Quick Heal eyes higher market slice

Pratima Harigunani

PUNE: Security and anti-virus company Quick Heal is betting big on the enterprise segment and expects to increase its market share from 11 per cent to 15 per cent in the coming year.

This would mean that the company would increase its revenue mark from the current Rs 16 crore to Rs 29 crore as the total anti-virus market grows from Rs 160 crore to Rs 220 crore.

In addition, the company would look at increasing its enterprise slice from single-digit percentage to 20 per cent.

Commenting on competition from MNCs like Symantec, Jagannath Patnaik - vice president - sales and marketing of Quick Heal said that in areas like pricing, support and SME segment, Quick Heal has an edge. “We have three levels of support: email support, toll-free number and branch-level support. In the SMB segment, which bigger players have now started eyeing, we have the first-mover advantages. And the SMB segment constitutes a major portion of the total market.”

SMB contributes about 93 per cent to its overall business, while only six to seven per cent comes from enterprises and the rest from retail.

Quick Heal will extend its retail-lifestyle presence by rolling out its products like Total Security 2008 through 242 Reliance Web outlets across the country. It will keep exploring the lifestyle and mobile stores for a better penetration in this segment.

Its new product line includes Quick Heal Anti-Virus Plus 2008 and Quick Heal Total Security 2008, which has new features like PC-to-Mobile Scan that scans mobile phones, PDAs and smart phones by connecting it to the PC or laptop using Bluetooth / USB cable.

The overall secure content market as per IDC India estimates, could grow to Rs 480 crore by 2008, at a rate of about 140 per cent.