In an exclusive interview, the founder and Chairman of Judex, Saiful Hoque speaks to DhakaTribune’s Zisan Bin Liaquat about how the company is currently working to build a customized video conferencing platform for Bangladeshi users.
Judex is a customized video conferencing solutions providing platform, based in Sydney and successfully launched globally in February 2022.
How did you venture into the video conferencing business? What led to the birth of Judex?
So it was purely started from a point of passion for both my partner and I. I have my own accounting firm in Australia, and my partner is a practising solicitor there as well. We wanted to venture out of our profession and thought that the video conferencing market has immense potential as it has been growing because day-to-day business started moving online.
Initially, we thought about an online platform and wanted to build something for the legal society and system that caters to online court meetings and all those sorts of things.
The name Judex was chosen from a purely legal point of view which is a Roman word for an appointed judge. But, then we changed our vision and moved into video conferencing, sticking to the same name.
How has technology changed the way business is conducted with people working remotely?
The pandemic, as we all know by now, has changed things a lot, and it's not going to go back to the way it was entirely. I believe that a lot of people will start going to work physically but will still be looking for options to conduct business meetings online or look to work from home. And the hybrid approach to working will further cater to the video conferencing market making it grow.
How big is the global video conferencing market and what are the current demand patterns?
At the moment, I think there hasn't been very broad research of the market so far, but on a general note it's close to about $6.4 billion currently but it is likely to grow much bigger in the next few years.
According to one research, the global video conferencing market size was valued at $6.28 billion in 2021. The market is projected to grow from $6.87 billion in 2022 to $14.58 billion by 2029, exhibiting a CAGR of 11.3% during the forecast period. As per the analysis, the sector exhibited an average growth of 8.1% in 2020, as compared to 2019.
What is your evaluation of the local market size?
The information is still in the process, and the Judex data analytical team is currently working on that. All current published data, usage and figures are based on global parameters of the video conference market.
We are still working on determining any actual numbers or valuations of the market size for Bangladeshi users specifically but this is something I would like to emphasize, the online video conferencing market is very important for work to become more efficient and demand will soon pick up as it is being realized each day.
Do you think the local market has enough demand for such services?
The local market has been heavily dependent on video-conferencing platforms during the pandemic period and realized the importance and effectiveness of such platforms in their day-to-day operations.
In Bangladesh, such platforms and their features or added services provided to consumers are used for so many dynamic categories from hosting virtual events, conferences, meetings, studies, courts and even in the hiring process.
The local market does have demand for video conference services and it will increase even further.
This new means of an online and hybrid type of communications and workstyle environment would certainly increase the overall productivity of the local workforce and business market.
Business meetings will become more effective and can be performed in a timely manner, reduce travel and occupancy costs for organizations and moreover reduce the pressure on business commuters on the roads.
Judex being owned by a Bangladeshi has taken a great interest in Bangladesh's local market and its user’s preferences and convenience.
Currently, local market businesses and individual users face various limitations and sometimes obstacles using all the major video conferencing products.
Judex is soon introducing customized video conferencing solutions for Bangladesh's local market which will enhance users' experience, logistics and payment facilitation at a very competitive price.
Can you elaborate on how video conferencing or Judex is relevant and useful for the local market?
As we all know that Bangladesh, especially in Dhaka city the traffic is becoming unbearable every day.
I have spoken with a lot of people from the business community as well as from the non-business community and one thing in common is that everyone suffers from it.
Attending multiple meetings requires travelling from one place to another and it is almost impossible to maintain punctuality. This makes them resort to cutting down on the number of meetings each day, which otherwise in an effective day could have 4-5 or even more.
So it obviously decreases the efficiency of the overall work and productivity. Now imagine if we shift our mindset and our perception on how to do business by pushing it online- the work efficiency and productivity will go up immensely. And even the possibility to help cut down on commuting expenses.
Moreover, if you want to buy a subscription with Zoom, Teams or any product because these are global products, you need a credit card to purchase a subscription now. That I believe is an obstacle for a lot of users that really want to use video conferencing or online platforms for either work or study.
In regards to that, we are making sure that consumers do not have to face this obstacle. So anyone who has a normal Bangladesh debit card or credit card or maybe bKash will be able to buy or subscribe to our video-conferencing license in local currency.
As far as the pricings are concerned we have tried our level best to be very competitive, and whatever zoom is offering we are offering an identical structure. However, we have tried to make it as affordable as possible by integrating several unique services that are highly charged by platforms and integrated with the platform.
How is your platform unique to other market players?
Judex videoconferencing has all the features that most modern video conferencing providers offer including screen sharing, recordings, chats, documents uploading and downloading during meetings, calendar integration, live broadcasting or streaming to any social media platform, among others, read the statement.
The most distinctive features of Judex offering to its users are active and passive participant options and automated transcripts for all recorded meetings. The active and passive participant options can facilitate Judex users to convert any meetings into a webinar or seminar-type quite easily without paying any additional subscription costs.
Judex can offer customized branding and white labelling video conferencing solutions to governments and large enterprises. The implementation time and costs for such projects, Judex ensure that the clients receive the customized final product quickly at a very competitive cost.
The company can also provide video API licenses to enterprises that want to start a business in the video conferencing market.
Who do you consider as competitors, both locally and globally?
We are a global company and have kept features mostly similar to them and even offer more of our unique ones. So we pretty much consider everyone a competition as we are trying to compete on that standard.
