Vidyo Aims For A Tenth Of The Video Market

New Jersey-based videoconferencing firm Vidyo Inc. has recently started its operations in India and hopes to capture 10 percent of the videoconferencing market in the next 24 months.

"Videoconferencing is a big opportunity in India. We started our India operations last month and now aim for 10 percent of the domestic market share in the next two years," says Ruchir Godura, Vice President, India & South Asia, Vidyo.

According to Vidyo, the total videoconferencing market in India today would be about US$80 million-$90 million. Going by that estimate, the company seems to target around $8 million-$9 million from the India market by 2014.

A carrier-focused approach
Vidyo is in talks with multiple carriers in the country for partnerships since operators have the ability to manage the service on a large scale. It also claims to be the first one to come up with a fully carrier-focused videoconferencing solution.

For carriers, it is critical to come up with innovative solutions since they are moving away from capex-based engagements. Since most of the carriers have squeezed on their bottom lines, Vidyo believes it has an advantage over its competitors as it offers a software-based solution instead of relying on hardware-intensive infrastructure.

"We look upon carriers as our partners and can bring our solution on the network on a revenue-share basis. We provide hosted solutions to carriers at a very low capex. The entire business is built upon selling videoconferencing service on a hosted model to the customers on a revenue-share basis," explains Godura.

Growth plans
The company is setting up its logistics, meeting opinion makers and hiring people to expand operations locally. "Our target users are large enterprises. The CIOs (Chief Information Officers) of large enterprises are the ones who start a trend. We are also engaging with channel partners as we always sell through IT integrators and channel partners. Our architecture is designed in a way that our back-end can be completely hosted in a cloud," says Godura.

Founded in 2007, Vidyo has over nine offices globally and a team of close to 200 people. The company says that the adoption of new-age devices like tablets and iPhone will further accelerate the videoconferencing adoption. "We have the technology that can work on all types of networks like 3G, MPLS, WiFi and others. We bring secure, zero-capex, full-HD conferencing solution through our services," says Godura.

The company has recently announced a collaboration with Sify Technologies Ltd. to launch cloud-based videoconferencing services for enterprises and emerging businesses. The service can availed at less than INR 3 per minute. Recently, Juniper Networks Inc. acquired a strategic stake in the company indicating a possible acquisition or a closer service integration.

In India, Vidyo competes with the likes of LifeSize Communications Inc., Cisco Systems Inc. and Polycom Inc. (See Neeraj Gill: Managing Director – India & SAARC, Polycom.)

- Jatinder Singh, Principal Correspondent, Light Reading India