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Micro-blogging is raising a trend in Vietnam, not by the number of users, but by the level of media coverage. Obviously, the coverage of Vietnamese media is not as high as the hype of all the global ones on Twitter and its ecosystems, but still, it is perceived by many to be the main trend of Vietnam internet market in 2009.

I don’t. Well I don’t talk about micro-blogs for Vietnam. I see different things.

Moreover, there are two missing pieces of important information from media coverage: appropriate market and the greatest monetization opportunities.

Without the knowledge of the target market of Twitter-like services, reporters easily fall into the trap of comparing micro-blogs and blogs, and users will be confused.

Without seeing the monetization opportunities, people will be reluctant in using/investing for them.

This article solves this issue by discussing the two points mentioned.

1. What is the market for Twitter-like services?

I identify 4 groups of users:

1. Geeks. Obviously, this group has already been there. They are innovators and early adopters of the services. Most use Twitter and not the clones anyhow.
2. Users who want to use Twitter as a substitute to Yahoo! 360 blast. Check Kazenka’s out.
3. Those who want to keep up with the Joneses. i.e. want to show that they’re cool by using a trendy stuff.
4. This group has not existed: those who want SMS incentives for using the service(s) to send mass messages

It’s the last group which has not existed that is potentially profitable.

2. What is SMS incentive and why is it a group when it hasn’t even existed?

In an over-simplified example:

3. Devices and platforms

1. Device: Only smart phones or laptops can access Wi-Fi. All phones can SMS.
2. Platform: good Wi-Fi is not ubiquitous even in urban areas. Mobile coverage is country-wide.

Hope that (2) and (3) answer @firstjames’ wonder.

4. Which player has the potential?

I would say ASAO. Their Ola Me is more than a Twitter clone; the product is one in ASAO’s mobile package suite. And the company may have the credentials to negotiate for SMS incentives.

Addendum: lamgi.vn also has SMS incentives.

5. Summary

This entry is not about micro-blogging. It’s all about the market of SMS incentives, powered by Twitter-like services.

6 Responses to “The prospects of SMS-powered mass messaging in Vietnam”

1. Mark says:

   April 20, 2009 at 4:00 pm

   That’s great news for us at LamGi! We have built in a points program to introduce incentives and other programs designed to reward frequent users. Also, in your example above, I can send my message out to my 1000 followers all at the same time with one SMS, 1000VND total!
2. Tai says:

   April 20, 2009 at 6:09 pm

   Thanks Mark,

   I’ve added your comment to my entry. Hopefully people will see it.

   Congrats BTW
3. Simon says:

   April 21, 2009 at 2:41 pm

   I think you’re right to look at SMS mass messaging as the hole in Twitter’s armour in Vietnam. Until fairly recently Twitter used this tactic to build their member base, with free two-way SMS from your twitter account for members. But that’s an expensive business when each member is burning through 100’s of tweets a day. But they already got the scale before it got turned off. To make headway, I think the local players (agree, some are very nice)are going to have to either:
   - offer free-messaging here
   - team up with big-media to get to ‘non-tech’ users before twitter does.

   Of the twenty-something million Vietnamese online, Twitter and Facebook are still pretty tiny. (although usage levels are high). But my opinion is that both these SNS are starting to spread fast so local players need to get to market very quickly and ‘tap’ the non-tech audience. Easy for me to say, not so easy to do!
4. Tai says:

   April 21, 2009 at 8:16 pm

   Thanks Simon for your input.

   A little statistics: Facebook is having nearly 80,000 users in “Vietnam” network and the growth rate is 71% (April 2009); it’s useful to note that Facebook growth is exponential though. Twitter was having around 3000 in Vietnam before the media hype.

   I wrote this entry more from the perspective of funding than product developing. Your input makes the pathway for strategic planning - appreciate that.

   P.S: I was amazed at the growth rate of buzz.vn in terms of product. Twitter community monitor is nice too. Would be interesting to watch and use the portal.

   Cheers,
   Tai
5. Simon says:

   April 22, 2009 at 8:33 am

   Hi Tai

   Did you see FB pushing ‘translate this’ to users with a Vietnamese IP. They are clearly sitting in the US and are looking at the tipping point happening here. You’re right of course, these services are growing so fast that they can quickly get to hundreds of thousands of users and be very significant.

   I hope Vietnamese business can react, innovate and hold their own position against the international players. I think they (we!) are going to need to be more aggressive. More strategic partnerships between local players, so the industry benefits from each other, is perhaps the way to go.

   p.s. Thanks for your comments on Buzz. We don’t have release numbers, just dropping new features as soon as they’re ready It’s taken us a while to get the product and positioning right but I am happy we’re starting to get there now.
6. Tai says:

   April 24, 2009 at 5:29 pm

   Oh yeah I noticed that action by Facebook. That partly explains the rapid growth up to 71% in Vietnam.