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D-Link is one of the few global Taiwanese success stories. Established in 1986, the company is clocking revenues of over $1.3 billion. D-Link has emerged as leader in the networking equipment space. For instance, it is number one in the in SOHO/SMB Ethernet LAN Switch market.
The company was among the first few to arrive and India and set up a base. With a 50-50 joint venture, the company came into India around a decade back and is already reaping profits.
Recently high-level board members had come down to India to assess the performance and formulate the strategy for the coming days. Tony Tsao, president, D-Link (International) spoke to Shashwat Chaturvedi from CyberMedia News on a quite many issues relating to the company. Excerpts:
Latest Global trends
Convergence has been a driving force for tech uptake for some years and continues to do so. Across the world, convergence of voice, video and data is driving the uptake of latest equipment. With the introduction of high-end Gigabit switches, enterprises are looking at new investments in their networks. The new trends are management monitoring and wireless Ethernet, companies are deploying solutions in this space. Also with the coming of 802.11 n standards hopefully by next year, everything will go wireless.
 Shift of focus
As our founder and CEO Ken Kao stated, indeed we are shifting our focus from SOHO (small office/home office) to SMB (small and medium businesses). Over the years, we have realized that there is a specific need to focus on the SMB segment, as it is the fastest growing segment across the world. Even big companies like Cisco are now keen to tap this market. We are in a much better position as our product and channel strategies are already in place. But this does not mean that we do not value retail, in some markets like U.S., etc. we will continue to focus on SOHO, while in some markets like India, we will be targeting the SMB segment.
D-Link in India
India is an important emerging market for D-Link. In many ways, it is here that we perfected the art of joint venture. We have been in this market for over a decade, and have gone from strength to strength. Now with the growth of domestic sector, we are poised to grow as well. We were among the first few to invest in India and our commitment remains firm. Telecom market is one of the fastest growing segments in India and Australia and we are quite bullish about our prospects here.
Manufacturing in India
Local manufacturing only makes a good business case when the local markets are mature. We were aware of India’s potential quite many years back and hence had invested in a manufacturing facility through our joint venture. We were among the first few international companies to do. There is also research work being conducted out of India.
Heat from competition
Ironically, I really do not feel any heat from competition, because we do not have any real competitors that can match our range of product portfolio. We are competing with so many at the same time, that often I just lose count.
© CyberMedia News
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