Zing.vn portal has recently gone live in beta mode. This is a long-awaited effort to integrate all VinaGame properties including Mp3 Zing, YoBanBe and 123mua. And of course, it is officially taking on two other popular Vietnamese portals Yahoo and TimNhanh (yes, I do think that TimNhanh is a portal, not a search engine, despite its catchy name.)
My laptop is running out of battery so this is just a quick post.
October 30, 2007 at 3:07 pm
I’m so impressed that VinaGame’s Zing seems to attract everyone’s attention these days. Surfing through some blogs on Web 2.0 in Vietnam and Zing is displayed dominantly at the top.
After all those things like Yobanbe, Zing MP3, Zing Chat, Zing the Portal, it would be interesting to find out where Zing is heading.
Your post seems to imply that Zing the Portal would be the centerpiece of VinaGame’s take on Timnhanh and Yahoo. But is it true that Zing portal the flagship of VinaGame’s web services expansion plan? From my observation, the answer is no.
VinaGame’s ultimate objective is not becoming an Yahoo clone in Vietnam. By expanding into web services, VinaGame is morphing from an online game company to an online entertainment powerhouse. In my opinion, VinaGame’s Idol is Hong Kong’s Tencent. Thus the QQ Chat import and localization for Vietnamese teenagers. Then integrating Zing Chat with Zing MP3 to expand value proposition to their clientele. When this has become a “platform”, VinaGame will introduce more entertainment web services aimed at young people.
The reason for VinaGame’s expansion from core game business into online services is to fuel its growth objectives when the online game business is slowing to a halt. This is very important as VinaGame’s founders are busy preparing for a listing of the company in Vietnam, or even in other stock markets, think of NASDAQ for example.
Therefore, don’t expect Zing to focus their resources on improving Zing the Portal. Zing’s expansion is squarely aimed at duplicating Tencent’s success in Vietnam and finally supporting VinaGame’s listing dream.
I’m only mistified by the fact that beside the Tencent model, Zing is preparing its own search engine.
So what? VinaGame might be heading towards a very Vietnamese online business model, not even Google, Yahoo, Kingsoft or Tencent. This would be interesting to watch.
November 8, 2007 at 7:50 am
I’ve got a short review on social networks in VN, including YoBanBe at http://web2vietnam.wordpress.com. Await your comments.
harryd844: that smart strategy of VinaGame! I think they need a bit more marketing efforts however. I’ll buy VinaGame stock when it goes IPO bz there must be some talents there.
November 9, 2007 at 3:32 pm
@Quang: Regarding VinaGame’s strategy, it takes time to see if this is really smart. Despite their vast resources, financially and humanly, VinaGame is in their midlife crisis and their first priority now is to figure out where are they heading, a game or web services company, or middle to nowhere. Duplicating the Tencent model in Vietnam sound intuitive but is in fact not very culturally relevant, and this will be a long story enough. I vote for VinaGame against Yahoo, but suspect they will be successful with Zing franchise.
I’ve checked your comments, a lot of substance that will take some time for me to think a little bit and write down something.
November 12, 2007 at 3:42 am
@HarryD: Escaping from one’s core value is always a dangerous step. Yet, I guess VinaGame has no choice; VN online game market is crowded now and most of gamers are not willing to pay. For VinaGame, “Vo Lam Truyen Ky” game is now a cash cow (most of revenue comes from trading, I suppose). But, if they want to go public next year successfully, they must show different face to investors other than just an online game vendor.
Strategically, Zing may not be a wise move but I think they can create good “softwares”.
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