Le Hong Minh and his VNG Story

Le Hong Minh, Chief Executive Officer, VNG Corporation, Credit: World Economic Forum

On my recent trip to Ho Chi Minh city in Vietnam, I had the privilege to interview Mr. Le Hong Minh, the CEO and co-founder of VNG.

VNG is one of the largest Internet companies in Vietnam. Most, if not all, of the Vietnamese who are into gaming and tech know of his story as an entrepreneur. Outside Vietnam, perhaps not many have heard his tale, which is why I arranged this interview to share his entrepreneurial story.

VNG began as Vinagame back in 2004. But today the company does more than just games. It positions itself as an internet company owning online properties ranging from media to social networking. But origin of Vinagame derives from Minh’s own love of games. He recalled back in 1992 when he was age 15, when like most boys at that time he was in love with his Nintendo and PC games. He says:

I think the kids who grew up in my age started to know computer games when we were young kids. I was born in 1977 and when I was 15 years old games are introduced into Vietnam in 1992. I was very very passionate about computer games. And the reason why I founded VNG back in 2004 was to have a game company. That was the original reason.

From Banking to Gaming

His love for games didn’t lead him to become a game developer or an artist. Rather, Minh studied in Australia and graduated with a finance degree. When he returned to Vietnam in 2001, he was working as an investment banker at Vina Capital. However, his love for games didn’t diminish even after he started his work life. In fact, it grew stronger. Minh said:

I was at World Cybergames in Korea in 2002. And after I came back, my friends and I established a small game room [internet cafe] at the beginning of 2003 just to play games and make a small business. So my day job was an investment banker and my night job was a part owner of an internet cafe. So that’s how the business originated. I wasn’t sitting in the office and then suddenly building VNG.

Internet cafes were very popular back then. Some of the LAN games at his internet cafe, Gamezone, were popular titles like Counterstrike, Red Alert, Starcraft, and Warcraft. Besides those PC games, web games like MU Global were very popular around the world, but only in English. So Minh thought there was an opportunity to make MU Global available in Vietnamese. He went to Korea and tried to license the game but was rejected. He came back and looked for alternatives, and China came to mind.

Back then, Kingsoft, a Chinese software company, had a very popular game called Swordsman Online. Minh, who couldn’t speak Chinese, went to China to meet Lei Jun and his team in hope of licensing the title. He succeeded and described his experience with much gratitude:

They knew we were a very small company but they were very supportive. We signed the deal and the rest is all about working hard. The game we licensed from Kingsoft, six months later, became a blockbuster in Vietnam.

Indeed, Swordsman Online (or Vo Lam Truyen Ky) had a million users shortly after its launch in 2005. In the same year, VNG also raised its first and only financing round from IDG Ventures. Minh said:

VNG: the Internet Company

Mobile and VNG’s future