Vietnam’s VNG to go public in US: Is the tech unicorn late to the party?

Welcome to the Opening Bell 🔔! Delivered every Monday via email and through the Tech in Asia website, this free newsletter breaks down the biggest stories and latest trends on Asia’s publicly-listed tech companies. Get it in your email inbox by registering here.

Hello reader,

Here in Singapore, most of my social communications are via WhatsApp, Telegram, and Instagram.

However, the situation is different in Vietnam.

With over 75 million monthly active users, Zalo is the most popular messaging app in the country.

This is just one of the services offered by local tech giant VNG, which started out as a games publisher but has branched out into other areas such as fintech, cloud computing, and communications and media.

VNG is now preparing for a public listing in the US. I couldn’t help but think of Sea Group, another Southeast Asia-based tech company that began with gaming but ventured into other areas as well.

Sea’s IPO went well, but it was the onset of the pandemic and easy money that really turbocharged its share price.

VNG is preparing to go public at a very different time. It will be interesting to see how the market reacts to this Vietnamese upstart, which offers exposure to a fast-growing, emerging market but has seen its own rates of growth come down and is still making an operating loss overall.

Find out more in this week’s Big Story.

— Simon

THE BIG STORY

Image credit: Timmy Loen

Vietnam’s first tech unicorn VNG set for IPO. Here’s what you need to know

VNG is preparing to list amid a market downturn and slower growth. Will this be enough to entice foreign investors?

3 Trends to keep an eye on

2 Eye-popping facts

The one you didn’t see coming