An Interaction with Gigabyte: ChannelDrive.in
Keeping in mind the future of computing – GIGABYTE TECHNOLOGY Co. Ltd, a global manufacturer of motherboards and graphics cards – is going strong on Gaming. The organization is busy bringing out an array of product innovations to drive the future of Gaming.
On the sidelines of the recently held Computex 2017 in Taipei, Taiwan – Sunil Grewal, Director, Sales & Marcom Division, Motherboard Business Unit, Gigabyte Technology India speaks with Zia Askari from ChannelDrive.in about why Gaming is important today and what does the future hold for the success of Gaming.
How do you look at the emerging opportunities in the Gaming segment?
We are going strong on Gaming in India. As far as India is concerned, gaming is in initial stage, so here we are working with gamers, we are conducting gaming events to get closer to the gaming community. And then we are also focusing our efforts towards video editing segment.
Here we are working with a number of video editing software companies and the channel partners.
What is your go to market strategy as far as these mentioned segments are concerned?
We are very serious on the gaming segment. We want to create and support the overall ecosystem and make everyone believe that there is great future in gaming as a career now. And hence, we are doing our part in the form of conducting gaming events, tournaments as well as providing gaming prize money.
We are also nurturing and encouraging gamers who can play at the world stage.
How do you look at the future of gaming in the years to come?
There was a time when PCs used to get minimal connectivity, but today it is not the case anymore, we have networks that are delivering great data speeds today. All this is going to further fuel gaming as an application and users will get great experiences.
And as the government of India is on its way to take fiber to about 700 districts – all this will become a big thriving reality. I see a lot of digitization to happen in 2018 – in terms of how you see a PC, in terms of the way gaming experience moves.
Government of India is focusing a lot of effort on two initiatives – Digital India and Make in India. How does Gigabyte as a brand contribute to these?
Digitization is the need of the hour as it gets you the power of information. One can get in touch with the right people, at the right time.
What kind of innovations can we expect from Gigabyte in the coming months?
Gigabyte is an organization that is built on an innovation driven philosophy. Our motherboards carry a unique stamp of innovation and the reliability which comes with it. Innovation has always been a big differentiator for us as a brand.
On the channel front, what kind of engagement do you see happening in the channel side and is there any expansion that you are looking at?
We are a completely channel-oriented organization. We have about 1400 T2 partners who directly interact with me. Then we have 108 T1 partners. These T1 and T2 partners then take our products to about 5000 strong partner base that we have in India.
As far as expansion is concerned, we are now reaching out to C and D class cities. In Q2 and Q3 we will be touching 85 new cities.
Gigabyte Product Innovations Showcased at Computex 2017
What kind of growth are you expecting from the Indian market?
Honestly, we are not expecting growth for this year, because a lot of restructuring has happened in India. First, we had demonitization, then we have got GST now. I know that all these moves carry a great degree of positivity ahead and all this will give you return in 2018, but for 2017, I am expecting to go flat.
In 2018, I foresee that there will be PC growth and this growth will be driven by factors such as GST and mass availability of data/bandwidth in smaller cities. With easy availability of large bandwidth, there will be lot of people who will go for PC in their house to enable education, entertainment and get great digital experience.
