VCs are seeking Vietnamese Web 2.0 Startups

Monday, May 5. 2008

Yahoo Vietnam Launches TV Ad Campaign, Can Old Way Help?

Yahoo SEA just launched new services specifically for Vietnamese Internet users such as Yahoo!360plus blogging, Yahoo!Music. Along with the appointment of Vietnam General Manager, Yahoo Vietnam runs a TV ad campaign with TVC storyline from a Vietnamese fairy tale. It is a cool TVC by traditional creative production standards, but can it help Yahoo gain a fair search market share in a Google dominated territory. I think spending ad dollars on TV is a waste of money by Yahoo since Vietnamese TV audience is mainly old generation people and light Internet users. It seems that Yahoo still follows the pattern used in the US ten years ago. Vietnam is an emerging market but the local Internet generation has much exposure to viral marketing, digital rumors, peer reviews so that Yahoo's top down approach should not work here. (While I writing this post, Yahoo's share fall sharply after Microsoft backs away from takeover bid, adds much pressure on Yahoo management)

Posted by Jason at 20:22 | Comments (4) | Trackbacks (0)

Defined tags for this entry: advertising, television, Yahoo

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Current karma: 1, 5 vote(s) 255 hits

Saturday, April 19. 2008

Alexa Rankings System changes and Vietnamese Publishers Rethink Web Metrics Strategy

Web metrics provider Alexa just announced the New Alexa Rankings with new algorithms that pushed most of Vietnamese websites' ranking down overnight. In fact it is a good news for marketers in Vietnam since Vietnamese online publishers used to set Alexa ranking as a norm of traffic measurement and monetization. Last year a news portal in Vietnam even posted a headline saying VnExpress in Global Top 100 Websites and near the line of CNN.com and BBC Newsline. Ironically it said Alexa was the only independent and objective ranking system of web metrics worldwide. Actually many international marketers and advertisers had left Alexa for other web metrics/analytics service such as comScore, Hitwise, Compete and Nielsen//NetRatings. Among the fierce competition, comScore had became the leader with reports can send Google' shares down significantly.

Since online advertising is emerging as an important piece of media and branding communication strategy of marketers in Vietnam, the need for more accurate web metrics is so strong and a pretty room for web analytics services. AC Nielsen Vietnam can catch up the opportunity monitoring online media landscape with its acquired services such as NetRatings, BuzzMetrics while TNS dominates old media tracking.

What about Vietnamese online publishers? Be prepared to be more transparent and look into other measurements beyond traffics such as SEO, SEM, engagement, behavioral advertising.

Posted by Jason at 11:00 | Comments (4) | Trackbacks (0)

Defined tags for this entry: advertising, analytics, comScore, Google, Metrics, Nielsen, Publishers, SEM, SEO, VnExpress

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Current karma: 6, 9 vote(s) 361 hits

Saturday, April 12. 2008

Search in Vietnamese with Xalo, but Can it Go Fast?

Vinaseek, the search engine still alive from the first wave of Vietnamese Internet just returned with new brand Xalo (means highway). With new UI and features, it is not easy to see something associated with the old Vinaseek. You can use Xalo to search web, news, blog, forum. In fact Xalo is a white label product licensed from Norway's Fast Search. As an enterprise search platform users would see the results much different from Google's user friendly ones. I do not know why Tinhvan had taken so long to localise this search engine while Singapore's SPH Search had gone faster with Rednano search service. Again I still doubt the future of Xalo as in my earlier post on Vinaseek and 2008 predictions. Of course Tinhvan could provide financing for Xalo at startup stage but with less much money spending pressure than other young startups how can Xalo produce innovative products and win users' minds?

Posted by Jason at 10:44 | Comments (2) | Trackbacks (0)

Defined tags for this entry: FAST, Search Engine, SPH, Tinhvan

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Current karma: 11, 16 vote(s) 359 hits

Monday, April 7. 2008

IDG Ventures Rebranding, More Money to Vietnam

After IDG Ventures Boston broke off from its affiliation with IDG Ventures network and rebranded to Flybridge Capital Partners, IDG Chairman Pat McGovern decided to restructure the global VC network with central unit based in Boston. Former Managing Partner of Prevail Capital Steve Kahn will lead this newly created IDG Capital with main work of raising money for funds in Vietnam, India and Korea.
Quote from VentureWire:

IDG is typically the sole backer of its venture affiliates’ first funds. If the fund generates suitable returns to warrant a successor fund, IDG’s strategy is to open up that second fund to limited partners, while committing 10% to 25% of the capital.

The company set up a $100 million fund in Vietnam in 2004, a $150 million India fund in 2006, and a $100 million Korea fund late last year…McGovern expects IDG to establish its first fund in Eastern Europe this fall, with $150 million and an office in Warsaw; a second early-stage Vietnam fund next year with about $200 million; a second India fund with $350 million in 2010; a growth fund in Vietnam with $350 million in 2010; and a similar-sized growth fund in Korea in 2010 or 2011.

Sources: VentureWire, VentureBeat

Posted by Jason at 20:48 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

Defined tags for this entry: IDG, venture capital

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Current karma: 2, 16 vote(s) 249 hits

Friday, April 4. 2008

Social Networking Services for Vietnamese Women

One day after Yahoo announced its Shine portal for women, in Vietnam the web 2.0 startup Vinalive also stirs the social networking competition with its PhunuNet targeting dynamic Vietnamese women. It seems that PhunuNet is following the simple but successful model of iVillage.

While social networking sites are in a fierce competition seeking users and monetization with such names as Tamtay, Yobanbe, Cyworld, Zoomban etc., targeting women segment is a smart way to differentiate. PhunuNet offers useful content for women’s interests, including Love & Sex, Fashion & Beauty, Health, Lifestyle, Career & Work, Entertainment & Celebrities, Travel, Cooking, Pregnancy & Babycare, Brides, Horoscope etc. It also offers social Q&A, video sharing, groups, events and blogging tools. Not just an iVillage clone, PhunuNet has good localization approach tailored to the taste of Vietnamese women. In fact PhunuNet currently looks like a content portal rather than a web 2.0 services. PhunuNet will have to improve a lot to be a good web 2.0 product rather than a women portal like it is now.

Vietnamese startups should not overlook the women segment in Vietnam, which may total 50% of Vietnamese Internet population of 20 millions. Women-oriented media channels account for the lion’s share of Vietnamese advertising expenses on TV and magazines. VCs are also rushing to women oriented websites in the United States. NBC Universal acquired iVillage, the most popular women’s site along with its other Internet properties for $600 million in 2006.Glam Media, the number one women’s property on the Net as per the latest comScore ranking raised $18.5 million in Series C funding from Duff Ackerman & Goodrich Ventures (DAG), Accel Partners, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, WaldenVC, and Information Capital (Chairman & CEO Samir Arora’s fund). Glam Media had also raised $10 million in Series B led by Accel Partners with Draper Fisher Jurvetson and WaldenVC in 2004.

The question now is can VCs in Vietnam see the value of this potential segment?

Posted by Jason at 06:34 | Comments (9) | Trackbacks (0)

Defined tags for this entry: clone, cyworld, iVillage, PhunuNet, Social Network, Yahoo

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Current karma: 4, 19 vote(s) 492 hits

Tuesday, April 1. 2008

April Fools' Day with StartupWear Pitch

Following the VC Wear guys, a team just set up a StartupWear website with an amusing pitch.

| View | Upload your own

Posted by Jason at 20:24 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

Defined tags for this entry: Pitch, startup, venture capital

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Current karma: 4, 18 vote(s) 193 hits

Saturday, March 15. 2008

Should Shareholders Love FPT's CEO Spending Time Blogging?

I just came across a newly setup blog of Truong Gia Binh, CEO of FPT. The blog is being run on a bad platform without RSS, trackback features. It seems that Binh did not have strategy and positioning for his blog. He is trying to communicate that he is still young in mind to lead FPT into a new era. But as the CEO of the largest ICT company listed on Vietnam Stock Market he should be careful since blogging is high risk for CEO. Almost top CEOs in the world avoid blogging as it is not easy to control the outcome and time consuming to answer so many comments (some unfavour comments could make them unhappy). A successful CEO blogger is Jonathan Schwartz of Sun Microsystems, his blog was planned in detail before making public. With clear strategy he could add value to the communication with staff, shareholders, clients, developers. In my post on FPT 2.0 I did not mention CEO blogging for risky reason, but if FPT management wants to join blogosphere they should create a position of CBO (chief blogging officer) or C20 (chief two point oh officer) to manage blogging and social media communication. However you, as the shareholders of FPT want to see them spending time chatting online?

Posted by Jason at 09:17 | Comments (14) | Trackbacks (0)

Defined tags for this entry: blog, FPT, vision

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Current karma: 5, 36 vote(s) 767 hits

Sunday, March 9. 2008

Weekend VC Pitch Humor

Some guys just put a website selling T-shirts to VCs called VC Wear, with a cool and funny pitch just enjoy over the weekend. Don't take it seriously.

| View | Upload your own

Posted by Jason at 11:29 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

Defined tags for this entry: Pitch, venture capital

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Current karma: -1, 36 vote(s) 273 hits

Friday, February 15. 2008

Why Da Lat could not be a Silicon Valley Clone

A romantic tourist destination in the Western Highlands of Vietnam dubbed City of Love, Da Lat targets to be a sort of Silicon Valley clone in Vietnam in the next decade. Some attributes being promoted by local authority: nice weather around the year, good telecom and networking infrastructure, supporting local authority agencies, local human resource development through intensive education and training. Those conditions are just OK for event entertainment business but far from Silicon Valley clone business environment. There is no top local university in Da Lat, VC investment is a new concept in Vietnam, no VC tax incentive policy yet, lacks of entrepreneurial spirit. Young local talents either choose Hanoi or HCM City for career destination rather than Da Lat. Young entrepreneurs and startup teams tend to find like minded guys that mainly located in Hanoi and HCM City. It is a mission impossible to drive those guys away from those two centers except some top technocrats lead the way. (A reference from India's Nano City raised by Sabeer Bhatia, co-founder of Hotmail). However the folk at Silicon Valley still see the hard road for other places to replicate even the Seattle where Microsoft, Amazon head quartered at.

Posted by Jason at 20:22 | Comments (3) | Trackbacks (0)

Defined tags for this entry: Silicon Valley, startup, venture capital, vision

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Current karma: 2, 63 vote(s) 552 hits

Thursday, January 31. 2008

Vietnamese Web on Web Trend Map 2008

Last year I wished some Vietnamese web services to be listed in the Web Trend Map 2008 and this year when Information Architects released the beta version of Web Trend Map 2008 I found a Vietnamese stop: 24h.com.vn, a news site in the same line with Korean ones. The map is for fun only, however I should find out how Information Architects picked 24h and not others. It seems that they did not understand the web scene in Vietnam. View the clickable map or full map in PDF.

Posted by Jason at 18:51 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0)

Defined tags for this entry: Mapping, web 2.0

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Current karma: 10, 50 vote(s) 552 hits

« previous page (Page 1 of 8, totaling 80 entries) next page »

VCs are seeking Vietnamese Web 2.0 Startups

Musings on new media, startups, venture capital in Vietnam

Monday, May 5. 2008

Yahoo Vietnam Launches TV Ad Campaign, Can Old Way Help?

Saturday, April 19. 2008

Alexa Rankings System changes and Vietnamese Publishers Rethink Web Metrics Strategy

Saturday, April 12. 2008

Search in Vietnamese with Xalo, but Can it Go Fast?

Monday, April 7. 2008

IDG Ventures Rebranding, More Money to Vietnam

Friday, April 4. 2008

Social Networking Services for Vietnamese Women

Tuesday, April 1. 2008

April Fools' Day with StartupWear Pitch

Saturday, March 15. 2008

Should Shareholders Love FPT's CEO Spending Time Blogging?

Sunday, March 9. 2008

Weekend VC Pitch Humor

Friday, February 15. 2008

Why Da Lat could not be a Silicon Valley Clone

Thursday, January 31. 2008

Vietnamese Web on Web Trend Map 2008

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