Visit the online soccer game company in Vietnam

Sin Chao, this is Ｋen.

In Hanoi, we visited Vietnam state-run media conglomerate company "VTC”, the online gaming company.

My former boss, who has various businesses in Hanoi introduced the president (Mr Phan Sao Nam) of above mentioned company to Assissi and me.

We asked company profile, the market potential of online gaming, and their description of the software.

Mr. Phan Sao Nam, who has responded to our interview very politely.

Although it’s impossible to list the whole interview, here are some of the interesting points we heard.

· VTC had a right to broadcast World Cup 2006 in Vietnam. Maybe next year's competition in South Africa as well.

- Services Division, including sales of games has been doubled from three years of service in 2006 with the target in this season is about 160 billion yen

- With its on-line game user is one quarter of the Vietnamese population (no exaggeration to say that almost all young people are the users.)

- The most profit-making games is called "Audition" which is dance game.

- Billing System (ESS) was built in-house, outside sales are also in sight (this area is undeveloped areas in Vietnam, so I think there is a potential.)

- 70% of users are accessing from outside their home such as Internet cafes.

- Thus, the peak time are 10:00 - 11:00, 14:00 - 15:00 and are different to Japanese situation.

· EA's "FIFA Online2" is the third most popular game. Of course, the most popular football game in first place by far.


Incidentally, FIFA Online2 number of users is 200 million in total, with approximately 40,000 simultaneous users.

Naturally, the popularity of the Vietnam national football team in Vietnam is high; however this is the fact that FIFA Online2 does not contain a representative of Vietnam.


The most popular teams are Brazil and England, followed by Argentina and Spain.

Incidentally, I asked popularity of Japanese team.

"Unfortunately, not very popular," said Mr Phan Sao Nam

Whoops…

Japan is not an Asian stars anymore I suspect…

For the club team, the Manchester United is overwhelmingly popular.

Merry Christmas in August??? Why???

The company is not only operating an online gaming business, but also trying wide-spread sports culture in Vietnam through TV and other media, and sponsoring a football tournament, investing into sporting industry, so to speak.

In addition, in the name of "eSports”, according to them, it is as an authentic sport, uses the body and brain”, they encourage to spread of the “game (online game) through sponsoring tournaments and other international competitions of egames.

Finally, we were able to get a message to Japan.


"It seems that presence of Japanese companies is completely gone in Vietnam compared to a decade ago. Years ago, made in Japan regarded to as high quality “The absolute power of brands”, however, Korean companies recently entered Vietnam and especially their image has improved among the young people. A lot would say Hyundai is better than Toyota and Honda. So please, Japanese companies, focus on more Vietnamese market, as we do hope to revive your brand image. "

Mr Phan Sao Nam said.

Mr Lee, Korean man, who has been a member since founded (left)

Of course, the company has a vision to enter the Japanese market, and collaborating with Japanese software companies to continually win in the Vietnamese market. (In fact, they already have strong relationships with Korean companies.)


If you are interested in Vietnam's online game industry by all mean, please let us know.

You never know what would happen.