Vietnam’s video-on-demand industry is estimated at about US$105 million in revenue and its annual growth rate is expected to be 9.4% — ahead of other entertainment types, according to the latest report.

Sources: Akamai Asia Pacific Media Industry Report, Statista. Screen shot: Nhat Minh

A Vietnam Media White paper entitled “Vietnam: Customer retention for monetization” jointly published by Akamai and Viettel IDC revealed the information about the potential for the Vietnam media industry. In addition to video-on-demand, revenue from video games, e-publishing and digital music is estimated at US$139 million, US$38 million and US$42 million, respectively. Total revenue from Vietnam’s media industry is expected at US$324 million in 2020.

Based on Akamai data, annual growth in Vietnam’s internet traffic was 71% in the first quarter of 2020 and 106% in the second quarter. Online traffic growth accelerated in the second quarter with a 35% quarter-on-quarter increase in 2020 compared to a 12% quarterly increase in 2019. “Covid-19 has brought about an increased demand for content and internet services that no enterprise was prepared for,” said Mr. Matthew Lynn, Regional Sales Director South Asia, Akamai. 

Fueled by cheap devices and even cheaper data, Vietnamese consumers are more connected to

the internet than ever. It is estimated that 16-to-64-year-old Vietnamese people spend an average of six and a half hours on the internet every day. By comparison, they only spend around two hours watching television.

The number of smartphone users in Vietnam. Source: Statista 2020

Most (95%) of Vietnamese people between 16 and 64 years old spend their internet time watching videos, while less than half are listening to podcasts or radio stations. The pandemic saw a spike in internet traffic as more Vietnamese people went online to work, play, shop and learn.

Regarding the over-the-top (OTT) video market, the white paper revealed its revenue in Asia Pacific will be worth $24 billion by 2021 - driven by the Asian consumer appetite for online content. As the cost of infrastructure to host and stream content continues to decrease, the Vietnamese media industry is rapidly moving toward OTT adoption - delivering content on demand. Three in five respondents placed a high priority on scaling their business. 

According to an April 2020 survey of Asian countries including Vietnam, close to half (47%) of 185 respondents ranked OTT as one of the top three growth formats that will experience programmatic advertising budget growth in the next 12 months. 

Source: Campaign Asia

Focus on customer acquisition and scale

Among the respondents, increasing daily active users/monthly active users remains a challenge as social media apps such as Facebook are popular in Vietnam. The average Vietnamese user spends about 2 hours and 22 minutes on social media every day.

Media companies in Vietnam were looking to tie up with telcos for customer acquisition and seamless content delivery. For the telcos, video on demand was one way to provide value-added service to subscribers.

As a result, the survey respondents prioritized customer acquisition and monetization. One in two respondents saw industry collaboration with telecommunication companies (telcos) as necessary for growth and business expansion.