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?
Eight months ago
I was sitting down with a cool guy discussing the future of web business
in Vietnam. He asked me when the Web 2.0 boom would start in Vietnam, I
said firmly end of this year and added the success of the Cyworld Vietnam could be a great part
of the hype. I guestimated Cyworld Vietnam would target 1 million
members after one year since open beta. I told him it was so hard to
reach the target since 500K members could make other web services
companies crazy. My forecast then was 300K members for Cyworld Vietnam
by year end. The reported current number is about 100K. What was wrong
with my forecast? Cyworld is a virtual world/social networking service,
proven
success in Korea. Its revenue model (item sales through mobile sms
payment) can work quite well in Vietnam. There can be a number of
reasons to the slow adoption of Cyworld among Vietnamese users but I
think the main reason is the lack of local seasoned management team that
can work out properly. Hints: if you had a great idea, concept,
prototype and even revenue model you would need a great team to turn it
around. Disclosure: the cool guy had left Cyworld Vietnam to start
his own web service six months ago.
The Flash
based MyMiniLife just joined
the league of virtual world/social network with Habbo Hotel, Cyworld, Hive7. Since Cyworld Vietnam opened Beta last
month, number of new users rising fast, many users of top social network
Yahoo360 moved to Cyworld or
maintaining both with less care of their old Yahoo360 “home”. With
embedded MyMiniLife Flash
widget, Yahoo360 fans could show
their minihomes to visitors. Let's enter my minihome.
The leading Vietnamese game
operator Vinagame launched a
Yahoo360 clone yesterday. Yobanbe
is planned to open beta April 23rd but delay to 25th due to fixing
technical backend. Still some problems with forgot password and sign-up
as account management shared with gamers data warehouse. Yobanbe even lures Yahoo360 users
with import instructions as hot news. The reasons that Yobanbe could
face hard future:
The brand name is not
cool.
Launch date: just before long
Holiday, Vietnamese people will take 6 days off until May 2nd and
traveling is the top choice. Cyworld
Vietnam was opened 10 days earlier.
Associate with hardcore gamers: Yahoo360 users are female
dominated while Vinagame gamers are almost males.
Revenue model: what is revenue source for Yobanbe while Vinagame is used to collecting
gamers' subscription fees.
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