Costlier Kaspersky

Having penetrated the Indian market successfully, Moscow-based anti-virus and
internet security vendor, Kaspersky Lab is now looking to hike the prices of its
products for a second time. The hike that is likely to come into effect from
2010 onwards will be not more than 10% for its reseller partners in India. In
addition, Kaspersky also has extensive plans of revamping its existing channel
model and enhancing its focus on the business and corporate segment to penetrate
the market further.

Talking about its go to market strategy, Alexander Gnatusin, director,
channels, Kaspersky Lab says, We have massive expansion plans for the Indian
market and by end of October 2009, we will have set up a local sales and
marketing team in addition to appointing technical staff. We will have a team of
approximately ten employees including a channel manager for India. We have
witnessed huge growth in India and FY 09 saw us registering almost 100% growth
in India. Globally we grew 70%. We are now targeting the same growth figure for
the coming financial year as far as India is concerned.

While the MRP for end customers will remain the same, it is only the market price or the market operating price that will go up Alexander Gnatusin, director, channels, Kaspersky Lab

When questioned about its pricing structure that is low in India compared to
its prices globally, Gnatusin says, It was a conscious decision taken by us to
penetrate the market. Now that we have established our footprints in the
country, we may look at hiking the prices of our products gradually. In June
2008 we had hiked the prices of our three user anti-virus in India and by 2010
we will bring about a further change in the pricing structure by hiking the
price in the range of not more than 10% for our partners here. While the MRP for
end customers will remain the same, it is only the market price or the market
operating price that will go up. However, at the same time we dont intend to
discourage our partners and hence we will introduce special bonus schemes
simultaneously so that our partners can continue enjoying decent margins from
the sale of our products. Besides, a major portion of our revenues will be spent
of brand awareness and marketing activities in India.

Earlier, Kaspersky Lab, Moscow had instructed its distributor (Zoom
Technologies) in India to double the distributor prices of three-users to Rs 752
by June 1, 2009. This decision was taken in view of the fact that its three-user
software was being sold by the Indian channels in large quantities outside
India, including Middle East, Singapore, Europe among other markets, which in
turn was affecting Kasperskys business in other regions.

Apparently, distributors in India were reselling software products to
distributors across other countries at lower prices given that there is a wide
gap between the India distribution price and the price that the vendor has
internationally. In order to curb the above practice Kaspersky has now started
installing IP filtering technology in its products. Added Gnatusin, The IP
filtering technology ensures that even if a global customer purchases the
product in India or from an Indian channel partner, he will not be able to
activate it and get updates.

Kaspersky is also looking at bringing about changes to its existing channel
structure. In the beginning of 2010 the vendor is looking at appointing yet
another master (national) distributor in India. Currently Hyderabad-based Zoom
Technologies is its only national distributor in India. We may also look at
having state wise distributors or a model wherein we will have separate
distributors to further corporate and retail products available from us.

Puja Sharma /DQ Channels

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