was listed on A shares on the Shanghai Stock Exchange and raised 26.72 billion yuan in June 2018.