VietNamNet Bridge – “If there is no sudden change, just around two years from now, many top e-commerce businesses in Vietnam will not be able to continue. Many of us are too tired,” said Nguyen Huu Ha, Director of 1001 Shopping, the first-level e-commerce website in the C2C (consumer-to-consumer) list of the Trade Ministry.
The limit
More than one year ago when Ms Nguyen Hoang Que Nga, E-commerce Manager of VinaGame, decided to get involved in the e-commerce field through the 123mua online supermarket project, her decision was considered to be a decision of desperation. At that time, VinaGame’s online game business was facing many difficulties.
Ms. Nga submitted the e-commerce project to the Chairman of VinaGame Board of Directors and explained that this project was a contribution to the digital content industry of Vietnam, which would be surely welcomed by others.
From a modest appearance on a small corner of the website of an online game named Vo Lam Truyen Ky (Swordsman), 123mua had its own address at 123mua.com.vn two months later. At the end of 2006, this website was named among the outstanding e-commerce websites of Vietnam, ranking fourth among B2C (business-to-consumer) websites of Vietnam.
However, just six months after the website was awarded a prize for outstanding e-commerce websites by the Trade Ministry, 123mua was experiencing the same problems as other e-commerce sites in Vietnam.
“So far we have not obtained profits. E-commerce is not popular in Vietnam yet. Most consumers don’t have the habit of shopping online. Vietnamese customers often want to see goods before buying them,” Ms. Nga said.
This habit is one of the most prominent reasons that e-commerce in the forms of B2C and C2C in Vietnam has had difficulty developing, besides the weakness of the online payment system.
“The shopping demands of consumers are decided by other issues. If they have the need for online shopping, they will seek online payment modes themselves and more transportation service providers will appear. However, less than 1% of Internet users in Vietnam use e-commerce at present,” said Nguyen Huu Ha, Managing Director of the AnphaHuu Company, which owns the 1001 Shopping, the top C2C website of Vietnam.
Mr. Ha said that if the market didn’t develop further, many e-commerce businesses wouldn’t be standing in two more years.
Wide but not deep
Though seemingly contrary to the sadness of managers of top e-commerce sites in Vietnam, the development of the Internet and its influence in the community is growing very rapidly.
The latest data shows that in the past 12 months, Vietnam has recorded an additional four Internet users to become 17th in the world in terms of Internet users (16 million).
Also in the past 12 months, the international access capacity has risen by 50%. Broadband connection has also doubled, from 310,000 to 753,000 subscribers. The readiness index for the e-economy of Vietnam ranks 65th of 69 countries, one grade up compared to 2006, with 3.73 points compared to 3.12 points.
Parallel to the development of the general market, the government’s efforts in building and development e-commerce have been strongly revealed.
The decision approving the e-commerce development plan signed by the Prime Minister in 2005 clearly points out that Vietnam aims to have around 60% of large-scale companies performing B2B (business-to-business), around 80% of small- and medium-size enterprises knowing the benefits of e-commerce and performing e-commerce transactions in the modes of B2C (business-to-customer) or (business-to-business), and around 10% of families performing B2C or C2C by 2010.
Actually, Vietnam has seen the development of e-commerce in term of quantity. Most enterprises have Internet connections and their own websites. E-commerce portals at all levels, from the grassroots to central, have been opened. Programmes to develop the legal corridor for e-commerce, to diffuse knowledge about e-commerce, to develop support technology for e-commerce, and international development of e-commerce have been implemented as well.
However, that development doesn’t satisfy e-commerce developers. “We need a story of success in e-commerce. There is no company that has gained great success in this field to be an example for others,” said Ms. Nguyen Hoang Que Nga.
“For example, online games, a field that is similar to e-commerce. When VinaGame was successful with Swordsman, online games became a popular type of entertainment in Vietnam, opening a large market and was a story of success for other businesses to follow. For e-commerce, there are many stories of failure, not one story of success,” she added.
Of course, though the e-commerce market hasn’t developed in Vietnam yet, it doesn’t mean that Vietnam can’t have an e-commerce market. The issue is how to create and expand that market.
(Source: SGGP)
To be continued… | 
