The anti-virus boom

In recent times, the anti-virus market in India has opened up and global
players are now eying the Indian market, especially the retail, SOHO and SMB
segments as they offer huge opportunities for penetration. While the vendors
such as ACI Infocom, Unistal, ESET and AVG have already entered the Indian
market with a host of new products, others are preparing to enter the rat race.
Sources within the industry say that Kingsoft (China) is another vendor that is
watching the Indian anti-virus industry closely and evaluating its options here,
while Panda from Spain has plans to re-enter the country.

While vendor competition becomes tougher, customers are rejoicing as this has
given rise to genuine anti-virus products becoming increasingly affordable.
Channel parters are watching this space closely as it is proving to be a
lucrative business area.

Market size

According to a recent Gartner prediction the Asia-Pacific security market is
growing at an average of 28 percent, even as the worldwide market for anti-virus
solutions at large is growing at 12 percent.

“The anti-virus industry is growing extensively and the market opportunity in
the SOHO and retail segment alone is US $40 million (nearly Rs 200 crore). The
SMB enterprises again are looking beyond end-point security and they want a
total solution, ranging from e-mail security, gateway-level specialized security
and spam control, among others,” shared Anil Gupta, Head-National Sales,
Microworld.

Competition toughens

The advent of a host of anti-virus and Internet security vendors has opened
up the market for customers in the retail, SOHO and SMB domain. Many of these
vendors have introduced anti-virus at a price range of Rs 300-400, thereby
giving customers the option of buying genuine software at an affordable price.

Peter Baxter, VP-Business Development, AVG Technologies explained, “No
company is secure and competition-proof in today's age especially with so many
anti-virus software solution providers (SPs) entering the Indian market.
However, regardless of the technological superiority of any company, without
adequate support one can quickly lose customers. Pricing, coupled with
consistency and value for money, plays an important role when it comes to
grabbing the marketshare. While many brands decide on a low-entry point and
increase price over time. We believe that the Indian consumer is now savvy to
this and looks for consistency and support as opposed to short-term pricing
reductions.”

Big players under threat?

The established players and the ones who have been around in the market for
decades, however are of the opinion that competition only toughens them up.
These vendors are of the view that having several options will give customers an
ability to get more discerning and enable differentiation between anti-viruses
that can give them just protection and the ones that can provide them greater
protection. Sharing his views on rising competition, Jaganath Patnaik, VP-Sales
and Marketing, Quickheal pointed out, “Pricing has never played that important a
role as far as

anti-virus solutions are concerned as one needs to offer value for money to the
customers.”

Pointing out that anti-virus as a product is very similar to an operating
system software, and like a user, who needs only one operating system to run the
machine, he only needs one anti-virus solutions to fight viruses, Karthik
Shahney, Regional Director, McAfee stated, “When it comes to buying an
anti-virus, price does play a deciding role for the customer but he also seeks
quality. Anti-virus, as a software, is getting commoditized and the new entrants
are lowering prices to penetrate the market further. However, security market is
not only about anti-virus. The customer needs to bear in mind whether he needs
simple protection or great protection for their machines and in case of latter,
only that vendor who can provide 24x7 support and has an effective R&D in place
can meet their requirements.”

Conclusion

Buying an anti-virus is more or less like purchasing a mobile phone. There
are numerous options available and one needs to keep the desired features and
price of the product in mind, before they select the best possible option. With
the influx of a host of anti virus vendors, the customers will be in a better
position to discern the quality of the product which will happen only when they
have experienced the product. Hence the vendor who develops closeness with the
channel partner community and offers good quality product backed by effective
R&D set-up will continue to survive and grow in the market.

Puja Sharma

poojas@cybermedia.co.in