First, we consulted Claudio Martinelli on the impact that the closure of its operations in the US might or might not have, especially in Latin America. after almost 20 years in that market, due to the ban by the US government of marketing its antivirus in the country.
“It is an evolution of what has been going on for many years, step by step became more intense until this moment. The reality is that our B2B operation was not so big, so the impact is not so big, it’s more a matter of communication, reputation, having to explain that it’s about international politics and not performance. We are not the first and we will not do the last,” Martinelli told ITseller.
“I think the only beneficiary is the criminal, because when governments and companies do not cooperate the task for them is easier, and it harms people, who are not going to be protected by Kaspersky’s solution, Taking into account also the detections that we have as a global company outside of the United States and that are still in the country”.
Regarding Latin America, he acknowledged that the beginning of the war with Ukraine in 2022 was more complex, but that in this case there was no major impact because they were no longer selling to US-based companies for a long time and have not lost customers in this time. The task is to talk with our customers so that they are not worried, to ensure the continuity of our protection”, he explained.
Investments in Latin America
During the CSW 2024 held in Colombia, Kaspersky made an important announcement for the local market, which is the third country in revenue for the company in the region (after Brazil and Mexico): the opening of a new legal headquarters and, in the near future, a transparency centre for NOLA (see note).
However, the Kaspersky Americas Director General pointed out that the choice of Colombia is also due to its being a hub for connections, as flights depart all over Central and South America, Now forming a tripod with San Pablo and Mexico to receive customers from surrounding territories.
Next: the new bet to grow in the business market
During his exhibition during the meeting in Cartagena, Martinelli reviewed the new solutions under the umbrella of Next that the company has made available to customers and partners, and highlighted the double-digit growth achieved since its launch last April.
Consulted on this, the executive went further, and said that the goal is to grow twice as much revenue in the B2B market in the next 3 or 4 years. “This has to do with a major investment in terms of people, resources, marketing and operational budget,” he said.
Speaking specifically about what training is all about, Martinelli reported that since last January the company has been conducting intensive training of its channel for its Next solutions. He clarified: “For us training is not something that begins and ends, but it is a never ending story. We always have the webinars, the training sessions, the calls from our pre-sale team that accompanies our channels in meetings and this is permanent”.
“In the region we have 35 countries, 8 territories, 2 million corporations and 547 million people, we can’t do everything alone, we depend on the channel 100%”.
However, he made it clear that this growth will not be linear in all countries at the same time, but rather “we will choose key points to drive or pilot this expansion in the region, directing our investments to these countries, according to the expectations of particular situations in Latin America”.
“Kaspersky Latin America is run by Latin Americans. We have local people in all countries who provide us with cultural knowledge to deal with these idiosyncrasies, and the corporation gives us freedom to make decisions”.
Although currently the focus countries are Brazil, Mexico and Colombia, the interviewee noted that they have experienced very good growth in Argentina in 2023. For the channels we kept the price in pesos per month and that gave us an advantage. And we did the same thing in Colombia. In Brazil we trade in real and in Mexico, in pesos. This is the kind of differentials that Kaspersky has for its business partners,” he emphasized.
