VietNamNet Bridge – A series of investment projects in e-commerce have been kicked off, seemingly promising to heat up the market which remains cool despite the presence of the giant eBay.

Economists say, if comparing the competition among the rivals in the e-commerce market with a hurdle, the current stage of the race is not tough for enterprises with very few barriers. Therefore, the enterprises need to choose the solutions which allowing them running faster than the rivals.

VNG nurturing the 123 dream

In late October, VNG quietly set up a new business division – 123.vn, an e-commerce website that operates under the mode of B2C (business to customer). Just several days later, the upgraded version of 123mua.vn, a website operating under the mode of C2C (customer to customer), initially established in 2006, was also launched.

The move by VNG has been described as a general deployment by VNG in the e-commerce battlefield, the one which once witnessed the failure of many enterprises, including VNG.

When asked about the prospect of the e-commerce division, Deputy General Director of VNG Nguyen Hoanh Tien said in the past, enterprises had to cope with too many obstacles, but the barriers have been removed already.

Tien said that Vietnamese customers have changed their consumption habits and have got familiar to online shopping, which should be seen as the greatest advantage for e-commerce services to develop.

Not only office workers or students, who regularly work on computers, small merchants have begun learning about trade on Internet and seeking opportunities on e-commerce websites.

Meanwhile, in the current difficult conditions, businesses now tend to pay bigger attention to online distribution channels to cut down expenses. This gives one more reason to e-commerce businesses to hope about the development of the e-commerce market.

“E-commerce would be one of the three biggest components of our business in 2013. The total investment in the type of business would be 2.5 times higher than that in 2011,” Tien said.

On the launching of SohayPay, a payment instrument, both VC Corp and Techcombank said that e-commerce has been developing very strongly in Vietnam in recent years. About 1/3 of the 1700 surveyed businesses have turnover from e-commerce, making up 15 percent of the total revenue.

Hoang Ngoc Vy, General Director of Vien Thong A, a high technology production distribution chain, said the online distribution channel brings 10 percent of the chain’s total revenue.

Vy said Vien Thong A is making heavier investment in e-commerce, hoping that the revenue from online channels would increase by 50 percent in 2013, which means that 15 percent of total revenue would come from e-commerce.

Some years ago, eBay and Chodientu were the only two names in the e-commerce market. Meanwhile, there are numerous online markets which have been set up recently.

IDG Ventures Vietnam has announced the merger of two IT firms Nhom Mua (nhommua.com) and Dia Diem (diadiem.com) into MJ Group. The merger has been associated with the agreement on the 60 million dollar investment deal of IGD Ventures Vietnam, Rebate Networks, ru – Net Global into MJ Group in a plan to turn MJ into a big e-commerce group in Vietnam.

Sources say that though VC Corp owns six big e-commerce channels in Vietnam, it still plans to launch some 10 more products in the time to come.

A Cimigo’s report showed that 31 percent of Vietnamese people use Internet and 95 percent of them are aged between 15-24, who will be the main clients of the e-commerce market in the near future.

DNSG