A review of big events of Vietnam internet industry in 2014

1. B
y
VIETNAM INTERNET 2014 REVIEW
31-Dec-2014

2. CyberAgent
Ventures
invested
in
DKT,
an
Internet
company
based
in
Hanoi
which
provides
Bizweb,
an
e-­‐commerce
online
service
to
allow
retail
stores
starBng
and
managing
their
online
sales.
The
founder,
Mr
Tuyen,
born
1982,
has
been
co-­‐
founder
of
Bao
Kim
before
founding
DKT.
hJps://www.techinasia.com/
Jan
2014

3. http://www.forbes.com/
Feb
2014
Flappy
Bird,
a
casual
mobile
game
developed
by
Vietnamese
indie
developer
quickly
rose
to
a
top
hit
in
America
and
then
in
global.
The
popularity
of
Flappy
Bird
brought
a
lot
of
money,
fame
and
also
trouble
to
its
creator
Ha
Dong.
Eventually,
he
took
down
the
Btle
from
all
Apple
and
Google
stores.

4. http://vitalk.vn/
Also
in
Feb
2014
The
compeBBon
of
OTT
apps
got
intensified
with
the
joining
of
BeeTalk
from
Garena.
Adding
to
the
exisBng
compeBBon
in
client
PC
games,
internet
coffee
management
system,
the
fight
between
VNG
and
Garena
expand
to
all
baJle
fronts.

5. http://vitalk.vn/
March
2014
The
mobile
messaging
app
Zalo
by
VNG
is
reported
to
reach
10M
registered
users
milestone.

6. http://www.cyberagentventures.com/
Also
in
March
2014
CyberAgent
Ventures
invested
in
Dai
Viet,
an
Internet
company
based
in
Hanoi
which
owns
and
operates
the
largest
real
estate
online
lisBng
site
batdongsan.com.vn
in
Vietnam.
The
deal
is
not
publicly
announced
yet
but
the
info
can
be
found
in
por]olio
list
from
CyberAgent
Ventures
website.
Also,
in
Q1/2014,
CyberAgent
Ventures
put
money
into
two
early
startups,
online
English
learning
Topica
English,
a
subsidiary
of
Topica
and
Vexere,
an
online
bus
booking
website.

7. http://www.vcpost.com/
Yet
also
in
March
2013
SeeSpace,
a
startup
founded
by
Nam
Do
-­‐
a
Vietnam-­‐born
entrepreneur
successfully
raised
$158K
as
seed
money
for
their
product
InAir
via
the
crowd-­‐
funding
site
Kickstarer.com.
When
connected
to
the
TV,
InAir
provides
users
navigable
related
contents
on
the
same
TV
screen.
SeeSpace
is
incorporated
in
US
but
the
whole
developers
team
are
in
Vietnam.

8. http://www.sggp.org.vn/khoahoc_congnghe/
SBll
in
March
2013
The
internet
connecBon
from
Vietnam
to
overseas
has
been
temporarily
stopped,
severely
slowdown
for
days
due
to
the
broken
of
the
internet
opBc
cable
connecBng
Vietnam
to
Hong
Kong
which
operated
by
AAG.
Similar
incidents
later
occurred
again
in
July
and
September.
One
line
of
cable
lead
to
one-­‐point-­‐of-­‐failure
and
vulnerability.
It
is
vital
for
services
which
target
Vietnam
local
Internet
users
to
place
their
servers
placed
domesBcally.

9. ttp://ictnews.vn/
April
2014
Mr.
Dinh
Anh
Huan
resigned
from
CEO
of
dienmay.com
to
join
the
management
board
of
the
last-­‐mile
delivery
company
Giaohangnhanh.
Mr
Huan
is
known
to
be
a
co-­‐founder
of
thegioididong,
angel
investor
and
acBve
advisor
to
many
retail
and
online
companies
including
Tiki.vn,
Concung.vn
and
also
Giaohangnhanh.

10. https://www.techinasia.com/
May
2014
CocCoc
released
Corom+
and
entered
the
browser
war
in
Vietnam.
The
company
is
hugely
financed
by
a
group
of
Russian
investors.
Up
to
the
point,
their
core
product
is
the
search
engine,
CocCoc.vn
which
has
been
finely
customized
for
Vietnam
market.
Even
though
heavily
promoted,
CocCoc
failed
to
gain
its
standing
in
Vietnam.
Corom+
provides
beJer
support
for
Vietnamese
language
input,
easier
access
to
Facebook,
download
video
from
YouTube…

11. http://cafebiz.vn/
June
2014
Thegioididong
was
IPO
in
Ho
Chi
Minh
Stock
market
(HOSE)
with
the
code
MWG.
MWG
holds
the
ownership
of
79.95%
in
the
mobile
retail
chain
“thegioididong.com”
and
79.95%
in
electronic
retail
chain
“dienmay.com”.
Aoer
10
years,
MWG
has
grown
from
1
retail
store
to
232
stores
and
took
more
than
23%
of
mobile
devices
sales
market
shares.
Their
online
sales
in
2013
is
about
$22M,
account
for
4.5%
of
total.

12. https://news.appsync.vn/
July
2014
AppSync
PC
version
for
mobile
store,
was
officially
launched
by
mWork
CorporaBon.
AppSync
helps
mobile
stores
reduce
Bme
managing
and
installing
applicaBon
for
mobile
buyers.
Prior
to
official
launching,
AppSync
has
been
deployed
in
more
than
1000
stores
for
6
months
for
market
tesBng
and
refining.
AppSync
now
takes
about
25%
of
market
shares
and
also
has
PC
version
for
end-­‐users.

13. http://ictnews.vn/kinh-doanh/
Also
in
July
2014
The
online
market
place
123mua.vn
of
VNG
is
acquired
by
Sendo,
a
subsidiary
of
FPT,
also
works
as
an
online
market
place
business
at
sendo.vn.
The
price
is
not
officially
announced.
VNG
admiJed
its
failure
in
EC
with
123mua
but
it
is
likely
that
VNG
will
reenter
the
market
from
different
angle.

14. http://ictnews.vn/khoi-nghiep/
August
2014
ADATAO,
a
big
data
soluBon
provider
startup
with
the
co-­‐founder,
Mr
Christopher
Nguyen
born
in
Vietnam
receive
lucraBve
investment
of
$12M
as
Serie
A
round
from
the
famous
venture
fund
Andreessen
Horowitz.
ADATAO
has
a
large
number
of
engineers
who
are
local
and
base
in
Ho
Chi
Minh
City.

15. http://ictnews.vn/khoi-nghiep/
Also
in
August
2014
“Bat
Chu”,
a
mobile
word
guessing
game
by
WePlay
boomed
in
Vietnam.
The
games
got
to
the
mobiles
of
millions
of
users.
There
were
many
copy
cats
aoer
that
but
sBll
the
versions
of
WePlay
are
highly
praised
and
remembered.

16. http://www.vietnamplus.vn/
September
2014
mPos.vn
appeared
in
Vietnam
as
a
mobile
card
reader
which
accepts
even
domesBc
ATM
cards.
There
are
about
60M
domesBc
ATM
cards
issued
in
Vietnam.
mPOS
Vietnam
and
Sacombank
were
the
first
to
provide
this
service.

17. http://www.vietnamplus.vn/
Also
in
September
2014
Xiaomi,
the
“Apple
of
China”
invested
$40M
in
the
US
based
startup
Misfit.
The
husband
and
wife,
Mr.
Sonny
Vu
and
Christy
Trang
Le
are
Vietnam-­‐born,
co-­‐founded
Misfit.
Most
of
the
team
based
in
Vietnam,
involve
producBon,
data
analyst,
markeBng
and
sales
operaBon.

18. http://dietthan.vn/
Diet
Than
(aka
Wrath
of
God),
a
trading
card
baJle
game,
100%
Made-­‐in-­‐Vietnam
was
published
by
Wasabi
to
Viet
Nam
market.
Diet
Than
is
highly
praised
for
its
high
quality
level
of
game
design,
graphics
and
storyline
and
told
to
comparable
with
top-­‐
level
games
made
by
China
and
Japan.
Diet
Than
had
been
developed
by
TOFU
Game
Studio
during
the
course
of
6
months
with
20
members.
With
the
release
of
Diet
Than,
it
marks
a
new
milestone
for
Vietnam
mobile
game
industry.
Yet
also
in
September
2014

19. http://www.vietnamplus.vn/
October
2014
Tokopedia,
a
market
place
founded
in
2009
in
Indonesia,
received
a
US$100
million
financing
led
by
SooBank
Internet
and
Media
Inc
(SIMI),
a
division
of
the
Soobank
Group
and
also
Sequoia
Capital
joined
in
as
a
follow
on
investor.
It
is
also
the
first
investment
of
Sequoia
Capital
in
the
region.
The
investment
confirms
that
the
tech
investment
money
are
now
pouring
more
and
more
to
emerging
markets
such
as
South
East
Asia.
With
a
populaBon
ranked
in
top
20
of
the
world,
young
age
demographic,
Vietnam
is
definitely
on
the
list.

20. http://www.talkvietnam.com/
Also
in
October
2014
Media
websites
and
online
services
owned
and
operated
by
VC
Corp,
the
largest
online
media
company
in
Vietnam
have
been
down
for
days
due
to
a
series
of
aJacks
into
the
company
data
centers.
The
damage
is
huge
as
it
results
in
disconBnuing
of
service,
leak
or
loss
of
users
and
customer
database.
The
aJacks
are
considered
to
be
well
planned,
orchestrated
and
conducted
by
a
group
of
professional
hackers.
This
incident
alarm
companies
to
raise
their
aware
and
investment
on
security.

21. https://www.techinasia.com/
Yet
also
in
Oct
2014
The
first
batch
with
9
startups
graduated
from
Vietnam
Silicon
Valley
program.
Vietnam
Silicon
Valley
is
a
4-­‐month
incubaBon
program,
powered
by
Vietnam
Ministry
of
Science
and
Technology,
where
each
start-­‐up
with
receive
mentorship,
helped
with
connecBon
and
also
receive
$10K
in
exchange
for
10%
of
equity.

22. https://www.techinasia.com/
Yet
yet
also
in
Oct
2014
Shortly
aoer
acquired
by
24H
Media,
haivl.com,
a
9gag-­‐liked
website
in
Vietnam
with
more
than
20M
monthly
visitors
has
been
banned
by
the
Vietnamese
authority.
They
are
accused
of
hosBng
and
propagaBng
non-­‐appropriate
content.
Their
issued
social
network
license
was
also
taken
back.
Aoer
this
incident,
websites
hosBng
users
generated
contents,
social
media
are
at
a
huge
risk.

23. http://infogame.vn/game-mobile/
Nov
2014
FPT
Online
closed
it
online
game
business
line
and
also
sell
out
it
online
payment
Gate.vn
to
ME
Corp,
a
local
mobile
game
publishing
company.
The
decision
made
is
a
result
of
increasingly
compeBBon
in
PC
games
and
losing
out
of
key
members.
A
consolidaBon
in
PC
online
games
can
be
expected
to
happen
soon.

24. http://coccoc.com/en/news/
Also
in
Nov
2014
Cờ
Rôm+
announced
that
aoer
6
months
of
launching,
it
had
11M
downloads
and
1M
monthly
daily
acBve
users,
accounts
for
6.4%
PC
browser
market
share
in
Vietnam,
only
aoer
Chrome
and
IE.
This
impressive
growth
bring
CocCoc
back
to
the
game
with
a
stable
ads
revenue
stream.

25. http://techcrunch.com/
Yet
also
in
Nov
2014
Lazada,
the
Amazon-­‐clone
in
South
East
Asia
raised
$250M
of
investment
in
a
round
led
by
Temasek
Holdings
at
valuaBon
of
about
$1.25B.
Lazada
operates
in
6
countries
in
SEA,
including
Vietnam.
According
to
the
CEO,
Lazada
sBll
need
to
burn
money
as
EC
in
SEA
is
sBll
at
early
stage.
In
total,
Lazada
has
raised
$700M
from
investors.
Given
with
their
cash
strength,
other
EC
B2C
companies
in
Vietnam
are
really
put
in
very
disadvantage
posiBon.

26. http://www.dreamnews.jp/press/
Dec
2014
mWork
Corp
received
investment
from
Interspace,
Co.
mWork
Corp
is
a
mobile
internet
company,
founded
since
2011
with
the
main
business
as
mobile
affiliate
markeBng.
At
the
end
of
2014,
mWork
owns
the
biggest
affiliate
network
in
Vietnam
with
more
than
57,000
online
publishers.
Both
parBes
also
form
a
business
partnership
to
expand
their
businesses
in
related
markets.

27. http://vietnamnews.vn/economy/
Also
in
Dec
2014
Three
Japanese
enterprises,
SBI
Holdings,
Econtext
and
BEENOS
jointly
invested
in
Sendo,
a
subsidiary
of
FPT
CorporaBon,
recently
to
get
a
33%
in
it
with
a
valuaBon
is
about
$10M.
Sendo
founded
in
March
2012,
provides
nearly
2M
products
with
70,000
stores
on
2
websites
sendo.vn
and
123mua.vn
acquired
from
VNG.

28. http://asia.nikkei.com/Business/
Yet
also
in
Dec
2014
Aoer
entering
Vietnam,
Uber
faced
strong
aJacks
from
local
taxi
companies
on
their
legal
status
and
accountability.
There
were
contradicBng
views
from
Vietnam
authority
but
finally
it
seems
to
come
to
a
soluBon.
Uber
can
operate
in
Vietnam
if
they
fulfill
their
tax
responsibiliBes
which
is
counted
as
5%
of
their
revenue
generated
from
Vietnam.

29. http://gimi.vn
SBll
in
Dec
2014
GIMI,
the
first
mobile
reward
pla]orm
in
Vietnam
is
released
by
mWork
Corp.
It
closed
a
well
performed
year
for
the
company.

30. • Obtained
bachelor
and
MA
in
Computer
Sciences
from
Kyoto
University,
Japan
• Worked
as
Venture
Capitalist
in
CyberAgent
Ventures,
based
in
Hanoi
• Technology
and
Internet
savvy
• Love
gyms,
marathon,
swimming,
SNS
Andy
Nguyen,
Mwork
Corp
Co-­‐founder,
VP
of
Investment
Email:
andy@mwork.vn
Website:
hJp://mog.vn
A
liJle
bit
about
me

31. I wish you a new year of 2015 with
full of LOVE, energy and luck!!!