Japanese distributor has high hopes for Hikvision

A Japanese distributor of Hikvision products has high hopes for the brand, saying its market share has huge room to grow in Japan.

“Now, Hikvision market share is less than one percent, because Japanese manufacturers are strong. They have bigger market shares,” said Takeshi Saito, Senior Manager at Security Design, during an interview in secutech Taipei. “Yet, the IP camera market in Japan is growing, and Hikvision’s quality is a driver that will make its share grow. It could go up to 10 percent in three years.”

According to Saito, Hikvision’s price-to-performance ratio is what sets it apart from others. “We chose Hikvision because of it price and quality,” he said. “In terms of quality, Hikvision’s annualized failure rate is about 1 percent, compared with 2 to 3 percent for some bigger, international brand names. But the price very competitive.”

He elaborated on that thought. “Two to three years ago, Taiwan and Korea security products were strong. During that time, China products were weak, and quality was low. Last year, Chinese manufacturer quality caught up with Korea and Taiwan. Maybe next one or two years, Chinese makers’ quality will even be better.”

Right now, his biggest difficulty is to get the Hikvision brand name across to the Japanese. “It’s one of the biggest camera manufacturers in the world, but Japanese don’t know it. Now we’ve started the marketing,” Saito said. “Activities include advertising and running exhibitions and seminars in Japan.”