Anti-spam software mart to hit $7 mn

The value of anti-spam software market is expected to touch $7 million in India and $1 billion worldwide by 2007.

The domestic revenue of anti-spam software grew to $4.5 million in 2005-06 from $0.5 million in 2003-04.

There are nearly 4.5 lakh users of anti-spam software and the number is increasing fast. Globally, since Norton introduced anti-spam software in 1999 the number of users has gone up to 40 million.

The software filters e-mails at the server, client (personal computer) and gateway levels. Symantec, Microsoft, Data Infocom, Spamboomerang, McAfee and Trend Micro are some major developers of anti-spam software. Price of the software varies from company to company.

Data Infocom provides server-level anti-spam at $4,000 for unlimited users. While Microsoft offers anti-spam at $19, McAfee quotes $25 for it and Trend Micro provides the software at $30 per account, annually.

Doug Hauger, director (business & marketing operations), Microsoft India, said, "Our company has released Microsoft Antigen e-mail security products, which include Antigen for Exchange, Antigen for SMTP (simple mail transfer protocol) Gateways, Antigen Spam Manager and Antigen Enterprise Manager."

Data Infocom CEO Ajay Data said e-mail should be used carefully.

One must be very cautious while giving or mentioning one's e-mail address over the Internet. "One should not click on the mail that has come from an unknown source," he added.

In India, Microsoft leads the anti-spam market with a share of 40 per cent followed by Data Infocom (30 per cent), Trend Micro (8.7 per cent), McAfee (7.5 per cent).