2023 Aspiration: 1 billion USD software exports

Illustration photo.

FPT Software's software export revenue in 2023 is expected to be 1 billion USD. That is the business plan approved by FPT's leadership, and 99% will be completed, because in 2022, FPT Software has reached 1 billion USD in total bid value, 800 million USD in revenue and with an average growth rate of 26% in the past 3 years, the figure of 1 billion USD in 2023 is very realistic.

So how big is $1 billion in software exports?

To make it easier to visualize, I will use this image: 1 billion USD is equivalent to 23,500 VinFast VF8 cars sold in the US (at a price of 42,500 USD per car), which is equivalent to 23.5 Silver Queen trains carrying VinFast VF8 electric cars exported on November 25, 2022 in Hai Phong.

Or another image: 1 billion USD is enough money to import 80% of iPhone phones or 115% of Samsung phones or 70% of 7-seat or less cars for the entire Vietnamese market in 2021.

Furthermore, unlike products in the industrial goods group (cars, phones, computers, garments, shoes, sandals, handbags, machinery, spare parts) with low added value, the added value of exported software services is very high, up to 84%, nearly 4 times higher than the added value of the industrial goods group (a pair of Nike shoes produced in Vietnam, the Vietnamese part is only 22%, the American part is 78%).

Thus, it can be said that 1 billion USD of software export is equivalent to nearly 4 billion USD of export of computers, phones, garments, leather shoes, handbags, machinery and spare parts.

Why does software service have such high added value? Because doing software service, there is no need to invest in production lines, no need to import (buy) raw materials, input materials. Investment in software is very little: each software worker only needs 1 computer and a little software copyright of about 1,200 USD, depreciated for 5 years, 240 USD per year. The biggest cost of software service is labor cost (salary, bonus, benefits, insurance, training, office), all spent on people and spent in Vietnam.

Software export, in addition to bringing Vietnamese intelligence to the world, creates many highly productive jobs, also brings foreign currency to the country, contributes to the national balance of payments, and contributes to stabilizing the national currency.

Did you know that if a business maintains a steady growth rate of 26% per year, after 3 years its sales will double, after 6 years it will quadruple, after 9 years it will eight times and after 12 years it will be sixteen times.

Thus, if the growth rate of 26%/year is maintained as in the past 5 years, FPT Software's revenue will be 2 billion USD by 2026, 4 billion USD by 2029, 8 billion USD by 2032 and 16 billion USD by 2035. That means that by 2035, the value that FPT Software creates will be equivalent to 64 billion USD of industrial production products.

Software export, besides FPT, there are hundreds, thousands of other software enterprises, creating an economic sector with a large scale and economic and social significance, not inferior to many other economic sectors.

The opportunity for Vietnam is still huge, because in 2022, India's software export industry alone brought in 200 billion USD for their country, equivalent to 50% of Vietnam's GDP./.