Online advertising: Big players keep eyes on small market

Online advertising: Big players keep eyes on small market

17:41' 11/03/2009 (GMT+7)

General Director of Yahoo! Indochina Vu Minh Tri. VietNamNet Bridge – “We are investing in Vietnam in the hope of getting profit in around five years,” said General Director of Yahoo! Indochina Vu Minh Tri at a meeting during which Yahoo! Vietnam announced its business strategy for 2009. Vietnam’s online advertising market too small The value of the online advertising market in Vietnam is very modest. However, there are big gaps between the figures released by three market research companies. According to Tri, the three sums released were $2.3 million, $4 million and $8 million. “Vietnam’s online advertising market is too small. Just a few advertising companies purchase information so market research companies didn’t carefully survey this market,” Tri explained about the difference of figures. The total market value of the Vietnamese advertising market is around US$ 500 million. Despite the difference of data, the online advertising market still accounts for a very small piece in the advertising “cake”. Yahoo! Southeast Asia combined with AC Nielsen to conduct a comprehensive research study of the online industry last December. According to this research work, companies will spend around $8 million for online advertising activities by 2010, bringing the current rate of online advertising in the advertising market from 0.6% to 1.5%. Small piece, but important Online advertising in Vietnam has been focused on online newspapers, namely VNExpress, VietNamNet, Dan Tri and some other websites. In the last two years, Yahoo! Southeast Asia has tried to expand its coverage in this market through a long-term strategy. Since it opened a representative office in Vietnam, Yahoo! has appointed four agents to sell online advertisements. It recently established a company in Vietnam and its sales strategy also changed, from Yahoo! to its agents and to clients. Meanwhile, Vietnamese organisations that want to advertise on Google have to go through unofficial means, meaning that Vietnam can’t collect tax. Meanwhile, revenue from advertisements through search engines is the most important part in online advertising. Local companies such as FPT, VC Corp, and Vinagame are quietly preparing technology and diversified service packages to explore this market. In this context, when companies are cutting spending on advertisements, online advertising is a way to cut expenses. Advertising via mobile phones is a promising service but it hasn’t developed in Vietnam. In August 2008, the Chairman of Jatis Mobile from Indonesia came to Vietnam to seek partners to develop this service. Vu Minh Tri said Yahoo is also interested in this field and it will promote this business, based on its One Search service in cooperation with MobiFone. VietNamNet/LD