Last week, on January 21st, Apiumtech attended a talk in Vietnam organized by Google. It gave us the chance to gain insight from one of the most influential Tech companies in the world. What was said was very interesting, specially the speech of Ms. Phuong Anh Nguyen, Head of Marketing of Google Vietnam.
The talk revolved around two main questions; the first being “what would the information world look like without Google and how would businesses promote themselves without this global brand, especially in a country like Vietnam, where nearly 50% percent of the population uses the internet?” and the second being “what is interesting for Google and tech-companies in Vietnam’s market?”
This talk is just the beginning for other action sequences of Google Vietnam in the future.
One of the main conclusions of the talk was that technology in Vietnam will see big changes in the coming years – and this explains well the presence of Apiumtech in Vietnam. We have chosen the right place and the right time to outsource in this country full of potential.
Vietnam is a developing country in Asia, but during recent years, Vietnam has been constantly rising, especial in the IT and software development industry.
A few months ago, the CEO of Google, Sundar Pichai, visited Vietnam and had a talk with some Vietnamese entrepreneurs and Tech people.
Sundar Pichai says that he does not see any reason why Vietnam would not be successful on a global scale for 3 reason; the size of the local market, the high Internet usage and the strong entrepreneurial culture. “Last year, Google partnered with three startups in India. Asian countries are doing well, we want to follow that trend, and of course we’d like to work in Vietnam.”
He was also speaking at a meeting with the Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung where He said that the country would soon become one of his company’s most important markets, a very positive news for Vietnam.
INFLUENCERS IN VIETNAM
- In 2006, Bill Gates came to Vietnam to disseminate information technology.
- In May 2010, Steve Ballmer, the CEO of Microsoft, had a talk with students of the the Hanoi University of Science and Technology and Vietnam National University.
- In 2013, the head of Nokia’s segment presented in Vietnam to meet the domestic software partners.
- In early December, the co-founder of Apple, Steve Wozniak, had a trip to Vietnam to attend the SMAC Conference 2015 and to share his IT experience and skills.
Why am I pointing out those big influencer’s presence in Vietnam? Well because I consider it a sort of good news, big players are paying attention to Vietnam! Now, I’ll go back to the “Google? Yes, Google in Vietnam” event and share with you interesting points of Ms. Phuong Anh, the Marketing Director of Google Vietnam.
MAIN POINTS
Working environment – First of all, we got to see Google’s legendary working environment. Obviously we were all amazed and fell in love with Google’s working spaces; the whole place is inspiring, there are crazy spots that help arouse creativity, inspiration and innovation of the staff.
Working in an interesting and professional environment like Google is the desire of many people and they know it! What I really enjoyed was that she said that working for a big company was not as important as following your passion, and I personally truly believe that.
A better world – After that, Ms. Phuong Anh talked about Google’s goals in the years to come. They are constantly trying to enhance their products and services, trying to add value to the world on a daily basis. The main goal is to serve users; Google wants to go everywhere on the globe, even in the least developed countries to be able to change the world, with the hope that it gets better.
Google Vietnam – Finally, she talked about Google’s behavior towards Vietnam; the message was that Google was very interested in Vietnam’s technology. We were quite impressed with the analysis showing how Google has been penetrating the market and developing their business in Vietnam. She shared interesting statistics about the amazing growth of the number of internet users in Vietnam in the recent years.
INTERESTING NUMBERS
In fact, from the 90 million people that live in Vietnam, over 47 million people are considered internet users (around 50%) and over 20 million are smartphone users.
In 2015 Vietnam was in the Top 20 internet countries with the highest number of internet users, where most of users belong to the younger generation between 15 & 35 years old.
Mobile Phones continue to be Vietnam’s #1 device when it comes to internet usage.
Among Asian countries, Vietnam has the highest percentage of internet user access to online videos.
Looking at those numbers makes it easy to see the potential that Vietnam represents for investor, specially in the Tech industry. As the CEO of Google said; “The transition is underway, just give it a bit more patience.”
Towards the end of the Head of Marketing’ presentation, we had the chance to ask her questions to which she always answered with high energy. I am thankful that I had the opportunity to assist to this event that brought us high hopes!
