Hikvision North American Team Up 163% in 17 Months

Published Jun 17, 2016 11:53 AM

Hikvision suddenly has established one of the biggest physical presences in North America.

This is an important development to understand the company's emergence and success.

In this note, we examine the numbers and what it means for them and their incumbent rivals like Axis and Avigilon.

Hikvision ******

****************:

*** **** ** *********'* ** ******** growth ********** **** (** ** ****** basis, ** ** ********), ***** ***** size ** *** ***** *****.

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Why **** ** *********

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Overtaking The ******

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Poll: **** *********?

Comments (11)
JH
John Honovich
Jun 19, 2016
IPVM

With 150 total votes, there is a significant difference between integrator and manufacturer voting. More than half of integrators are open to taking a job at Hikvision but less than 30% of manufacturers are. We have never done a poll like this before so we can't tell how this would compare to other manufacturers.

UM
Undisclosed Manufacturer #1
Jun 20, 2016

"Hikvision's solid image quality and super low cost are certainly very important elements for their expansion. But you cannot win with most dealers just with that."

I tend to disagree here, or contend there is more to it on that point. While having regional support is important, too, I think low cost is the real overriding factor here. Why else would a product with so many cyber security issues, funded by its home government in a way that really looks like they are subsidizing Hik to price competition out of the market, be making so much headway?

I've come to two conclusions watching the back and forth debates about Hikvision. One, anyone who has to compete against it will jump on any negative possible like a dog on a bone, understandably so. The other, dealers of Hikvision desperately seem to want to gloss over and minimize the negatives because they don't want to loose their cheap cash cow that makes them price competitive.

JH
John Honovich
Jun 20, 2016
IPVM

While having regional support is important, too, I think low cost is the real overriding factor here.

So I agree that low cost is the critical factor, meaning that without it, the rest of the strategy does not work. For example, IDIS. They could hire 300 people in NA but at their price point, they simply won't win anywhere close to the number of dealers as Hikvision.

My point is that it's more about the combination of the two. Use Dahua as the contrast. Dahua sells products in the same price range but their lack of organization and delay in scaling out local operations means they are far far behind Hikvision, given the overall closeness in price and performance of the two products.

Agree/disagree?

UM
Undisclosed Manufacturer #1
Jun 20, 2016

I do not disagree, but to me it is a matter of degrees. It's not just an acceptable performing product at a cheap price that has support, it's an acceptable performing product at a cheap price that has support, enough so we will look over the security issues and business practice because if we don't sell it, someone else will because customers don't know enough to look for those things.

U
Undisclosed #2
Jun 21, 2016
IPVMU Certified

Why else would a product with so many cyber security issues, funded by its home government in a way that really looks like they are subsidizing Hik to price competition out of the market, be making so much headway?

The end-user has shown enormous apathy to security's cyber-security. And the customer's the boss, right?

Ditto with subsidies. The topic might cause quite a lively, if abstract discussion at the pub, but when reaching for their wallet, with the goods in country already, is a customer really gonna pay an extra 50% just on principle?

(1)
JH
John Honovich
Jun 21, 2016
IPVM

The end-user has shown enormous apathy to security's cyber-security. And the customer's the boss, right?

Related: Cyber Security For Video Surveillance Study

(1)
UI
Undisclosed Integrator #3
Jun 21, 2016

People

PLease wake up and smell the coffee! Hikvision Is winning on the quality and price wars. Not as rare as we want to think. Japanese cars overtook the American market the exact same way. I do understand the issue of cyber security but IMHO the #1 rule is to separate security from the INternet. The issue of cyber security is a serious one and can not be discussed in a post.

It remains that their products are as good or better than competitors' costing three times as much. I don't see people gobbling Vivotek or IQinVIsion the same way. Their performance is upper echelon while their price is basement ... They have disrupted the Surveillance world, that's for sure and what we see could well be the tip of the iceberg.

(1)
(1)
JH
John Honovich
Jun 21, 2016
IPVM

I don't see people gobbling Vivotek or IQinVIsion the same way.

That's because those products are more expensive and have less sales / support (IQ of course is now a part of Vicon but, even before that, its pricing and sales staff was nothing like what Hikvision is doing).

Again, I am not doubting the image quality, product reliability or relative cost competitiveness. I am saying that's not enough to scale in this industry. You have to lots of feet on the street.

Their performance is upper echelon while their price is basement ...

And that is the part that we will have to see is sustainable. Basement prices with massive local sales and support has never been a viable long term business because of the high cost structure in such local field operations. Maybe Hikvision will be the first or maybe it will come crashing down.

(2)
Avatar
Steve Beck
Aug 24, 2016

I wonder what impact this has other distributors who stock HIK? I bet Dauha wished they did their deal with Tri-Ed instead of ADI

Also I know Scansource will not sell HIK, to my knowledge they are largest holdout.

(1)
JH
John Honovich
Aug 24, 2016
IPVM

I bet Dauha wished they did their deal with Tri-Ed instead of ADI

Well, ADI does much much more in sales than Tri-Ed, so I think that is the attraction for both.

JH
John Honovich
Feb 23, 2017
IPVM

Update: Hikvision said recently they are now at ~300 employees in the US and planning to add around 100 this year:

He expects to have more than 400 employees in North America by the end of the year.

This will likely include the 50 direct from college sales people we covered recently.