German-based security solutions provider Avira has laid out plans to compete against well-known rivals such as Symantec, McAfee and Kaspersky in the sub-Saharan Africa region.
Avira signed a deal with Shaya Infosec last year to become the key distributor of its solutions in sub-Saharan Africa.
Guido Wilfer, Avira sales and motivation expert trainer, told ITWeb the company plans to channel its international marketing strategy into Africa, as part of its plans to gain market share from the dominant security players.
Wilfer says: “Our home market is Germany as well as Austria and Switzerland. But in the last two years we have grown our international business.”
Adapting solutions
Wilfer adds that Avira has opened offices in Hong Kong, Japan, North America and Beijing and distributes its security solutions via its channel partners to more than 20 countries.
“Right now, we are up to 120 million users,” says Wilfer. “Internationally, we are now providing a free version of Avira AntiVir.”
Avira was founded 22 years ago and its major driver is its anti-virus software called Avira AntiVir Personal, aimed at individual users as well as enterprises and small to medium enterprises.
Wilfer says the next step for Avira is to react flexibly to market demands. He points out that, following SA's costly bandwidth limitations, Avira AntiVir Personal was designed to be less resource-intensive.
“The technology is built in a smart way. Africa is a developing market and we have some good partners here; we expect the product to do well in this region,” explains Wilfer. “Last year, with the economic crisis, we had a growth rate of about 30%. This year, in SA, we expect that figure to increase.”
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