Market flooded with anti-virus products

2010 has been a hectic year for the Vietnamese anti-virus market with a number of new products from domestic as well as foreign providers introduced to the market.

In September, Avira of Germany appointed Cay Du Do (Red Umbrella) Service Company as its distributor in Viet Nam.

Panda of Spain also officially launched in Viet Nam after 20 years of operations in 195 nations around the world. It introduced anti-virus software for individuals.

Software developed by Russian-based Kaspersky proved a hit on the Vietnamese market, as many of its programmes can be run in Vietnamese.

Other providers such as McAfee, BitDefender and Trend Micro also set up shops in Viet Nam.

Despite this, domestic developers managed to corner the market.

A survey conducted by the Viet Nam Chamber of Commerce and Industry reported that 74 per cent of companies nationwide chose anti-virus software developed by Bach Khoa Anti-virus (Bkav), the most well known in Viet Nam.

According to General Director of Bkav’s Bach Khoa Internet Security Centre Nguyen Tu Quang, about 1.5 million computers are sold in Viet Nam every year. Some 20 million people in Viet Nam use computers with 10 million connected to the internet.

There was huge market potential, he added.

In an attempt to tap this potential, his company recently organised a number of promotional campaigns to attract customers.

Domestic software companies could compete with foreign suppliers in terms of technology and price, said Quang.

However, he added, the competition would grow as more foreign companies entered the Vietnamese market so it was vital that companies had their own development strategies.

As the competition heated up, software companies cut prices to attract more customers.

Newcomer Avira offered basic software for just VND150,000 (US$7) with a free three-month trial for customers who signed up at the start of the month. Next year, it plans to supply a Vietnamese version of its software.

Meanwhile, in an attempt to become the leading anti-virus software provider in Viet Nam, Panda cut the cost of its Panda AV product to only VND110,00 ($5.5).

Kaspersky also cut prices and launched special offers for students.

Other companies chose to go with quality over cost. For example, while other companies continued developing their 2010 versions, Symantec introduced Norton 2011 with many new functions. — VNS

Tags: anti-virus products