Mobile News

Interview with Teodor Cimpoesu, Managing Director of Kaspersky Romania

By Elena Pacea

Kaspersky Lab Romania Headquarters. Mobile News talked to Teodor Cimpoesu on the security solutions market. Teodor has graduated the Academy of Economic Studies, Faculty of Cybernetics in Bucharest, Romania, in 2000. He started his career in IT as a programmer for IIRUC Digicom Group. At Kaspersky Lab, Teodor had begun work in 2003, as a Project Manager. Today, Teodor Cimpoesu is the Managing Director of Kaspersky Romania. In 2009 he will also graduate the Executive MBA studies at the CEU Business School of Bucharest.

MN: Recently, you launched the new security solutions, "Kaspersky Antivirus" and "Internet Security 2010". Which were the results so far and which are your expectations for the time to come?

TC: In Romania, the product has just been launched and naturally it takes a while until the news will reach the consumer. Therefore, I cannot discuss on actual results. But for sure
I can say that we have a positive feed-back. With respect to the European market, out of a total of 4 million produced packages we managed to sell, in Western Europe alone, 1.2 million ones in less than one month since the new product has been launched.

MN: Late this summer, together with the charity Organisation "Save the Children", you organised the camp "Sigur.info browsing the Green perimeter". Would you like to get more involved in such humanitarian activities?

TC: Yes, and we have more similar initiatives. This is one of the ways to implement our will of educating the children. In achieving this project, I can say that there was a very good cooperation between Kaspersky Lab and the organization "Save the Children". Also, the achieved results proved that the project was successful, the response from participants being not only positive but encouraging as well. Therefore, we are planning to continue organising such events.

Globally, we have many initiatives on education. There is also a special department of education and in some universities we support these programs by expertise and seminars. In Romania, we are only at the beginning. The project organized with the "Save the Children" Organization is an example, but more needs to be done.

MN: The Kaspersky Lab Company was founded in 1997 and is headquartered in Moscow. It is now on the 4th place in the world, and the 3rd in Europe. Can you do a brief history of the representative of Kaspersky Lab in Romania? How is it seen from other regional offices?

TC: There is not a hierarchy. Even in terms of markets, there are, of course, much larger potential markets, because of the size, of the level of development. The Romanian market is an interesting market, and the office in Bucharest covers both Romania and Bulgaria. Romania and Bulgaria, as daughters of the European Union, are still at the beginning, but they are interesting markets. Security solutions market in Romania grows from year to year, and the subsidiary in Romania has a very good reputation.

The Romanian subsidiary had a substantial presence on the Romanian market since September 2008, and in one year we grew very quickly. This growth was demonstrated also by the market share which has increased from 3% to 12%. Costin Raiu, a security expert, is the head of the R & D division and its projects and his contribution at the office in Romania are very important for the Romanian representative. We also had a development team, but because of the context and the company's development problems, it moved to Moscow. But during his visit to Romania, Eugene Kaspersky said that he doesn't preclude the reopening of a development office in our country, this according to the company's needs, opportunities. He recognizes that you can find very talented people in Romania.

MN: How does the company resist in the current economic context? What impact does the crisis have on the sales and what strategies to combat the effects of the crisis did you take?

TC: The current economic context varies from one region to another. But security is like health. It doesn't matter if it is a bad weather outside or a state of war, everyone takes care of his own health. In terms of security solutions, it depends on the economic situation, how much the IT structure of the companies is developed, and how much the companies depend on this structure. The companies with a developed economy are more responsible, more alert to risks and the impact these risks can have on their business. In Romania, we are still in construction. There are some mature companies, who understand the importance to secure their goods and infrastructure, but there are also small companies, which are rather more reactive. Only after they have a major incident, they react.

Taking into consideration the financial crisis, I think this represented an opportunity for us. All departments of IT companies were put under pressure to be more demanding in acquisitions, to look more attentively at the quality - price rapport. This brought us some benefits. As a provider of security solutions for companies we are more competitive than other companies like Symantec, McAfee. These companies have good prices and very efficient technology. Thus, the crisis helped us because those who needed security solutions have been more attentive to our offer.

MN: Given the current economic context, what financial results do you estimate that you will have in the fourth quarter of this year and what financial expectations do you have for 2010?

TC: For 2010 is hard to say what will happen. Theoretically there should be a growth on the security market, even if this growth will be lower than in the other years. Regarding the Kaspersky company, our target is to be number 1 on the security solutions market in the next two years, so all we can do is to be very ambitious. For Q4 we have to retrieve the slow from Q1, when the distribution slowed down. But I really think it will be the best quarter, as it usually happens.

MN: Customers should expect new products and services in 2010? Also, are you taking into consideration new offers for the products that already exist on the market, such as lower prices?

TC: I believe that in what security solutions are concerned, users are not so much interested in new products or new offers or technologies, how to live their life online or work online safetly. We can not talk very much about selling a product, how about selling services, as highlighted and Eugene Kaspersky. We work in laboratories antivirus to combat what appears to threats, which translates to updates and new technologies, but that the user must cooperate with us, to understand the working environment and know what is exposed when he is online, because there is no 100% safe. In terms of technology, we continue to invest. As for deals, we are one of the few companies offering free upgrade from one version to another. Also, the product prices are the same for the two versions - 2009 or 2010, because we think the price reflects the quality and the effort we put to realize these products.

MN: Which of the two segments, the corporate or the consumer segment are most important for Kaspersky Romania? What ratio has each of these two segments currently in the company?

TC: There is a shift from the consumer segment towards the corporate one, which started about two years ago. Last year we focused on the consumer segment, trying to reach a 60% share. In 2009 we proposed an increase to 60% of the business segment. By the middle of this year, the two segments had almost the same share, which means that in Q4 we will accelerate on the business segment to achieve what we intended. Globally there is the same trend, and the company already has a product line ready to attack more ambitious positions on the global market.

MN: Company Kaspersky Lab assign the concept of "green area". What does it mean?

TC: Green perimeter is a concept easier to understand for the average consumer. What everyone wants a security solution is to feel safe. Green perimeter is the area where you can feel safe, work comfortably and be protected from all these digital threats. Moreover, it is related to the existence of a feature in Internet Security 2010, called Sandbox, which expresses exactly the safety of playing in a crate with sand. If you want to run an application or open a browser in the Sandbox, the windows will have a green border around them, showing that you work in a virtual machine and the computer is not affected. Finally, the user can close the computer, without concerning about any threats. Whatever happened with that application has no effect on the data or the operating system. At the same time, it is possible to transfer and use the data that has been produced, the user being totally protected from anything that can happen with that application.

MN: What do you think about the security solutions market and how do you think it will evolve? What do you think about the competition on this market, is it biting or loyal?

TC: Firstly, on the the security solutions market we discuss about trends and technologies to combat and more and more we talk about the cloud computing technology. However, any security solution must combine several technologies. There are still viruses that once we were able to find on old fashioned floppies. So, we cannot be sure that what run before won't run again. There are also families of malware that can be tackled only by using more complex technology. With the cloud computing technology you can stop doing so many complex operations on the computer. But without an Internet connection or a secure connection you cannot use the cloud computing technology for protection, so you must combine it with other technologies.

This already happens in Internet Security 2010. We have introduced this solution in 2009 and it is called Kaspersky Security Network. With this solution we have improved response time to new threats. Regarding the market's evolution, probably in the next five years we will see a polarization of the players on the market because not all the companies can resist. It takes quite a large investment and I do not think all companies will be able, on the one hand to keep pace with the new technologies, on the other to grow in traditional markets or new markets. In Romania, it will be interesting, I think our main competitors remain Bitdefender, Symantec and ESET, ESET more on the consumer segment, so we are very optimistic.

I also don't think the competition is biting. I also think the competitors need to have a coherent strategy, otherwise they can give birth to different interpretations. They may also give the impression that they apply tactics that are not quite ethical. In general, when it comes to security solutions, the good part is that security experts are actually friends, they collaborate.