Altaf Halde joined Kaspersky Lab in April this year as the Managing Director, South Asia, responsible for company’s business in Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. He was recently in Kathmandu to launch the latest version of Kaspersky antivirus. For Nepal, Sagar Infosys is the sole authorised distributor for Kaspersky products. Halde revealed the company will soon release the enterprise version of the antivirus in the Nepali market. In an interview with New Business Age, Halde shared his views on the latest product and Nepal as the market for Kaspersky. Excerpts:

How do you see the market for Kaspersky products in Nepal?

I was pleasantly surprised to know about the market potentials of Nepal which I visited after Bangladesh where also we have a very good market share. In Nepal, we have more than 70 to 75 per cent market share. Based on what I hear from dealers, I think there is definitely a big potential over here. I can see a lot of educational institutes coming up, IT initiatives happening, and increasing penetration of laptops and desktops. That automatically translates that you need protection for your computers or laptops and that is where Kaspersky comes on the scene.

Most people use pirated software and operating system at home. What will be the extent of risk to such users from security viewpoint?

Risk is a lot. When you google the key ‘free antivirus’, you can find a lot of them that you can download. The download shows it is installing but you don’t know whether it is actually installing. It might be downloading some malwares too. Nothing comes for free. People are using free software and they are not sure if that is the best thing. Secondly, people use pirated software. In this region, piracy is a big problem. In India, it was similar many years back but now customers realise that just using a process, the solution does not end; you also need support. You get the support by using a licensed product. That will take some time but it will gradually improve over a certain period of time because that is the way our markets are. On the question of risk, there is definitely the risk because you don’t know what you are using. It might have malware, spyware, or some other kind of threats.

How can Kaspersky minimise such risks and protect users?

The Kaspersky Lab which is centrally located in Moscow detects 35 thousand threats every day. You can imagine the number of threats. When a person is on the Internet, it does not matter whether he is sitting in Nepal, India or America. So, what Kaspersky does is that it keeps coming up with regular updates because the threats are increasing. That is how we are able to protect users from such threats.

Users often complain that Kaspersky requires powerful machine to operate, which slows down their system. How has Kaspersky addressed this issue in its latest version?

In 2012 version, we have come up with a hybrid technology – cloud-based system. With this system, when you are using the desktop and you are not connected to the Internet, you don’t need to have a lot of signature database on your machine. When you have a lot of signature database updates searching on a machine, it takes up your resources and the machine becomes slower. With the hybrid technology we are using cloud-based protection. So, the signatures of the threats are stored in the cloud. Once the user is in the Internet, computing power of the machine is not touched. That will happen in real-time across the Internet. That is how we have been able to address this particular problem. However, if you look in comparison with other products, we are much faster even in the existing version. We do understand that in emerging markets like India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal, computing is not very powerful. That is why this hybrid technology will prove very good technology for us.

In Nepal, Internet bandwidth is lower and majority of users do not have access to high speed Internet. Don’t you think the cloud-based system will be a challenge?

On the consumer level, this could be definitely a challenge because of the Internet speed and probably the bandwidth will be affected but this cloud-based computing will still help reduce this particular problem because the computing is not happening on machine but in real-time in the cloud. We have tested our product with various Internet bandwidth types during the development stage and did not face problem. We will definitely be able to address this particular problem as time progresses. Once the users start using the product they will realise it is actually a good product by making use of good bandwidth.

What is the volume your are looking at in terms of sales for Kaspersky products in Nepal?

I wouldn’t be in a position to give you the target from the sales perspective but we have got very good market share at around 70 to 75 per cent with the previous version. This year, we should definitely look at a market share of 80 to 85 per cent. That is what we would want to achieve.

Who do you think are major competitors for Kaspersky in Nepali market? How is Kaspersky different from other products in the market?

 I wouldn’t say only about Nepal but globally, Symantec and McAfee are our competitors. There might be a lot of other products but on a global perspective, Gartner have listed three of us as top three security vendors – Symantec, McAfee and Kaspersky. I would say that they are our real competitors.

We are using hybrid technology while others are only talking about it. When we set up parameters, we are technically quite advanced in terms of updates size and faster scanning compared to other products. Even in this cloud-based technology, we have come up with a small sized update a day rather than making a big update like other products. We understand, in a country like Nepal, bandwidth rate is a problem. With a big update at once, users will not be able to update in time and will be open to threats.

How is the response of users to your products in South Asia in comparison  with western markets?

Our biggest market is Europe, followed by America. Over there, the split is approximately 65 to 70 per cent in consumer segment and the balance in the enterprise segment which is a matured market for Kaspersky. In South Asia, we are very strong in the consumer space and in the enterprise space we have not yet been able to take it to the next level. So, if you put both of them together, I would say in south Asia, we are probably at the number three position, Symantec and McAfee probably being the leaders.

In small countries like ours, price of software is excessively higher which is sometimes even costlier than buying a pc. How does your new version compare with other products on this count?

 We have retained the same pricing as of the 2011 version. A single user pack of antivirus comes for Rs 1,000 for a year. If you look at the per-day basis, it’s less than what a cup of tea would cost. So, that is the amount you are paying to protect the data or yourself. With the market share of 70 to 75 per cent, a lot of users are using Kaspersky 2011. We have also provided the user of 2011 version a free upgrade. That will come free of cost, if the users still have valid license period.

What are the challenges you are facing  in the Nepali market?

Based on what I have seen in my first exposure to the Nepali market, piracy is rampant. Then, there are a lot of other products that come into the market with a lower price to dump their stock. They achieve their sales but there is no support. So, the consumers feel they are cheated. We see that as a challenge. While other products come to dump but we are there in the market with a proper focus. Sagar Infosys is Kaspersky products since 2008 and also providing support and there is our focus.

What are your future plans for Nepal?

We plan to keep coming here more often for developing consumer awareness because for us awareness is the key. If consumers don’t know about the threats they will not look for protection. We want to make sure about the awareness on the threats and product developments. So, we want to have many such marketing events where we can go and address the threat scenario to consumers as well as corporate houses. We want to target corporates on a much bigger way in the Nepali market. We want to keep coming to Nepal with more and more solutions which are technically advanced. Everybody was talking about this cloud-based technology but nobody came up with a solution. So, whatever the technology or threats, Kaspersky will be the first to come with a solution.