VietNamNet Bridge – Some telecom groups are preparing to provide OTT service on 3G network, which allows the connection from phones, computers to mobile phones. Analysts believe that the OTT battle may turn to a new branching road.

Some IT firms are planning to join the OTT market with a new product which allows connecting both mobile phones and computers with mobile phones.

However, it is still unclear if this is a 100 percent Vietnamese product, or a Vietnamized product. Sources said that more OTT brands may turn up in the market in some more months.

Opinions from the well informed circle said Viettel, a big guy in the telecom sector, would join the battle. Over the last two years, the military telco has spent a lot of money on developing apps, with the “powerful” workforce of 1,400 workers.

The sources also said that it is expected that 40 percent of Viettel’s workers would focus on developing applications by 2015. This could be the reason behind the rumor that Viettel would buy a foreign product to Vietnamize it, or develop apps itself.

Declining to reveal whether Viettel plans to develop products of its own, but Nguyen Manh Hung, Deputy General Director of Viettel said mobile network operators should seek business opportunities in the cooperation with OTT service providers.

Hung also said that with the high numbers of users mobile network operators have, the cooperation with OTT service providers may bring 70 percent of turnover from business services and data fees.

Meanwhile, the sources from MobiFone and VinaPhone, the other two of the three biggest mobile network operators, said the two big guys would not develop OTT apps of their own, while they would only seek the cooperation opportunities with the other apps existing on the market.

The battle between domestic OTT service providers (Zalo) and foreign ones (Line, Kakao Talk) has come to an end. Stating that it got 5 million users on September 24, 2013, the Vietnamese OTT won the early victory.

Line and Kakao Talk, in the eyes of analysts, have no way to change the current situation. Smart phone users would install the apps that their friends and relatives are using to be able to communicate with them more easily. That is the reason why they would choose Zalo, like they would choose Facebook as their social network.

What will happen next, after the battle among the OTT services of both foreign and domestic service providers finished and some Vietnamese firms are about to jump on the bandwagon?

A telecom expert said that in the world said in general, telecom groups do not develop free messaging tools of their own. They would rather cooperate with the strong OTT services to provide new services and share profits.

He went on to say that the Vietnamese OTT market has become very challenging even for the foreign giants like Line and Kakao Talk, let alone the new domestic “players.”

“The required huge investment capital to develop products, plus the huge expenses on marketing, estimated at tens of millions of dollars would make the new players to hesitate to join the market, especially in the current economic difficulties,” he said.

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