Technology As Innovator

Yahoo! Singapore country manager in Vietnam confirmed: Yahoo! 360 will be closed in April 2009.

Yahoo! 360 is hosting more than 4 millions accounts, 2 millions of which are from Vietnam. The service has been very buggy for more than a year and development was ceased.

Yahoo! introduced Yahoo! 360Plus Vietnam with Vietnamese interface in April 2008. A utility to migrate part of data from 360 to 360Plus Vietnam has been provided.

Local players from Vietnam are in a race to win users dropping out of 360. Meanwhile, Facebook Vietnamese interface is going to be launched.

If you use Yahoo! 360, where do you plan to move your social graph (connections) to?

The Request that invoke excitement

Vietnamese citizens, especially Hanoians and people in the construction industry, are excited by a recent request for fulfillment of commitment sent to Keangnam - Vina (K) by a group of war veterans and construction experts (R).

The request, as reported on many newspapers, can be summarized as:

• The 1000th Anniversary of Thang Long - Ha Noi, the one millennium year-old capital of Vietnam, will take place in 2010.
• Keangnam Hanoi Landmark Towe, constructed by Keangnam Vina has been appointed as a tribute to the great event.
• (R) believes that (K) will not be able to meet the deadline for the event.
• (R) challenges (K) to an agreement:
  • If (K) can meet the deadline, (R) will reward (K) with VND 100 billion (approximately USD 6.25 million)
  • If (K) cannot meet the deadline, (K) will then apologize Hanoi citizens and compensate VND 100 billion to (R)
• Both sides propose to donate the money to charitable organizations.

Media and observers’ reactions

Almost immediately, the buzz rose throughout Vietnam on this agreement. Two topics are usually exchanged in conversations:

The technical aspect of the agreement “can they (K) make it?”

and who would win the what-they-call wager.

The business lessons

What I am intrigued is I have learned various business lessons from Keangnam Vina’s response to the challenge.

Asset Management

(K)’s offer for the deal includes 11 apartments on the sixth floor and one penthouse whose total value is estimated to VND 1 billion.

It is important to note that during this economic recession, the real estate market is going slower. There has been evidence of downturn on luxury apartments’ price. While it is difficult to predict the price of these assets in 2010, experts agree that the chance these assets will increase in value in the next two years is slim.

Keangnam Vina’s offer can be considered smart in terms of financial values.

Reputation Management

(K) has been very responsive to inquiries regarding the agreement. This has boosted their visibility on the news and the company is now more well-known by Vietnamese people than ever.

(K) also promised to donate the money if they win to charitable organizations, makes it a diplomatic move.

They have done a very good PR pitch on the field.

Project Management and Resource Management

Though this is usually not easy to observe from outside, we can expect more advanced Project Management and Resource Management techniques by (K) to reach the committed deadline.

Quality Control

Quality Control is also an interesting area we can watch.

What do you think of this incident?

1. Facebook Vietnamese translation is quite good. Facebook’s translation team (mostly well-educated, English-fluent and enthusiastic users) has done a terrific job.

2. I am less excited, if any at all, to see a competition between Facebook Vietnamese and made-in-Vietnam made-by-Vietnamese Social Networks when Facebook official launches its Vietnamese page…

3. The hesitation to vote for Facebook is: traditionally thinking, a social network site for Vietnamese should satisfy some requirements:

• Blog as center
• Media (mostly music) sharing
• Customizable profile for younger users
• Not so overwhelmingly rich with features

Facebook’s focus is the opposite of all these 3 points. “Notes” is powerful enough to be a blog, but I have the impression that the application is not fully utilized by the users. At least one application allows profile customization, but Facebook core doesn’t encourage this. And since Facebook is an open-platform, the amount of application may be too much for first-time users.

4. Nevertheless, Facebook has all the potentials to solve one big problem for Vietnamese community: where to migrate to from Yahoo! 360.

5. Going vertical might help for Vietnamese Social Networks.