"BitDefender": The IT and software industry will reduce their rate of growth

The economic crisis is not affecting everybody, however certain segments and industries don"t seem to be significantly affected in the current financial context. One such example is the IT security market, which is considered as one of the areas with the largest rate of growth of these last years.

Răzvan Vâlceanu, Country Manager of "BitDefender" Romania, said that "any major change in the financial sector has an effect on the economy, and implicitly on the software industry. What happens now is leading to a slowdown in this sector". He explained that "the entire economy depends on the financial sector. The IT and software industry in particular are well known as having high rates of growth. High growth usually goes hand in hand with the need for financing. Today, funding has become expensive, and the market is extremely prudent. It is therefore likely that even though the IT and software industry will outperform the other economic segments, their rate of growth will be reduced until the market becomes capable of supporting higher growth rates again", he added.

Mr. Răzvan Vâlceanu mentioned that "this is a general, statistic analysis. The evolution of individual companies may be very different from the general evolution of the sector. On the other hand, not all sectors will experience a contraction, some may even experience a larger growth than they did so far".

• Security, a basic need

Mr. Vâlceanu feels that the security provider market follows the general trend of the world economy. According to him, "major changes in user behavior, caused by the widespread use of high speed internet, the great changes brought about by the proliferation of threats that spread themselves automatically, as well as other similar factors have lead to the appearance of counteroffensive automated solutions. We feel that security is one of the "basic" needs. On the other hand, what is happening now, the deep financial sector crisis that is accelerating the economic crisis, and not the other way around, is unique. We are just in the first stages of a new type of global storm, and we have a limited ability to predict what will happen next", says "BitDefender" Romania"s Country Manager.

Mr. Vâlceanu said that the Romanian market is "BitDefender""s home turf, which allows it domination on the market share front. "Right now, we are the leader of the Romanian market for security solutions, with over 40% of the market. Our goals for 2009 are to have a growth that will exceed the average of the market, which we estimate to be around 10% for data security", he said.

According to "BitDefender" "s representative, 95% of the total number of licenses are sold abroad. The countries where licenses sell best, are France, Germany and USA.

According to "BitDefender""s investments in Romania, they will be aimed at the distribution channel, with the clear goal to support the efforts of distributors and certified partners. "These investments consist of marketing campaigns, common strategies, communication and advertising plans, promotions as well as contests. All these factors are aimed at supporting our partners, and they are one of the best investments we could make on the Romanian market", Mr. Vâlceanu concluded.