On the video surveillance side of a&s Security 50 this year, in line with what most of the global professionals anticipated and IHS’ latest ranking, Hikvision Digital Technology finally became the world’s largest security company in terms of its 2015 annual revenue.
On the video surveillance side of
a&s Security 50 this year, in line with what most of the global professionals anticipated and IHS’ latest ranking,
Hikvision Digital Technology finally became the world’s largest security company in terms of its 2015 annual revenue.
After years of effort invested in improving product quality and technical support, Hikvision has become an end-to-end video surveillance supplier, with products tailored for all kinds of markets and verticals for security. Now, its subsidiaries and branch offices are quite widespread in all the major countries in each continent. The past five years were the fastest growing years for the company in terms of globalization.
Keen Yao, VP of International Business Center at Hikvision Digital Technology, said that this was due to extensive localization efforts in international markets. “We’ve got 28 subsidiaries worldwide and over 700 foreign staff providing localized support and service to customers. That’s one reason why our international business has been able to grow at a rapid pace over recent years,” he added.
Hikvision, with its rival
Dahua Technology (which climbed up the ranks to 4th place), and all the other Chinese manufacturers, either with or without brands, accelerated price competition in the global security industry. Unlike the other eight companies among the top 10, Hikvision and Dahua are now almost reaching their prime time in the security industry, creating even more advanced and delicate technologies for the industry.
Liquan Fu, President of Dahua Technology, also attributes this to the firm’s localization efforts. “We believe that localization has helped us to maintain a rapid growth in the past two years,” he said. “Dahua has more than 20 subsidiaries outside China. We have been expanding the capacity of these organizations to provide higher-quality service and faster responses to local market needs.”
On the other hand,
Honeywell dropped to 2nd place on the top 50 list, based on revenue coming from both its fire safety and security products/systems businesses. The spin-off Honeywell Security & Fire is now under the company’s automation and control solutions. With this change, the company can leverage more resources and focus on some verticals, such as building automation. “Honeywell already manufactures many of the products and systems that help to manage a building, from the fire and security systems through to the HVAC and building management systems. We are therefore in a strong position to offer integrated systems that are seamless, reliable and support the business to make it remain secure,” said James Somerville Smith, North European Channel Marketing Leader at Honeywell Security & Fire.
Bosch Security Systems ranks third, remaining in the same spot it claimed in last year’s Security 50. The company relied on its multiple innovations in technologies such as updated video and access control management software, low-light imaging, and its strength in building automation to gain a record growth of 10 percent in 2015. Just this month, Bosch also announced it would join forces with Sony in 2017 to either look for further development in the security industry or IoT businesses.
Axis Communications also enjoyed record growth for 2015 despite challenges in some emerging countries such as China, Russia and some European countries. The company intends to expand its product portfolio beyond video surveillance to provide integrated systems for its customers.
Another end-to-end solution provider, Tyco Security Systems, remained stable with a minor growth of 2 percent in 2015, with 16.9 percent for 2014. However, it is still ranked as the 7th.
The video surveillance suppliers in the top 10 list remained very strong in maintaining its annual growth. Most likely, the main secret lies in the recent high number of terrorist threats in the world. In the meantime, these suppliers were able to quickly respond to market changes and branch out to new industries and applications via mergers and acquisitions or strategic alliances.
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