Evgeny Kaspersky compared global IT vendors with endangered dinosaurs

Revenue of Kaspersky Lab in Europe and North America in 2022 decreased by 30-40%. But due to the growth in revenues in Russia and other countries of the world, this drop turned out to be leveled, and at the end of the year the company did not end up with zero revenue, which is a positive sign in the current realities. The founder and CEO of Kaspersky Lab, Evgeny Kaspersky, spoke about this on June 15, speaking at the Fight for Investments session at SPIEF-2023.

This has already happened with his company, the businessman continued – in 2018-2019, when the “Laboratory” was “poured with mud from all sides.” Then some clients left, but returned a year and a half later, he concluded.

Products developed by Kaspersky Lab in foreign markets, Kaspersky compared with BMW cars. “You know, they say: BMW, Zhiguli… In this case, we make BMWs, and they are forced (foreign clients – Vedomosti’s note) to transfer to Zhiguli. They cry and don’t want to do it, so I’m looking forward to a small, maybe a big bounce, so that our old customers come back to us, ”said Kaspersky.

In the future, the founder of Kaspersky Lab compared global foreign IT vendors with endangered dinosaurs, and domestic IT companies with mammals that will have to populate the vacant territories.

Until 2022, Kaspersky Lab, like other domestic companies, invested money in point IT solutions that could not be actively developed due to the leading positions of international corporations of the level Microsoft in the Russian market, Kaspersky stated. But since the beginning of last year, Russian IT companies had to urgently replace those niches that the international giants left, “to close the holes that were left after those who left.” “Dinosaurs have left the planet, which means it’s time for mammals to develop,” Kaspersky said.

The domestic IT sector at this stage needs the help of the state, the businessman continued. “So far we are holding on, but we already want help,” he said. Now there are easier mechanisms for attracting external financing in IT, Kaspersky added, these are, in particular, soft loans, grants, etc. “We can do all this on our own. But, as they say, a lot can be achieved with a good word, but more can be achieved with a good word and a gun. So if there is help for IT companies, it will be possible to run much faster, ”said the businessman.

In his opinion, one should strive for such a status when the state should act as a kind of moderator in the active work of industry venture funds that finance domestic IT developments.

Supported by Kaspersky and the owner, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Severstal Alexei Mordashov. Over the past year, industrial competence centers (ICCs) have been actively developing in Russia, and this has made it possible for all market participants to cooperate with each other to develop domestic developments, he noted.

“It became clear to all of us that the products on which we based our IT solutions are no longer available. Or, let’s put it this way, we still somehow live with them, transferring them to offline mode – what a sin to hide. But it is clear that this is not a long-term solution, they become obsolete, problems arise, and we need to switch to our own products,” said Mordashov.

He noted that “SeverstalFor its part, over the past 5 years, it has invested 28 billion rubles in its own IT developments. Also, the metallurgical company received 1 billion rubles. in the form of a government grant. In 2023 she herself “Severstal» plans to spend 5.4 billion rubles on IT development.

In Russia, an infrastructure for external IT financing should be created, Mordashov is sure. “We need to create a “nutritional broth”. We have seen that it has developed well in the West, and we have begun to develop well. Now we are cut off from this broth – ok, but our experience this year has shown that we are pretty tough guys! Based on our resources, we all went very well, it’s even surprising for me how well we went through this quiz,” the businessman said.

The current IT sector has changed significantly in recent years, said Ilya Massukh, director of the Competence Center for Import Substitution in IT, who was present at the session. As an argument, he cited the holding of similar sessions on IT during the forums SPIEF in past years. “If we take a similar panel 3-4 years ago and 10 years ago, then there would be three consultants, two Western IT specialists and one bank. And the consultants would draw squares, they would call them magic quadrants, they would draw charts that would say where and to whom to invest,” Massukh noted.

Now, according to him, the situation has developed in the Russian IT market and in the EAEU that investors do not need to look for where to invest. This, in particular, was facilitated by just those industrial competence centers that were created in 2022.