Sharing Session: An Introduction to Vietnam’s Startup Ecosystem” (Live Blog)

Mike Tran from Keewi steps on stage to share with us a bit about Vietnam’s startup ecosystem.

#15:23: Mike’s filling us in on his background studying in Canada and coming to Vietnam.

#15:25: Vietnam is potentially a gold mine, it’s very hard and tricky and hard to figure out. In 2007-2008, there was a wave of startups that came and died from hype. If you look at the numbers it’s a high population of over 90 million and over 35 percent internet penetration. It’s also a very young population.

#15:27: Going mobile is growing very fast with VNG’s Zalo being taken up really fast. But think carefully about going mobile first. Websites are still more common.

#15:28: Payment in Vietnam. Telcos take over 40 to 50 percent of every transaction.

#15:29: There’s a lot of local players in Vietnam. And it’s still very possible to make it big in Vietnam. But it’s hard to find quality people with the right mindset. Getting a high valuation is rare. And COD (Cash On Demand) is still very popular. That’s because of the Vietnamese culture wanting to see products before paying.

#15:30: Players that are currently doing it anyway, despite the hard path to being successful with Vietnam: Keewi.me (Mike’s company) in online ticketing, Giaohangnhanh.vn in delivery for e-commerce, Appstore.vn in App distribution, IG9 in crowdsourcing, and Tiki.vn in crowdsourcing. And also, he just introduced all the VC’s currently in Vietnam: CyberAgentVentures, IDGVentures, PVNI, DFJIVinaCapital, and KustoTigerIT Investment.

#15:33: And that’s that!

Here’s Mike’s slides just in case you’re wondering: