Vietnam's digital content industry began to accelerate

The digital content market in Vietnam is vibrant with the participation of many businesses. According to experts, this is a fertile land promising to bring a lot of profits.

Home made digital content

Three years ago, when it came to digital content in Vietnam, everyone only thought of electronic newspapers. In the last two years, besides online newspapers, people have started to mention online games and digital music. Now, this concept is being redefined with many other services when a series of businesses such as FPT, VTC, VDC, Vincom, Vegasoft, Peacesoft . are preparing for the underground war.

Users now encounter digital content "made in Vietnam" or Vietnamized anywhere: Open the message is to see SMS games, turn on the TV also see pop-up advertising SMS game; Netizens can listen to music, radio, watch movies, download movies online, participate in online diaries, share photos and videos . Mobile phone users can watch digital TV, download games, movies, music, web browsing .

Traditional digital content areas also have a clear branching. News is no longer the unique advantage of e-newsrooms when many businesses have begun to enter, aiming for smaller market segments, typically Quang Minh DEC with news service. sports and some other companies provide information about the stock market.

The field of online games is the same. If the publisher previously focused on importing "epic" multiplayer role-playing games (MMORPG), now the player has a more diverse choice, such as the strategy game of Gods (Vinagame). release), Audition dance game (VTC), Football King sports game (Cyberworld) or even simple games like card game, seahorse . playing right in the web browser at Ongame services (VDC) or Choi123 (VC), those who like to try their luck can go to VTC's Prediction section to participate in horse racing, lottery, guess the score .

Last February, the appearance of clip.vn website (Vegasoft) marked the transition to web 2.0 technology of the digital content industry in Vietnam. According to our research, in addition to Vegasoft, the company is the fastest in the web 2.0 race, most of the above mentioned companies are rushing to perfect the technology to prepare for the advent of the plus network. social networks (type of MySpace and YouTube). In addition, other services such as making friends, digitalizing books, newspapers, stories, Internet TV . are also appearing more and more.

Speed ​​up to compensate for lost time

'Mass market will be replaced by an increasing number of specialized markets, meeting the needs of individual customer communities'

Interestingly, many of the pioneers in digital content development are individuals, not companies "strong heroes", and large numbers of people. Indeed, before the current largest digital music website (FPT's nhacso.net) was born, netizens have a habit of listening to music from website listen.info or dangquang.kiss . Similarly, gaming animals Vietnamese flash on the website of trochoiviet.com has been configured before the website of VDC's beeame.com.vn was launched up to 2 years.

Mr. Ong Xuan Minh, Project Director of Online Advertising Service Joint Stock Company, commented, the embarrassment in finding revenue is the main reason that Vietnam's digital content industry comes from slowly. He analyzed: "The main revenue of digital content providers comes from two main sources: advertising and user fees. In the past, the online advertising market was too small, and user fees were collected. It is very difficult because of the lack of payment instruments, so the digital content cannot be developed, the online advertising market is gradually growing, plus the rapid development of the number of mobile subscribers and with it is Payment via SMS has opened up opportunities for Vietnam's digital content industry ".

Mr. Minh said that in the second half of 2007 onwards, it will be time for companies to speed up to compensate for the slow pace and in the next 1-2 years, the field of digital content supply will only be a playground. business range. Because web 2.0 applications such as sharing videos or blogs consume a lot of resources such as bandwidth, server processing capability . requires very strong infrastructure. In addition, having many companies join the market will make competition more severe, requiring a large budget for marketing costs. In this race, the advantage will be in favor of businesses that already have strong communication tools.

There are many obstacles

However, the picture of Vietnam's digital content industry is not completely pink. Mr. Le Huu Son, Director of Vegasoft Company, owner of the website sharing video clip.vn, commented: " The most important lack, according to me, is an effective method of payment between digital content users. and suppliers Most of the digital content services are 'consumed' over the Internet, so the absence of a convenient and popular remote payment method has constrained the development of the content industry. The method of payment via SMS is a good solution, but it also reveals many shortcomings such as generating extra costs for infrastructure, connection . leading to a large loss rate. This will have to add to the cost, resulting in digital content users having to "buy" the service at a price more expensive than its real value . "

Copyright issue is also a big obstacle when there are not many units and organizations standing out as the focal point to provide copyrighted content: Music, books, stories . Meanwhile, digital content providers It is difficult to meet every musician, every singer, every book author to negotiate copyright.

Another inherent weakness of the digital content industry is the lack of serious manpower. To be able to meet the diverse needs of the community, the prerequisite factor is a high quality human resource, knowledgeable about technology and management, business, marketing and specialized sectors. That offers. Even with web 2.0, which is the type of user-supplied content, it is necessary to have experts to orient, build events, create attraction and cohesion for the community. The "headhunting" war in digital content is therefore expected to be very hot in the future. Overcoming these barriers, Vietnam's digital content industry will have a chance to take off.

Minh Phi