Tag: vietnam

Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam – To highlight the success stories of the growing number of female entrepreneurs in Vietnam, global finance company Mastercard and humanitarian organisation CARE Vietnam has unveiled its initiative to spotlight the stories of these female entrepreneurs: all through umbrellas.

The initiative, known as ‘Umbrellas of Pride’, has each umbrella telling the story of the woman behind the business, and informing readers of the support, tools, and training that the CARE Ignite program can provide for them thanks to their women’s economic empowerment partnership with the Mastercard Centre for Inclusive Growth.

For Le Kim Dung, country director for CARE in Vietnam, the ‘Umbrellas of Pride’ are an ingenious way to lift fellow women up.

“Fear of failure is the number one barrier among female entrepreneurs in Vietnam – by celebrating and displaying success stories that women can identify with so clearly in the open, we hope to inspire a whole new wave of female entrepreneurship,” Dung said.

The umbrellas are gifted to the female business owners already enrolled in the CARE Ignite program. Each business owner becomes an Ignite ambassador, helping build a network of support and mentorship.

Furthermore, the initiative also highlights access to resources and support provided by the CARE Ignite Program for women in Vietnam, namely providing financial support, skills training, education, and a vast network of experienced entrepreneurs and mentors, made possible through the partnership with Mastercard.

For Winnie Wong, country manager for Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia and Mastercard, their company is honoured to be part of the campaign that acknowledges the strength, perseverance and success of women entrepreneurs – a vital initiative in creating an equal world post-COVID.

“The pandemic has set back recent gains made towards women empowerment, and there is a high risk of women getting left behind. Mastercard is committed to creating an inclusive world that works for everyone, especially women. Women-owned businesses are the heartbeat of every economy and are critical to boosting recovery efforts in Vietnam,” Wong said.

Vietnam – Vietnam’s banking and financial services provider, HD Bank, has announced its strategic partnership with Thought Machine, the UK-headquartered core banking technology company, aimed at deploying modern technology as part of its transformation programme, starting with its core platforms and internal workflows. 

HD Bank said that it has selected Thought Machine for collaboration due to its unique flexibility and control which will enable the bank to both migrate existing systems and design highly innovative financial products and services at scale.

The partnership will see HD Bank implementing Thought Machine’s core banking platform Vault to reinvent the financial services ecosystem in Vietnam, and accelerate financial inclusion across the country.

Pham Quoc Thanh, HD Bank’s CEO, shared that there is a clear need in the Vietnamese market for financial services which are real-time, always-on and forever adapting to the customers’ needs.

“With Thought Machine, we intend to fill this gap and push digital banking innovation in unexpected ways. We are proud to be joining forces with Thought Machine as they have built a product that is transforming the industry,” said Thanh.

Meanwhile, Nick Wilde, Thought Machine’s managing director for APAC, noted that their clients are unlocking incredible gains in innovation and efficiency as they combine advanced technology with clear vision. 

“HD Bank joins a rapidly expanding family of clients who can leverage the advanced capabilities and products available with Vault to redefine the future of banking. We are looking forward to working with HD Bank in their mission to significantly improve financial services in Vietnam,” said Wilde.

Vietnam – The Vietnam Payment Solution Joint Stock Company or VNPAY has entered into a partnership with global payments company Visa to improve the digital payment experience in Vietnam.

Through the partnership, Visa and VNPAY will bring digital payments closer to Vietnamese users by strengthening and expanding the network of partners accepting electronic payments, and cooperating to deploy new services to users as well, including a solution to accept contactless payments via mobile phones (Tap to Phone), Visa prepaid virtual cards, Visa Direct money transfer and receipt services and instalment solutions Visa Installment Solution (VIS).

In addition, Visa and VNPAY will launch several payment solutions in the local scene, typically a solution to accept contactless payments via mobile phones (Tap to Phone). When merchants deploy this solution, any Android smartphone or tablet can become a contactless payment acceptor, operating on a software application and no hardware support is required.

Nguyen Tuan Luong, vice chairman of the board of directors at VNPAY, said, “Visa is the world’s leading multinational payment technology company. VNPAY believes that the strategic partnership with Visa will continue to promote digital payment trends, bringing many useful solutions to users and business partners in VNPAY’s network. This also makes the digital transformation process of businesses easier, creating stronger and more sustainable growth through electronic payment solutions.”

Meanwhile, Dang Tuyet Dung, director of Visa Vietnam and Laos, commented, “The strategic partnership with VNPAY will accelerate the ongoing digital transformation and cashless payment process in Vietnam. Along with making VNPAY partners and users a part of Visa’s secure and reliable digital payment ecosystem, the deployment of digital capabilities of both sides also helps to expand the electronic payment network. death of Visa and drive adoption of contactless payments.”

Vietnam – A new report by the World Health Organisation (WHO), in partnership with the United Nations Children Emergency Fund (UNICEF) and M&C Saatchi, has unveiled how aggressive marketing tactics have drastically changed how mothers decide as to what formula milk they would like to buy.

In Vietnam, around 92% of Vietnamese respondents say that they have been exposed to marketing tactics related to formula milk in the preceding year. In regards to the top channels where formula milk marketing is seen or heard among mothers, the top three channels in Vietnam were TV (86%), YouTube (35%), and social media (35%).

Another type of marketing tactic mothers often see are free samples, with 28% of respondents saying they receive free samples of formula milk in hospital, 22% receiving free samples of formula milk outside hospital, and 35% from either of them.

Almost one in five women in Vietnam (19%) reported seeing promotional booths in a health setting, offering women promotions, ‘advice’ and free samples, often in exchange for women’s contact information to allow companies to follow up later with consultation calls and promotions. Following that, formula milk representatives contact consumers online, through social media, and on the phone, and present themselves as legitimate sources of advice and support for women.

The report also noted that marketing campaigns in several countries focused on how domestic products are more “tailored to local stomachs” than international products to counter the influence of foreign brands gaining traction with women and health professionals.

“Formula milk companies use sophisticated techniques and misleading messaging to market their products, including scientific language and imagery, pain points, and emotional and aspirational appeals. They also assume a friendly, supportive role to pregnant women and mothers, exploiting vulnerabilities to gain access and increase sales,” the report said.

Vietnam – Popular social media platform Facebook has gained new grounds in Vietnam as an alternative to e-commerce services, according to data from marketing research company Decision Lab.

According to their report, Facebook Commerce grew by 2% and 4% for Gen Y and Gen Z respondents respectively during Q4 2021. In addition, around 31% of Hanoi citizens picked Facebook as their choice for e-commerce services. This figure marks a 11% points increase among consumers from Hanoi compared to Q3 2021. 

The report also noted that Facebook Commerce was also utilised by 9% more consumers from Ho Chi Minh City and other key cities such as Da Nang, Nha Trang, Hai Phong, and Can Tho in Q4 2021. In contrast, throughout the rest of Vietnam, Facebook commerce only grew by 2% points, standing at 24% in this time period.

Despite its popularity as an e-commerce platform, Facebook is losing ground as a social media platform in the country. The platform lost 11% of its position as Vietnamese’s primary app in Q4 2021–a continuation of a negative trend starting early 2021. Worse, Facebook seems to be losing Millennial and Gen Z users, who are increasingly favouring other platforms such as Zalo and TikTok.

“The general rise of Facebook as an e-commerce platform reflects Facebook’s push for commercial activities. In Vietnam, consumers can trade goods through not only Facebook Marketplace, but also Facebook groups, shops’ pages, and individual merchants,” the report stated.

Hanoi, Vietnam – ThinkZone Ventures, the venture capital fund focusing on tech startups, has launched its ‘ThinkZone Fund II’, which deems to be the largest venture capital fund in Vietnam, aimed at supporting the growth of Vietnamese startups.

‘ThinkZone II Fund’, which was founded by ThinkZone Ventures and other notable Vietnamese conglomerate owners that specialises in finance, retail, manufacturing, agriculture and F&B, seeks to provide a huge amount of support to accelerate the growth of startups, and to further create sustainable development for the economy.

With its US$60m fund, ThinkZone Ventures will be investing in tech startups in various verticals from Pre-Seed to Series A, offering up to US$3m per startup. It will be accompanying founders who have great vision, passion, and ambition to create products that create positive impacts for society.

Besides financial resources, the biggest advantage of ‘ThinkZone Fund II’ is the huge support from large Vietnamese conglomerates in many fields such as investment corporation IPA Investments, multi-industry investment group Phu Thai Holdings, and multi-industry corporation and primary plastic resins distributor Stavian Group.

Bui Thanh Do, ThinkZone Ventures’ general partner and CEO, said, “I and ThinkZone always want to contribute and create a launching pad for founders who have the passion and vision to create positive values for society. With Fund II, ThinkZone has more resources than ever to make that happen.”

Meanwhile, Pham Minh Huong, IPA Investments’ co-founder and VNDIRECT’s chairwoman, shared that Fund I has proven that ThinkZone has selected and developed companies with great potential, and with Fund II’s large resources, there are sure to be many more successful companies. 

“This is also the first amount of capital that IPA allocates for startup investment, and ThinkZone is the very place that we trust to invest,” said Huong.

Vietnam – Advertising and marketing agency network dentsu in Asia Pacific has announced the promotion of Siddarth Malhotra to CEO of Isobar, dentsu’s digital experience agency, in Vietnam. This is in addition to his current role as managing director of dentsu mcgarrybowen, one of the network’s creative agencies, in Vietnam. 

In the expanded role, Malhotra will be responsible for evolving the brand’s offerings, building offerings around commerce and content, brand and product design as well as establishing a network of different specialist partners.

Malhotra brings with him over 20 years of work experience – of which 12 years were spent specialising in the Vietnam market. He joined dentsu in 2018 as chief client officer and the network said that for the last three consecutive years, he has successfully led his team to win at the MMA Smarties awards at both the APAC and Vietnam level. 

“Isobar Vietnam has one of the best agency teams and together with this excellent team I look forward to expand our capabilities and that can benefit our current and future clients,” commented Malhotra. 

As Malhotra steps in, former CEO of Isobar Vietnam, Denise Thi, will now be moving into the chair lady role to focus on employee engagement and in strengthening client relationships and developing innovative solutions. The network said Malhotra and Thi will be working closely together, where both will be responsible for realising the agency’s vision. Both report directly to Sanjay Bhasin, CEO of dentsu Thailand, Vietnam & Myanmar.

Bhasin said, “Denise has given us nothing but her full dedication and sheer commitment since she joined dentsu eight years ago. She is a remarkable leader who has spearheaded Isobar Vietnam into one of the market’s leading creative agencies, and has made headlines in the industry creating innovative concepts for brand activation.” 

In 2015, Thi co-founded Emerald, which was acquired and rebranded to Isobar Vietnam by dentsu in 2015. During her time as CEO of Isobar Vietnam, the brand has grown from a local digital agency to an end-to-end integrated marketing agency, being the first in the market to introduce brand commerce concept and solution design through digital activation in 2015. 

Thi comments on her new role, “Being the Chair Lady would allow me to have greater focus on what really builds sustainable impact to our people and business, while ensuring that the agency [has] strong support from Siddarth, the new CEO to take Isobar Vietnam to the next chapter of growth.”

Meanwhile, on Malhotra’s appointment, Bhasin believes that Malhotra brings with him not only strong business acumen but also a strategic mind of dexterity and stamina. 

“He has a deep understanding of how brands are built and [have] earned a reputation across the network as the best partner to help steer Isobar Vietnam and our clients to greater heights. This is a well-deserved promotion for Siddarth,” said Bhasin.

Both new roles of Malhotra and Thi will commence effective immediately.

Vietnam – As the pandemic forced people to work from home, about 73% of Vietnamese workers rate a better work-life balance – such as flexible working, switching-off after hours, and compensation for overtime – as the most important factor when deciding whether or not to accept a new job offer, according to the new insights from modern HR platform Grove HR and public opinion and data firm YouGov.

The report shows that apart from work-life balance, a competitive benefits package, including salaries and bonuses, has ranked second with 73%, while ‘job security’ came third-most important criteria with 69% in 2022.

Grove HR has also found that 49% of people intend to change jobs in 2022, which is a fall of just 2% from the height of the pandemic in 2021. However, companies wishing to attract these workers will need to offer a good financial package, with most people looking for between 10% and 30% more than their current salaries, and only around 11% would consider switching jobs for a rise of less than 10%. On the other hand, about 36% would leave their job if their salaries were cut by 10%, highlighting the challenges of staff retention in the ‘new normal’.

Meanwhile, the ideal workplace has been transformed during the pandemic, as Vietnamese workers now want a flexible work environment, with 40% of people hoping to combine office and remote work in 2022, which compares to 21% who want to return to the office full time and just 16% who want to continue working at home. In addition, Vietnamese workers also care more about their health at work, following the global pandemic. However, most people feel safe returning to work once they, their families, and their colleagues have been vaccinated.

Bao Nguyen, Grove HR’s general manager, shared that attracting new workers now is no longer just about offering attractive salaries, as the staff want more from their jobs, and therefore, managers need to adapt their HR strategies to match the new realities of recruitment post-pandemic.

“Even though the lockdowns are over, trends such as remote and flexible working look set to continue. So companies that want to retain their best and brightest need to invest in the tools and technologies to facilitate a better work-life balance for their staff,” said Nguyen.

Meanwhile, Thue Quist Thomasen, YouGov’s CEO for Vietnam, said, “Our data shows that workers now want to maintain a good work-life balance. Therefore, companies need to offer attractive benefits and incentives while also creating and communicating a positive corporate culture and facilitating a flexible workplace where staff have the option to split their time between home and the office.”

Hanoi, Vietnam – Funverse Capital, the blockchain-focused venture capital fund formed by Funtap, one of the fastest-growing mobile game publishers in Vietnam, announced its first US$10m investment fund for blockchain-focused tech startups. Funverse Capital said the capital fund, which is backed by Funtap, will be directed towards blockchain-focused tech startups that are capable of driving profound impact on the fintech and gaming industry.

In addition to capital funding ticket size of up to US$1m for each qualified project, Funverse Capital offers mentorship and accelerator programs which take advantage of Funtap’s leading position in Vietnam’s mobile gaming market such as the company’s nearly a decade of market understanding and its 42 million worldwide customer network. 

Funverse Capital’s Managing Director Phillips Dao shared that in the Southeast Asia market, the capital fund is now seeking startups working on blockchain-enabled applications in GameFi, DeFi, and other potential projects. 

“A good product is not enough for the startup to win in today’s market. We recognize the opportunity for fledgling entrepreneurs to go ‘from vision to action’ and are willing to assist them turn their ideas into reality by sharing the strength of a worldwide business network, the mutual advantages of the online ecosystem, and growth lessons in the typical Internet market,” said Dao.

Meanwhile, Adam Bui, founder & CEO of Funtap Corp., commented, “Blockchain and NFT are great motivations for the coming generation of internet products and services. With our financial capital and other business resources committed via Funverse Capital, Funtap is now ready to contribute to the growth and acceleration of the emerging tech industry.” 

Vietnam’s blockchain market has been booming recently since the huge success of Sky Mavis, the tech startup behind the well-known monster-combat NFT game Axie infinity. 

Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam – As influencer marketing is continuing to grow in popularity, especially in Asia, there has been another rise of influencers: virtual influencers. More recently, more companies are playing with the idea of marketing through virtual influencers. These computer-generated public figures almost have a life of their own – reflected on their social media accounts – and even work with brands to promote the latest products.

In the latest survey conducted by consumer research platform Milieu Insight, it has found that 45% of Vietnamese consumers are very interested in following virtual influencers, while 44% said they are somewhat interested in, and 11% saying they are not interested.

In terms of credibility, 21% of respondents say that they trust virtual influencers more than their human counterparts. Meanwhile, 37% indicated that virtual influencers are to be trusted at the same level as human influencers, 27% said that they are less credible, and 14% said that they are unsure.

Meanwhile, in regards to local preference, 60% said that they want the virtual influencers they follow to look Vietnamese, while 16% say that they want them to look non-Vietnamese, and 25% said that they have no preference. 

On the aspect of how these virtual influencers communicate, 71% said that they prefer to be communicated in Vietnamese, 9% said they prefer someone not communicating in Vietnamese, and 21% said that they have no preference.

Lastly, in terms of gender appearance, 49% said that they want virtual influencers to look feminine, 20% want them being masculine, 14% want them to be androgynous, 2% have other options, and 15% say that they have no preference.