More young people use internet in Vietnam than India
Sunday, 11 November 2007
Elsa Wenzel
Like much of the developing world, Vietnam is caught between one era of pushcarts and foot-pedals, and a generation growing accustomed to SUVs and mobile phones. As the one-party, communist state embraces capitalism and foreign trade, Vietnam's gross domestic product growth is poised to hit 8.5 per cent this year--the fastest in Asia, next to China. Although progress since the doi moi free-market reforms in 1986 came in fits and starts, growth has exceeded 7 per cent annually for the past decade.
Vietnam has come a long way since the "American War" more than three decades ago, when it was among the poorest nations in the world. Most Vietnamese were born after the former North and South Vietnam merged, with more than two-thirds of the population younger than 30, and half under 25.
Vietnam's 17 million Internet users make up 20 per cent of its population, and surveys show more young people using the Internet than even tech-savvy India. Literacy is a strong 94 per cent.
The country's technology sectors, in most cases, like the crouching tiger, are readying to pounce.
Vietnam is now home to 3 million blogs, most of which are personal journals. Young adults blog not only to express teen angst, gossip, date and plan parties, but to collaborate on projects to help poor people.
Yahoo 360 is the favourite platform. To expand its brand's dominance in Vietnam, Yahoo opened Internet cafes last month in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.
The blog of teen actress Hoang Thuy Linh, 19, went dark last month after a mobile phone video appeared on YouTube of her apparently having sex with her boyfriend. The event, being called Vietnam's "Paris Hilton moment," led to the cancellation of her sitcom. Four college students allegedly responsible for posting the footage were arrested and charged with the crime of disseminating sexually explicit material. The scandal sparked a mix of outrage and shrugs in the blogosphere. Vietnamese newspapers were slow to pick up the story.
Headlines proclaiming a blog war between a singer and a journalist triggered state officials to announce plans to monitor blogs. Star Phuong Thanh threatened to sue writer Huong Tra with libel for describing her performance unfavourably. Blogger Tra uses taboo words such as "penis," and reportedly attracts a million readers each month.
Yet Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung seemed to invite transparency by holding an online public chat in August that attracted more than a million people. Personal thoughts and poems of his also appeared on a public blog--but that, like blogs by other heads of state, turned out to be the work of impersonators.
While many Vietnamese bloggers claim to express themselves freely online, they also hide their blogs from conservative parents and agree that it's only a matter of time before the state steps in.
Writers who criticise Vietnamese culture or government praise blogging as an alternative to state media. Reporters without Borders ranks Vietnam's press freedom as 162nd in the world, eight spots from the bottom. It's not uncommon for reporters to face threats of imprisonment after writing about government corruption.
The state has tried to prevent children from overdosing on online games by setting time limits and demanding that cyber cafes be far from schools. Yet the will of the youth can be seen in scores of cafes packed past dark throughout big cities and small towns.
"People in the older generation will look at it as a time waster, but like everything it's changing, and people will understand that it's just another form of entertainment," said Le Hong Minh, chairman and founder of VinaGame, the nation's largest online gaming company. VinaGame is a start-up success story, having grown to three offices and a staff of 800 from a handful of employees several years ago.
Growing up in the 1980s, Minh spent most of his free time playing games. He foresees Vietnam becoming the top Internet market in Southeast Asia. First, however, Web companies must figure out how to make money in a market where only one per cent of consumers own credit cards.
To that end, IDG Ventures Vietnam has earmarked $100 million to help Web and software start-ups ripen. The first IT-focused venture capital fund in Vietnam, it has backed a dozen homegrown companies including VinaGame and equivalents to eBay, PayPal and YouTube.
"The entrepreneurial spirit in Vietnam is incredible," said Rachan Reddy, general partner of IDG Ventures Vietnam. "It's an intrinsic property here. The big names like Yahoo and Google are all here. A lot are choosing to buy rather than build, and it's a testament to the level of talent in Vietnam."
Programmers wish the government would invest more in information technology education. More English classes would also help, as the two competing Vietnamese-language keyboards can make coding difficult. On top of that, Microsoft introduced a third keyboard layout.
Teenagers like to switch phone models monthly, and it's not uncommon for professionals to own two mobile phones. Vietnam residents personalise their handsets with jewellery and custom ringtones, and play pop songs out loud from built-in MP3 players. Some people craft paper cell phones to burn on altars as offerings to ancestors.
A vibrant workforce and low wages are luring many foreign corporations. Recruitment agency Harvey Nash predicts that within five years Vietnam will provide more outsourcing than both China and India.
Intel is spending $1 billion on its largest semiconductor factory on the outskirts of Saigon. Taiwanese components maker Foxcon is investing $1 billion in a manufacturing plant. Hon Hai, which assembles iPods, will pour $5 billion into its Vietnamese facilities within five years. Also made in Vietnam are gadgets from Japan's Sony, Toshiba and Fujitsu, as well as laser printers for Canon and HP.
Vietnam offers the world's highest potential returns for manufacturing companies, according to a Pricewaterhouse Coopers study. Exports have jumped over the last decade from about $1 billion in the mid-1990s to close to $10 billion in 2006, according to the US Census Bureau.
Standard & Poor's 500 ranks Vietnam's young stock market as the 24th fastest-growing in the world, just behind Norway and ahead of Austria. The Ho Chi Minh Index has risen by 43 per cent in five years.
The economy's rising tide isn't lifting all as it shifts away from a focus on agriculture to manufacturing and information services. A middle class city dweller might make $10 a day, and the average salary is just $620 a year.
Although showing off wealth is considered vulgar traditionally, the gap between rich and poor is more visible as the Vietnamese develop an appetite for brands like BMW and Burberry.
Still, the poverty rate dropped to 18 per cent last year, down from 58 per cent in 1993 and beating United Nations goals. The Vietnamese government projects that another 2 per cent of citizens will escape poverty by the end of the year.
Like much of the developing world, Vietnam is caught between one era of pushcarts and foot-pedals, and a generation growing accustomed to SUVs and mobile phones. As the one-party, communist state embraces capitalism and foreign trade, Vietnam's gross domestic product growth is poised to hit 8.5 per cent this year--the fastest in Asia, next to China. Although progress since the doi moi free-market reforms in 1986 came in fits and starts, growth has exceeded 7 per cent annually for the past decade.
Vietnam has come a long way since the "American War" more than three decades ago, when it was among the poorest nations in the world. Most Vietnamese were born after the former North and South Vietnam merged, with more than two-thirds of the population younger than 30, and half under 25.
Vietnam's 17 million Internet users make up 20 per cent of its population, and surveys show more young people using the Internet than even tech-savvy India. Literacy is a strong 94 per cent.
The country's technology sectors, in most cases, like the crouching tiger, are readying to pounce.
Vietnam is now home to 3 million blogs, most of which are personal journals. Young adults blog not only to express teen angst, gossip, date and plan parties, but to collaborate on projects to help poor people.
Yahoo 360 is the favourite platform. To expand its brand's dominance in Vietnam, Yahoo opened Internet cafes last month in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.
The blog of teen actress Hoang Thuy Linh, 19, went dark last month after a mobile phone video appeared on YouTube of her apparently having sex with her boyfriend. The event, being called Vietnam's "Paris Hilton moment," led to the cancellation of her sitcom. Four college students allegedly responsible for posting the footage were arrested and charged with the crime of disseminating sexually explicit material. The scandal sparked a mix of outrage and shrugs in the blogosphere. Vietnamese newspapers were slow to pick up the story.
Headlines proclaiming a blog war between a singer and a journalist triggered state officials to announce plans to monitor blogs. Star Phuong Thanh threatened to sue writer Huong Tra with libel for describing her performance unfavourably. Blogger Tra uses taboo words such as "penis," and reportedly attracts a million readers each month.
Yet Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung seemed to invite transparency by holding an online public chat in August that attracted more than a million people. Personal thoughts and poems of his also appeared on a public blog--but that, like blogs by other heads of state, turned out to be the work of impersonators.
While many Vietnamese bloggers claim to express themselves freely online, they also hide their blogs from conservative parents and agree that it's only a matter of time before the state steps in.
Writers who criticise Vietnamese culture or government praise blogging as an alternative to state media. Reporters without Borders ranks Vietnam's press freedom as 162nd in the world, eight spots from the bottom. It's not uncommon for reporters to face threats of imprisonment after writing about government corruption.
The state has tried to prevent children from overdosing on online games by setting time limits and demanding that cyber cafes be far from schools. Yet the will of the youth can be seen in scores of cafes packed past dark throughout big cities and small towns.
"People in the older generation will look at it as a time waster, but like everything it's changing, and people will understand that it's just another form of entertainment," said Le Hong Minh, chairman and founder of VinaGame, the nation's largest online gaming company. VinaGame is a start-up success story, having grown to three offices and a staff of 800 from a handful of employees several years ago.
Growing up in the 1980s, Minh spent most of his free time playing games. He foresees Vietnam becoming the top Internet market in Southeast Asia. First, however, Web companies must figure out how to make money in a market where only one per cent of consumers own credit cards.
To that end, IDG Ventures Vietnam has earmarked $100 million to help Web and software start-ups ripen. The first IT-focused venture capital fund in Vietnam, it has backed a dozen homegrown companies including VinaGame and equivalents to eBay, PayPal and YouTube.
"The entrepreneurial spirit in Vietnam is incredible," said Rachan Reddy, general partner of IDG Ventures Vietnam. "It's an intrinsic property here. The big names like Yahoo and Google are all here. A lot are choosing to buy rather than build, and it's a testament to the level of talent in Vietnam."
Programmers wish the government would invest more in information technology education. More English classes would also help, as the two competing Vietnamese-language keyboards can make coding difficult. On top of that, Microsoft introduced a third keyboard layout.
Teenagers like to switch phone models monthly, and it's not uncommon for professionals to own two mobile phones. Vietnam residents personalise their handsets with jewellery and custom ringtones, and play pop songs out loud from built-in MP3 players. Some people craft paper cell phones to burn on altars as offerings to ancestors.
A vibrant workforce and low wages are luring many foreign corporations. Recruitment agency Harvey Nash predicts that within five years Vietnam will provide more outsourcing than both China and India.
Intel is spending $1 billion on its largest semiconductor factory on the outskirts of Saigon. Taiwanese components maker Foxcon is investing $1 billion in a manufacturing plant. Hon Hai, which assembles iPods, will pour $5 billion into its Vietnamese facilities within five years. Also made in Vietnam are gadgets from Japan's Sony, Toshiba and Fujitsu, as well as laser printers for Canon and HP.
Vietnam offers the world's highest potential returns for manufacturing companies, according to a Pricewaterhouse Coopers study. Exports have jumped over the last decade from about $1 billion in the mid-1990s to close to $10 billion in 2006, according to the US Census Bureau.
Standard & Poor's 500 ranks Vietnam's young stock market as the 24th fastest-growing in the world, just behind Norway and ahead of Austria. The Ho Chi Minh Index has risen by 43 per cent in five years.
The economy's rising tide isn't lifting all as it shifts away from a focus on agriculture to manufacturing and information services. A middle class city dweller might make $10 a day, and the average salary is just $620 a year.
Although showing off wealth is considered vulgar traditionally, the gap between rich and poor is more visible as the Vietnamese develop an appetite for brands like BMW and Burberry.
Still, the poverty rate dropped to 18 per cent last year, down from 58 per cent in 1993 and beating United Nations goals. The Vietnamese government projects that another 2 per cent of citizens will escape poverty by the end of the year.