It’s a fact that only a small percentage of 5-7 million (approx) computer including internet users in Nepal use a proper and licensed antivirus and internet security programs. 
Pirated softwares sold at mere Rs. 20 all over the town may be one of the reasons for this culture promotion. But I guess growth of pirated softwares and wide abundance of such pirated softwares is not only the problem that’s keeping away the Nepali community to try their hands on licensed and legal ones. Another important affecting aspect is the “availability”, as there seems to be only a single licensed program available in the market for now. And how can we miss the awareness factor of using paid softwares?
As such, Kaspersky Anti-Virus and Internet Security is the only one licensed software so far in the Nepali software market for antivirus and Internet security. Sagar InfoSys remains as the sole-authorized distributor in Nepal since 2008 and just few days ago the company launched two new products of Kaspersky Lab: Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2012 and Kaspersky Internet Security 2012 at a press conference held at The Everest Hotel, New Baneshwore.
And it came as of interest for me to explore why this Kaspersky Lab was so much interested in promoting in Nepal? To own a bigger share of Nepali market! Well, not that there’s a lot of competition. I hardly can come up with other names besides this one that are legally sold in the country. But still what matters are the users and they want to rapidly increase on this.
Kaspersky basically wants to be the market leader in Nepal as well and that with a great percentage. Jagannath Patnaik, director, channel sales (South Asia), Kaspersky Lab, who was in the K-town to launch the new products puts in an interview to ekantipur “Nepal is one of the major markets for us as the growth here is remarkable. We have already covered around 80 percent of the Nepali market, and with these new products, we are targeting to occupy 85 percent this year. For this, we will have to take our products to more than 4 million internet and computer users.”
Well, it’s a good step and Sagar InfoSys could be successful in its mission of increasing users exponentially (best of luck to them!) but this could be only possible if they could make users fully aware of having to actually buy software as protection against threats. I think the promotions are also catchy ones. Apart from the products being available at 60 percent less than the international market price, they are also offering 30 percent flat discount on the purchase of Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2012 and Kaspersky Internet Security 2012.
(You can buy the latest Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2012 and Kaspersky Internet Security 2012 from Infosys stores in Kathmandu or even online here.) I would recommend you to go for trial version and see if it suits your need. Download the trial version of the software from kaspersky official website and then if you like it, you can buy them from stores of Nepal.
Having said all that, I want to make a point clear that people in Nepal are not only limited to use this licensed one. There are organisations and companies that make use of licensed software, often purchasing them online. You can also buy several other licensed version of antivirus you prefer through their respective websites.
I still remember Kaspersky being sold at cheaper price, merely 1000 Rs. at CAN exhibitions back in 2008 and 2009; I used to use the licensed version of Mcafee antivirus then, which I am still stuck to! Do you use licensed version of antivirus? What do you think of this Kaspersky?
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