Why are users indifferent to social networks 'made in Vietnam'?
There are more than 400 social networks “made in Vietnam”, but domestic users still turn their backs on domestic products and towards foreign players like Facebook and Instagram.
The average time Vietnamese people spend on the Internet and social media per day is 7 hours and 2.5 hours respectively, which is quite high compared to the region and the world. Facebook and YouTube are the most used sites with a rate of 61% and 59%. This helps foreign social networks earn a large amount of revenue from advertising.
Currently, social network advertising revenue is 370 million USD. However, the majority of the market share is in the hands of foreign companies such as Google reaching 135 million USD with 35 million users, Facebook 235 million USD with 60 million users.
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| Foreign social networks are dominating the Vietnamese market. |
Meanwhile, the market share of Vietnamese enterprises is very small with 436 social networks licensed to operate in the country. Even the most famous unit with 40 million users (VNG’s Zalo social network) has a revenue of only 7 million USD. This shows that Vietnamese social networks do not have a foothold in their home market.
A representative of the Institute of Information and Communications Strategy assessed that most of Vietnam's social network providers are operating in the form of forums, while foreign platforms are clearly superior thanks to their rich social network structure, attractive interface, high interaction and community connection capabilities. Most of these are global corporations, so they have high localization capabilities when providing services to different markets, breaking down geographical, linguistic and national barriers.
Sharing the same view, some Internet experts also commented that although there are many Vietnamese social networks, they lack identity and creativity. Many services are built from imitating the interface and features of Facebook. According to Mr. Nguyen Trung Kien, Director of the Institute of Information Technology and Communications CDIT, everyone is currently living in two societies: the real society and the virtual society.
Social networks allow connection with anyone in the world, eliminating geographical distances. However, these advantages also pose unpredictable risks and dangers.
According to this expert, some places are now effectively exploiting social networks by using this tool in communication and exchange between the government and the people, increasing interaction compared to the traditional one-way forms as before.
To be able to use social networks effectively and avoid negative impacts, the key issue lies in the people themselves. Each social network user must participate with a sense of responsibility and constructiveness. In addition, it is also necessary to equip people with the ability to protect themselves from bad and inaccurate information.
According to Mr. Nguyen Manh Hung, Acting Minister of Information and Communications of Vietnam, there needs to be a digital ecosystem focusing on "made in Vietnam" social networks instead of letting market share fall into the hands of Facebook and Google. He also said that foreign social networks are not currently complying with Vietnamese laws on taxes, payment requirements, security, etc.
This agency proposed a number of policies to support Vietnamese social networks, with the goal of having the number of Facebook accounts in Vietnam (60 million) equal to or greater than that in 2022 and accounting for 60-70% of the market share. With the view that "it is time to stop", Mr. Hung proposed a plan to use both economic and technical measures to manage foreign social networks.
Along with developing Vietnamese social networks, the Ministry's leaders also set a goal of putting Vietnam in the top 10 countries in digital ecosystem development, with 60-70% of people using the domestic ecosystem.
Regarding the social network developed by Vietnamese people, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc also agreed with the proposal of the Acting Minister of Information and Communications. The Prime Minister emphasized that China has done very well in building their own social network. Therefore, Vietnam should also build its own social network. The Ministry of Information and Communications undertakes this task to work with enterprises to build and develop domestic social networks.