Hikvision Dedicates $1.5 Billion To Dominate Western Market

"I will say that Hikvision has the clearest and most confident plans out of all of the Chinese companies"

I agree.

"which is why I think they have been so successful."

That certainly is valuable but I do not think it helps more than the Chinese government ownership. The government ownership and massive funding would make most companies quite confident and clear.

"Dont try to beat Hikvision, you wont win at this point, just focus on being your own company and be amazing at it, try to differentiate in either your products or services you offer.If you offer similar products, then be better at the service that you offer to customers."

I am not sure that this is possible for smaller Chinese companies. For example, Hikvision has hired 200+ NA employees already, they have a team of reps at every random show, event, booth, AV dealer, etc. And they sell at incredibly low prices. How do you beat that and keep the lights on, something that Hikvision need not worry about.

The more boring / non-movie plot is likely:

1. Bankrupt the smaller companies (most everyone in Shenzhen, Taiwan, the OEMs in the West), make some of the mega conglomerates exit the market and focus on other electronics / offerings. When that happens, the reduced competition will ease price pressure, allowing stabilized or increased pricing.
2. Get to massive international scale that allows for lowering average cost for sales, marketing, support, etc.

1 and 2 = profits.

Bankrupting the smaller companies seems well within reach, most of them had a bad, down 2015 and 2016 will almost certainly be even worse. By 2017, if Hikvision can keep the pressure on, we will see lots either (try to) sell out or close down.

Getting to scale is more questionable to me, mainly because once Hikvision is widely available in Western markets, many integrators will start pushing back against it. I think we will see this in the US in 2016. As dozens of integrators in a region sell Hikvision, markups will collapse on Hikvision and integrators will start becoming upset with them, looking elsewhere. In China, integrators are not really a concern, since the integration market is immature and Hikvision sells and supports direct routinely. In the West, this is going to be a lot messier.

"I think HIK will dominate the retail and consumer/home market"

It's certainly heading that way.

I do think Ezviz is a potentially minefield. Hikvision is clearly working hard to obscure to consumers that Ezviz = Hikvision = Chinese government. If and when Western consumers realize that connection, a lot will be very concerned about using their products.

"Do not under estimate companies such as FLIR....they are aligning their focus on surveillance more and more"

That's an interesting point. They've certainly ramped up at the low end, with Lorex, who directly competes with Hikvision typically using Hikvision's Chinese rivals (e.g., Dahua). I am curious to see what they can do to stop Hikvision.

I do think that on the higher end of the market (certainly post DVTel acquisition) that FLIR might be more motivated and better equipped to push back against Hikvision there and make an issue of this with their entrenched government base.

...I don't want to say what that makes a US citizen actually working for HikVision...

An employee?