New CEO Brings Avira New Direction, New Energy

Doing the same job for 27 years can be tough, unless you really love your job. No, I'm not talking about my career writing for PCMag. I'm talking about Tjark Auerbach, founder and CEO of German antivirus giant Avira. After 27 years of running the company, Mr. Auerbach retired earlier this summer. I quizzed Avira's new CEO, Travis Witteveen, about what changes we're likely to see at Avira. Prior to becoming CEO on July 1st, Mr. Witteven "ran all the sales, marketing, finance, and HR" for Avira, so he's no stranger to the management track.
Pulling Up Scores
Witteveen frankly admitted that Avira's scores in tests by independent labs such as AV-Comparatives and AV-Test have been sagging. "We're heading back to the top," he proclaimed. "We've had cloud-based protection for a while, but only during scans. Our first priority is to incorporate cloud technology into our real-time protection."
He also referenced my own reviews of Avira's previous edition, in which I faulted it for failing to install on malware-infested test systems. "Our Avira Rescue System will help. It's not yet integrated into the other products, but it works." (The Rescue System didn't ace my hands-on tests, but it might well remove obstacles to installing the company's full-scale antivirus.)
Expert Marketplace
In addition to traditional modes of tech support, Avira last year introduced a concept called the Expert Marketplace. Users and experts interact much the way eBay buyers and sellers do, negotiating a price for a specific fix and rating the experience afterward. "We see about 330,000 unique visitors monthly," said Witteveen. "Some don't even want money; they just want to help."
To make better use of freely offered tech help, Avira will introduce a marketplace spinoff called Avira Answers next month. "The only condition is that the problem and the answer must go public," explained Witteveen. "Capturing the info this way benefits us and other users. That's the important thing."
Avira Inside
I asked Witteveen just how many people use Avira. "We only say that our installed base is above 100 million," he replied. "However, if you think of our partners, it's much more. Baidu, Qihoo, Tencent—their antivirus is based on ours. If you add their users, it's far north of half a billion."
Witteveen explained that these Chinese companies make plenty of revenue in other areas. Baidu is a huge search site, for example, and Tencent supplies instant messaging. They have no trouble paying Avira to license antivirus technology that they then offer for free. "From a revenue point of view," said Witteveen, "it's our number two market worldwide. China has 450 million broadband installations, twice that of the U.S."
Being a big player in China isn't easy. "It costs a lot extra for us to enable special detection in Chinese markets," Witteveen said. "We see a lot of valid software incorporating ripped-off tools and libraries, so the builds are slightly corrupt. Our normal heuristics would flag them as malware. We have an enormous testing department just for Chinese technology."
Going Forward
Witteveen observed that engineers like Mr. Auerbach typically have a different management style than those trained as managers. He sees a "different kind of Avira" coming. "There are cultural challenges, challenges in people, strategy, vision. You have to change."
"Going forward, our challenge is still to support 'Aunt Emma'," said Witteveen, referencing Avira's fictitious non-techie target user. "We are still a privately held company; we don't have to worry about EBITDA and such pressures. The product is who we are and what we deliver to the world."
Avira's 2014 product line will release around the end of September. I'll definitely put them through their paces and report my results here.