Hangzhou firm looks to grow its presence in Internet market
A gang of robbers has just robbed a bank and fled with a car. By entering information about the robbers and the car, police officers are able to get video footage sent from surveillance cameras around the city and track their whereabouts within minutes.
This is no longer an imaginary scene that we see in Hollywood blockbusters. Such technology, developed by Hikvision Digital Technology Co, has already been used by several security departments around the world.
Headquartered in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, Hikvision is the world's largest video surveillance products and solutions provider in terms of market share.
According to a report from market research firm IHS Technology, Hikvision has accounted for the largest-market share in the global CCTV and video surveillance market for four consecutive years.
The report showed that the company controlled 16.3 percent of the global market in 2014, rising from 8 percent in 2012.
Zheng Yibo, vice-president of the company, said that combining innovation with market potential has been the key to the company's rapid growth.
"As a high-tech company, innovation is what we always emphasize, but it cannot be separated from the market," he said.
Zheng said that when the company was founded in 2001, digital surveillance was not popular in most markets. But the company decided to move ahead and develop digital surveillance products.
Hikvision has 13,000 employees around the world, with about 5,300 of them engaged in the research and development sector. R&D accounts for 7 to 8 percent of the company's annual sales revenue.
Another key point, according to Zheng, is that the company moves on to develop the next product, even when the current one is still hot in the market.
"What we focus more is not what the market needs now, but what the market is going to need in the future," he said.
Since 2013, the company has entered the Internet surveillance market with products that combine cloud computing and big data with digital surveillance.
As China presses ahead with the development of the "Internet plus" strategy, the company has managed to establish a complete industrial chain based on the Internet.
Apart from domestic market, Hikvision is also expanding rapidly in international markets. During the first six months of the year, its overseas sales reached 2.57 billion yuan ($397 million), up 58.73 percent year-on-year.
Overseas sales made up 25 percent of the company's total revenue in 2014, Zheng said, adding that the contribution will increase this year.
Yao Lijian, international marketing director of Hikvision, said that though the company is still building its brand globally, it has started to win large orders in direct competition with other big companies.
"We used to have slim chances even in the domestic market, but now our brand has a certain level of recognition in the global market," he said.
In the United States, the company has won some projects like the residential security and safety in New York River Park Towers public housing facilities.
Yao said that expanding into target markets is crucial for Chinese companies to gain a competitive edge around the world. In the US, the company has participated in partnership programs of local associations to gain support and opportunities.
On June 24, it became the silver executive strategic partner of the US-based Electronic Security Association.
Founded in 1948, the ESA is the largest professional trade association in the US in electronic life safety, security and integrated systems industry.
Marshall Marinace, president of the ESA, said that the association is looking forward to cooperating with Hikvision in the years to come.
