Development and Changes of Competition Trends in Video Surveillance Market

After more than 10 years of development, the video surveillance industry has experienced rapid technological upgrading. The products have also evolved from the early analog CCTV surveillance to the current high-definition IP surveillance. At the same time, the rapid growth of industry demand has been accompanied by gradual handover and convergence with other industries. The talents and funds have entered the video surveillance industry, making this market situation has undergone tremendous changes, such as the increasingly fierce market competition, the continuous expansion of the field of competition, and the way competition is also rapid development and evolution, from the beginning of technology competition, products Competition and cost competition, customer competition and other constant changes and upgrades, this series of changes to promote the industry continue to move forward, this article on the current market competition to do some analysis.

First, the core technology competition has become a key video surveillance product development so far, whether during the upgrading of the product; or the product in the details of the performance and appearance of the upgrade, the core technology is the most important promoter, and the core technology competition is often the winner Become an outstanding representative of each era.

In the field of video surveillance, starting from coding and decoding technologies, the current technological competition has been comprehensively carried out in areas such as IP, intelligent, high-definition, etc. These changes in the competitive focus have led to changes in the market landscape, and the analog CCTV products companies that originally occupied a great advantage If you do not take the lead or follow the trend in technological competition such as IP, you will be passive in the market, and the enterprise development will also enter into a more difficult period; and some enterprises that have mastered core technologies such as IP will achieve rapid development. Become the market leader.

At the same time, after technological competition enters IP and other fields, the speed of technological elimination and innovation is also accelerating. A new kind of technology may allow a company to maintain its leading position for several years, but it may only last for half a year or even shorter. This new market environment places ever-increasing demands on companies. If companies do not join the "arms race", they may be eliminated. To win or follow this "arms race," they need to continue to compete. With high investment, this process will continue to repeat and return. The gap between different companies will gradually widen, and the situation of corporate elimination and entry will become more frequent.

Second, from product competition to program competition development In the past few years, the video surveillance industry's competition is mainly focused on product competition, different product types will have a scope of competition, such as matrix, Optical, DVR, etc. There are several major companies in product types, and these companies are often not cross-border and each has its own priorities.

However, with the development of IP technology, the competitiveness of a single product in the market is getting smaller and smaller. Because of the standard and compatibility problems of IP systems, manufacturers cannot use a single product to gain market recognition, nor can they effectively meet the needs of customers. This kind of idle condition has forced companies to gradually enrich their own product lines in their exploration and form their own complete solution from the front end to the back end, from hardware to software.

On the other hand, after the rapid entry of IP technology into the market, users' acceptance of this technology is relatively slow. At the same time, there are situations where advanced IP, intelligent, high-definition products are mixed with traditional analog CCTV products, and users have more difficulty in understanding the system. Large, can't collaborate with products and build systems quickly and accurately. This state also urgently requires companies to provide customers with one-stop services and overall solutions so that their needs can be met.

It can be said that the development trend of system solutions in the video surveillance industry is accompanied by digitization. Around 2003, Tiandi Weiye proposed an “industrialization” solution and advocated providing customers with a full range of products and solutions. After years of development, this concept has been well known and recognized by the industry. Since its development so far, the solution has become the main competitive means for enterprises, and it will continue to be the trend in the next few years. The future development direction of the solution will be industry, professional subdivision and professional module subdivision. On the one hand, the solutions are increasingly showing the characteristics of the industry, such as finance, chemicals, education, public facilities, etc.; the differentiated needs of the solution are formed with the special needs of the industry; on the other hand, the professional modules are more subdivided, including the monitoring system, Detection system, intelligent management system, etc. According to the needs of the industry, the suppliers will be further refined, and in different market segments, more will gain market with concentrated experience and case accumulation.

Third, from closed competition to open competition and development With the video surveillance industry entering the era of IP era and solution era, new products and technologies continue to enter this industry; for example, 3G transmission technology, iSCSI storage technology, biometrics, etc., at the same time due to market boom The continuous rise also attracts a large number of talents and capitals. Traditional large-scale IT companies and operators have entered the field of video surveillance. As a result, market competition has gradually become more open.

On the one hand, these changes have brought a lot of talents and funds to the video surveillance industry, which has made the industry's development appear unprecedentedly active. Some advanced technologies have therefore been generated and applied accordingly, and some new operating modes have begun to emerge. On the other hand, these changes have further exacerbated market competition. Regardless of technology, talent, or capital chain, traditional security companies are under greater pressure. Of course, this is not all a bad thing. It also stimulates to some extent under pressure. The company's self-development.

With the further integration of security and IT in the future, it is believed that more IT companies will enter the video surveillance market. Overall, this is very favorable for the development of the video surveillance market; traditional enterprises gradually adapt to the high-paced competitive environment, new Entering the company to gradually understand the needs of the industry, and ultimately to the video surveillance industry's market size and strength to a new height, so that the video surveillance industry as a whole to achieve greater development.

Fourth, price competition continues to intensify Price competition is always the theme of all markets, especially in the case of abundant domestic human resources, the industry oversupply situation; price competition will become extremely crazy, which can be confirmed in the video surveillance industry. Over the years, the price competition of cameras, DVRs, etc. has been constant, and the recent DVR price turmoil has also come into turbulent conditions, causing considerable fluctuations in the market.

Under normal circumstances, price competition is divided into passive price competition and active price competition. When the market is oversupplied, companies compete for the market in order to ensure their survival. They often resort to sacrificing profits to exchange favor with customers. Most of these price competition methods are a last resort. At present, the analog video camera market in the southern China is a typical passive price competition. The net profit of the company has dropped below 10%, most of which is 3%-5% or even lower. This method has a certain degree of impact on the development of the industry. The mode of low-profit pure processing is relatively fragile, and the survival of enterprises is subject to a large number of variables. These will in turn affect users, although the cost incurred by users in the initial period is very low. However, there are great risks in the later services.

With the gradual opening up of the market, advanced production technologies and smooth procurement channels are being mastered by a number of companies. These companies have more room to launch price competition, and further crack down on competitors and clean the market environment through such measures. This kind of price competition is to take the initiative to attack, intends to unify the market, to obtain a greater range of market control. The more classic case of this approach is the storm of current DVR prices. As large-scale enterprises have more abundant capital and better cost control capabilities, they can use opportunistic prices to oppress and fight their opponents. Prices often make competitors very uncomfortable. After a certain period of time, some weaker opponents will have serious problems in market share and capital chain, making them gradually withdraw from the market, leaving no room for customer resources and market space. More valuable treasure.

Price competition is a double-edged sword. Markets without price competition are definitely not a good market. The existence of price competition can force companies to constantly improve themselves, and use advanced management methods and production and R&D technologies to reduce their own costs and adapt to price competition. need.

However, excessively intense price competition will bring huge harm to the industry. Uncontrolled price war in the same industry will bring huge losses to the overall interests of the industry. The end result is that most companies are not profitable. So the overall wilting.

Due to the large number of companies in the security industry, the price war is very intense, but it will not affect the overall development of the industry within a short period of time. At the same time, companies at the top of the industry pyramid generally do not rely on price competition to survive; these two factors are both Predicting that price competition will become increasingly fierce, it will not bring too serious losses to the industry.

V. Changes in the competition of customer groups Due to the existence of special links such as construction and commissioning, together with the limited initial market power of the general production enterprises, the video surveillance industry has traditionally formed an industrial chain of product suppliers, distributors, engineering companies and end users. . This industry chain lasted for a long time, but as the trend of the overall solution began to occupy the main direction, while the open market led to a decline in profits, the current industry chain is gradually undergoing some changes.

The first is that dealers play an increasingly lighter role in the entire chain. The pressure of surviving the enterprise, the dealer's profit is getting lower and lower, and the distributor is limited by the dry technology. Under the trend of the overall solution, it becomes more and more passive. Many companies are beginning to move toward engineering firms that are closer to users, and even go directly to end users.

Secondly, the position of the engineering company in the industry chain has changed. In the traditional sense, the engineering firm selects the end-user products, collocation systems, construction commissioning, and later operation and maintenance. However, the same problems faced by the project providers and distributors are IP, intelligence, and high-definition; the ability of most engineering companies Not enough to complete the above-mentioned work, the emergence of the overall solution of the production company makes the work of the engineering company on the system formation has lost its significance. Therefore, most of the current monitoring projects have been changed to the enterprise directly for the end-user design program and provide a full range of products The construction company is finally responsible for the construction. Compared to the original, companies are now closer to end users than their contractors.

As a result of the above changes in the industry chain, the company’s focus on customer groups has also shifted from the initial dealers and contractors to end users. The company communicates with end users directly to provide users with integrated solutions and products. Close to the market, get a higher profit margin, occupy more and more stable market. At the same time, through this direct communication, the needs of users are becoming more and more accurate, and the development of products is more and more in line with the needs of the market.

Conclusion Competition is the eternal theme of all industries. Technology, talent, capital, and price are the core topics that are surrounded by competition. The competition in the market is always moving in an increasingly fierce and fast manner. The video surveillance industry is a fast-growing industry. In the process of continuous development, the competitive model will be more varied, but in any case, competition will promote the growth of an industry, as long as companies adhere to certain market principles and conduct healthy competition. With a well-maintained industry environment, the video surveillance industry will surely grow healthily, and industry players will also get even more growth.