McAfee sees a boom in China’s security market following the launch of 3G mobile networks. Accordingly, the company is expanding its operations in the country.
As expected, based on what happened elsewhere, 3G in China will lead more people to use online services through netbooks and mobile phones, creating demand for security products, Steve Redman, McAfee's Asia Pacific president, said in an interview.
"We think security in China is about to explode," Redman said.
McAfee will price its products aggressively to grab more of China's security market, which does not yet have a dominant player, said Redman.
McAfee considers China as a largely untapped market since over 10 million Internet users in China have no antivirus software on their PCs, according to an estimate by the country's domain registry center.
McAfee has partnered with network operators China Unicom and China Telecom to distribute its software, Redman said. The operators offer McAfee's antivirus software to most of their fixed-line Internet subscribers, and will do the same for 3G mobile users, he said.
China Mobile, the biggest carrier in China and the world by subscribers, also has a pilot program with McAfee that could lead to a distribution deal, said George Man, McAfee's managing director for Greater China.
China has over 680 million mobile phone users, according to the country's industry and IT ministry.
However, some industry analysts think that McAfee may be overestimating its effect, said Matthew Cheung, a Gartner analyst. Use of 3G data services may be slow in replacing the current telecommunications gadgets.
"That's a very large opportunity, but I don't think we see it at this moment," Cheung said.
Notwithstanding, McAfee has made significant progress in China, ranking fifth in the country's market for security software, Cheung said. Chinese security vendors take about 40 percent of that market, he said.
China's security software market growth will likely slow from its recent high double-digit growth to annual rates of 10 percent to 15 percent in coming years, Cheung said.
