Manish Bakshi, Managing Director, Middle East and Turkey, BenQ, speaks to Anita Joseph about BENQ’s range of gaming monitors, projectors, and the growth of the company’s business in the region.
Tell us about BenQ’s range of gaming products, how would you describe BenQ’s Middle East market positioning for gaming monitors?
We have three product lines: LCD & Esports Monitors, Projectors (4K and Laser) and PDPs (professional display panels) and we are the market leaders in Gaming monitors. In fact, we sell around 5,000 gaming monitors (professional and gaming) per month. Our biggest market is Saudi Arabia, followed by the UAE, where we sell around 1,000 (professional & casual) monitors per month. We are proud to have recently achieved our mark of 50K Gaming Monitors sold in the Middle East & Turkey Region. So yes, the Middle East market is a significant one for us.
Does your growth reflect the growth of gaming in the region?
Yes, it does. Gaming has grown in a big way here, and today, we have gamers of all ages enthusiastic about different kinds of PC & Console Gamers. Accordingly, the demand for products has also grown, with major gaming companies in the region customizing their products according to the Gamers requirements.
Tell us more about your gaming monitors?
We have 4K & 2K Gaming Monitors for Casual Gaming which fall under the brand BenQ and after acquiring the brand ZOWIE we have the Professional Esports Monitors which is under the BenQ Portfolio as BenQ ZOWIE Brand, namely the XL & RL Series for professionals, BenQ’s evolved gaming esports brand, with the same legendary performance and a brand new look. Our monitors are preferred for their sleek look and unique features such as Dynamic Accuracy Technology, Black eQualizer, Color Vibrance which give professional gamers an edge over other Gamers ingame.
We also have monitors with S-Switch, Height adjustability & a provision for hanging headsets as well. ZOWIEs XL-series features the premiere e-Sports gaming monitors for PC eSports, fine-tuned to guarantee the smoothest and most responsive experience, and the clearest images to arm you for competition. The ZOWIE XL-series eSports gaming monitors come with high refresh rate of 144Hz & 240Hz and every detail of the XL-series is designed and fine-tuned for gamers to perform without compromising their skills. The ZOWIE RL-series e-Sports gaming monitor is used worldwide by professional e-Sports players and tournament organizers. These are suitable for Console e-Sports games, for zero lag and maximum performance.
BenQ ZOWIE XL Series is the preferred brand by professionals and by most International Level Tournaments for PUBG & CS:GO.
How would you describe BenQ’s overall projector market in the region?
As far as the overall projector market in the region is concerned, BenQ is the No 1 DLP projector brand in the world today. Our Middle East market share is more than 25 per cent, which means 1 out of every 4 projector sold in the market is BenQ. In Saudi, we dominate with 39-40 per cent market share in DLP Projectors, so you see, BenQ has registered considerable growth in the overall projector segment. Moreover, we dominate the region in the 4K Projector Segment as well since 2018 with 33.8% in Middle East & 77.6% in Saudi Arabia in 2019 Q2’19. We In this context, I’d like to point out that there is huge potential in the Home Cinema segment, with a majority of consumers looking for quality products both for professional and personal use. The clientele includes not just families and AV professionals but also the younger generation. Whether it is to entertain friends at home or take their outdoor camping experience to the next level or even to have a quiet movie night at home, there is a huge gap in the market.
