Kaspersky Lab is turning its guns on the corporate segment, even as it works on growing its consumer market and increasing its global presence.
For Kaspersky Lab the future is all about growth and expansion, and that was all most spokespeople could talk about at the company’s tenth annual partner conference and eighth virus analyst’s summit, which were held in St.Petersburg, Russia recently.
“We are the number 4 antivirus company globally and the largest malware company in Europe. And we are still growing quickly. We expect no less than 80% growth this year. The secret to this success is our focus on technologies and less impetus on marketing,” says Eugene Kaspersky, CEO of the security vendor.
Currently around 55% of our revenue is brought in by the consumer business and around 33% comes from the corporate side. We are working to grow our business among enterprises and we are approaching it across various aspects.
The numbers back up his statements. Kaspersky clocked revenue of US$130 million in fiscal year 2007 and expects $350 million in revenue by the end of fiscal year 2008.
The company expects to add to its staff in keeping with the growth, whereby the business divisions will grow from 120 people to 200, regional divisions will add from 340 to reach 600 employees and R&D/engineering is set to go from 285 to 500 personnel by the end of 2008.
Much of the growth that the company has enjoyed in recent times has come from the consumer segment as its shrink-wrapped antivirus and antispam packages get picked up by more people globally.
This has been especially true in the company’s regional markets, such as Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa (EEMEA), where it has worked to steadily increase its retail presence.
“I have been astonished to see our retail presence grow with such strength over the last year. To be the absolute number one in the consumer market is a task for the next year for us,” says Garry Kondakov, managing director of the EEMEA region for Kaspersky Lab.
The company is strategically expanding in growing markets, pushing out globally to increase its presence in emerging territories, and to conduct business with local, focused strategy.”We divide the region into Turkey, Middle East and sub-saharan Africa. Within these sub-divisions, we have our own strategies aimed at boosting our presence, supporting partners, improving technical support and increasing marketing activities.
By the end of this year, we are going to open a Dubai office to handle the Middle East, and one in Turkey for that country alone,” says Maxim Shirokov, regional director of Middle East and Africa at Kaspersky Lab, speaking exclusively to NME.
According to him, around five to six people will be hired to staff each office and they will perform a variety of functions including marketing, channel management and relevant technical support.
As per our internal calendar, the corporate solution, together with all the necessary elements, should be available by the end of 2009.
Apart from this, the firm wants to eventually push more of its consumer solutions through ISPs, financial institutions and banks as well as form partnerships with OEM vendors, in order to keep growing on the consumer side of the market.
Parallel to this, Kaspersky is targeting enterprises globally, as it realises that the next major growth wave for the company will come from the corporate segment and, according to Evgeny Buyakin, COO of the company, if everything works out, this market will peak in returns for Kaspersky around 2011 and 2012.
“Currently around 55% of our revenue is brought in by the consumer business and around 33% comes from the corporate side. We are working to grow our business amongst enterprises and we are approaching it across various aspects,” says Buyakin.
Buyakin states that Kaspersky has started the process of putting together a core team and is in the process of creating an enterprise-grade solution that addresses customer needs.
The firm will also be investing in services, consulting and quality processes. Other elements on the corporate business to-do list includes defining a game plan, extending internal engineering capabilities, renovating existing service infrastructure and taking the company’s channels to the next level.”As per our internal calendar, the corporate solution, together with all the necessary elements, should be available in the next 18 months or by the end of 2009. We have traditionally always done business locally; we have never launched a product worldwide.
Everyone talks about globalisation, but markets remain local. We will launch the solution across markets at different time periods,” explains Buyakin.
The company also plans to introduce various services for its corporate customers, including a hosted security service. According to Buyakin, Kaspersky will train its partners and resellers globally in order to enable them to provide and handle the hosted security element and corporate customers better.
“Services can be a tricky concept but only in the operational perspective. We have no intention of selling directly, we will continue to work through partners. Moreover, most of our partners have already been addressing SMB and mid-size customers and for them hosted security services will be a good fit,” states Buyakin.
Kaspersky Lab aims high. Symantec, McAfee and Trend Micro are considered its core competition, and the company’s plan is to move up the ladder and gain more market share in the next few years to come.
With that goal in mind, the company is continuing to invest in key R&D facilities and almost 30% of its annual cash flow continues to be routed into funding new ideas from its team.
Armed with a strategy of new enterprise-oriented solutions, regional expansion and increased partners, Kaspersky Lab’s intentions to take over the world seem quite real.
And considering the energy and focus the company has put into its growth over the last few years, one would be inclined to believe that it might be more than able to achieve the impressive goals they are setting for themselves.
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