By Mong Binh - The Saigon Times Daily
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| Lukas Mira, Cimigo’s account manager, reveals the results of the company’s NetCitizens survey in HCMC on Wednesday - Photo: Mong Binh |
HCMC - Market research firm Cimigo has projected a bright future for the development of online-based business, from marketing and advertising to commerce given the whopping growth of internet usage in Vietnam.
Lukas Mira, Cimigo’s account manager, told reporters in HCMC on Wednesday that internet usage had exploded in Vietnam, encouraging more companies to consider online advertising.
Richard Burrage, Cimigo’s managing director, forecasted a strong increase in online advertising revenue in the next few years. He added that currently, online advertising in Vietnam is extremely low.
Mira said Vietnam had one of the world’s highest internet growth rates, quantified by a recent Cimigo survey conducted with nearly 3,000 people nationwide.
According to updates from the Vietnam Internet Network Information Center, there were 23.3 million internet users in Vietnam as of February 2010, or 27.18% of the country’s population. The number of internet users increased by 3.1 million a year from 2003 to 2009, and last year was the first time the figure expanded by less than 10% or nearly two million.
The Cimigo NetCitizens survey that interviewed 3,000 people in Hanoi, HCMC, Danang, Haiphong, Nha Trang and Can Tho showed up to 70% of the respondents surf websites every day and 90% access the internet more than once a week. Most users spend 140 minutes on average on the internet per weekday.
Mira told the Daily that the report would give companies relevant information about the potential of online advertising, as well as provide a list of reliable websites, before they decided to invest in the channel.
Mira said expenditure per internet user remained low in Vietnam, at just 70 U.S. cents, compared to US$90 in North America, US$40 in Western Europe, US$50 in South Korea and US$10 in China.
Online advertising makes up a mere 2% of total advertising expenditure in Vietnam, which is much lower than other countries, including 15% in North America and the Asia Pacific, 14% in Western Europe, 17% in China and 20% in South Korea.
Mira explained that online advertising in Vietnam was still in its infancy and that companies still relied primarily on print newspapers and television to promote their products and services.
Mira said transparency would be crucial to online advertising’s expansion. Burrage added that advertisers needed to know what return they would get from their marketing ventures and the audience their advertisements would reach.
Mira was optimistic that internet penetration would continue to grow to 30-35% of the country’s population in the next couple of years. Burrage shared Mira’s view, adding that online advertising revenue would probably double every year over the next five years.
Cimigo put Vietnam’s online advertising revenue in 2009 at US$15.5 million, up 71% over the year before. “I won’t be surprised if it (the revenue) hits around US$30 million next year. It will grow very strongly in the next few years,” Burrage said.
Cimigo said online business had registered the strongest growth of all measured activities in Vietnam over the last few years.
The survey indicates the most popular websites in Vietnam are online auctions and shopping sites, which 40% of users visit.
Online shopping has increased by 12%, reaching 40% in HCMC and Hanoi compared to 2007, while e-banking has become more popular since 2007 with an increase from 7% to 11% in both cities.