Vietnam, located in Southeast Asia, is one of the fastest growing economies in Asia and even the world. Its GDP has been growing at an annual average rate of more than 6%, and it has entered the ranks of middle-income countries from one of the poorest countries in the world. Vietnam’s game industry is also in a strong development trend. According to the 2020 data reported by App Annie, about 20% of game publishers headquartered in Australia, New Zealand and Southeast Asia originated in Vietnam. In terms of downloads, Vietnam ranks second in the Southeast Asian market, accounting for 22% of the total game downloads in the region (only 38% after Indonesia). The download volume of Vietnam’s game market increased by 10% year on year. Revenue grew by up to 50% year on year.
Although Vietnam is one of the countries seriously affected by the epidemic, the game industry in Vietnam is still growing steadily. A total of 81 mobile games have been issued, an increase of 6% over the same period last year. At present, Vietnam has more than 400000 game developers, with rapid growth. Many game studios in Vietnam, such as OneSoft and Amanotes’ games, are at the top of the global league table, and many other game startups are growing rapidly.
Mobile Gaming Market Status quo in Vietnam
Vietnamese consumers are getting richer, so their interest in local consumption trends is rising rapidly. One area of Vietnam’s consumer market that shows promise is the game market, which is an industry worth 136 million dollars a year and the largest game market in Southeast Asia. It is estimated that Vietnam has about 40 million game players.
Southeast Asia is the main region of mobile game growth, and the user expenditure of this market will increase by 55% in 2020. Vietnam has a “mobile first” culture. There are 68 million smartphone users, of which 3G, 4G or 5G users account for 64%. The average user spends 3.9 hours on games every day, 10% more than the average American user. In terms of mobile game downloads, Vietnam ranks second in the Southeast Asian market, accounting for 22% of the total game downloads in the region (only 38% after Indonesia).
In the past two years, Jordan’s mobile game market has developed very fast. In 2021, the game downloads of Vietnamese game companies have reached the seventh place in the global rankings. Among them, Garena has the greatest influence in Vietnam’s game market. Not only has she released some super popular games, but also has released many popular games successively. In addition, VNG, VTC, GAMOTA, Sohagame and other companies in Vietnam occupy the market share. So far, if you want to enter the Vietnam game market, you can only choose to cooperate with the local game distribution company.
Mobile Games Categories and Main Publishers
According to SensorTower data, MMORPG mobile games are the main game category released by Vietnam, accounting for 52.4%, followed by cards. This shows that Vietnamese users prefer MMO games. In addition, various new game types such as RPG have also attracted a large number of Vietnamese.
Mobile or PC games with martial arts and chivalrous IP are favored by most Vietnamese players, which can be found in the success of V ｜ L â m True. The mobile game was released in Vietnam in 2005, rapidly occupying 70% of the market share in mobile games, breaking the record. All these factors have led to the fact that V ｜ L â m True ề n Mobile will become the largest online game IP in Vietnam.
Võ Lâm Truyền Kỳ Mobile can be found in Redfinger APP Store, which gains popularity for users to employ Redfinger cloud phone to enjoy as well.
As a virtual Android system, Redfinger allows you to have another Android phone on one device. Running on an ECS, Redfinger hardly needs your own device’s data, storage, and battery power. With Redfinger, you can run games freely on the cloud. In addition, there is only one Redfinger account, and you can manage any number of cloud phones to meet your multi task needs.
In addition to martial arts IP, card games are also on the rise in Vietnam, such as Genshin Impact and Honkai Impact. According to App Annie, Vietnamese players spend about 575% of their total mobile game spending on such games.
VNG has successfully launched popular products such as Võ Lâm Truyền Kỳ Mobile and PUBG in Vietnam. VNG’s 2020 financial report shows that VNG’s revenue in the game industry in 2020 will reach 262 million US dollars, accounting for 79.2% of the company’s total revenue.
As the top-notch martial arts IP in Vietnam, Võ Lâm Truyền Kỳ Mobile has achieved a ceiling level of monthly flow. The game was released in 2016, and the monthly traffic reached a peak of nearly 10 million dollars. Players can download about 3 million times in the first year. Nowadays, Võ Lâm Truyền Kỳ Mobile still manages to reach the Top 5 in revenue.
As an emerging publisher in Vietnam, Funtap has a list of accomplishments covering 100,000 DAU of a specific game at its first launch, with an average monthly traffic of more than $1 million. In addition to local publishers, there have also been Chinese publishers in recent years who have tackled the thorny issues of royalty numbers, payments and promotions to gain a foothold in Vietnam.
Payment Method in Vietnam
At present, the credit card penetration rate in Vietnam is only about 5%, because local players have long been accustomed to using third-party payment. The most common third-party recharge method in Vietnam is WAP (web application purchase), accounting for 98%. After accessing WAP, players can visit the official website through the game’s FanPage, website and customer service to recharge. In the specific recharge process, mobile payment, phone recharge, game cards and electronic banking are the main channels for Vietnamese players to complete three-party payment.
The top five mainstream Internet banks in Vietnam include Viet Cong Bank, Techcom Bank, Viettin Bank, BIDV and VIB. In terms of mobile payment, the most mainstream mobile payments in Vietnam are MoMo, Zalo Pay, Viettel Pay, etc. Among them, MoMo is the free e-wallet application with the largest number of users in Vietnam, which is equivalent to Alipay in China; the number of users of Zalo Pay is growing rapidly, and it is also one of the most popular electronic payment methods in Vietnam; Viettel Pay, launched in 2018, comes from Viettel Communications , more than 20 million registered users.
There are three major telecom operators in Vietnam, including Viettel, Mobifone and Vinaphone. Mobile phone top-up is also widely used in Vietnam. The main game cards are Zing Card, Garena Card, Vcoin, Gate Card, SohaCoin, Appota Card, etc.
Electronic banking is the cheapest channel, less than 5%. However, due to the complexity of the online payment process with local bank cards, the adoption rate of Visa cards in Vietnam is low.
