According to data from Metric.vn, a data aggregation and mining platform, from January 2025 through July 2026, the smoked buffalo meat market on e-commerce platforms in Vietnam reached VND117.4 billion in sales.

This figure corresponds to 476,100 successful transactions from 594 stores. Data was compiled based on the keywords "trau gac bep" (smoked buffalo meat), "trau say" (dehydrated buffalo), and "trau kho" (dried buffalo).

The market share in this category shows high concentration, as the top 20 leading stores accounted for nearly half of the total market sales. Leading the pack is a store named Lam A Tuyen with VND18 billion, followed by Tan Loan Foods reaching VND15.2 billion and Trinhbepkhoi with VND10.7 billion.

Occupying 10th place among the best-selling brand group is Sapa TV with sales of nearly VND810 million. However, since June 2025, this unit completely removed smoked buffalo meat products from its online cart, offering only certain agricultural goods such as cham cheo (mountain dipping salt) and shiitake mushrooms.

Sapa TV is a store associated with Vu Hoang Hai, often known as Hai Sapa TV, a content creator specializing in highland cuisine, regional specialties, and Northwest life.

On August 24, the Police Investigation Agency of Lao Cai Province initiated criminal proceedings, while issuing charges and placing Vu Hoang Hai in temporary detention for "deceiving customers."

According to investigating authorities, in 2022, Vu Hoang Hai was determined to have taken advantage of social media influence to direct his wife to sign a consumption contract for "spicy dried buffalo meat" produced by Hoang Nam General Production and Trading JSC using frozen buffalo meat imported from India. 

Meanwhile, Hai and his wife advertised the product on social media as "Northwest specialty dried buffalo meat" and printed the Hai Sapa TV logo for market distribution.

Investigating authorities stated that in 2022–2025, Bui Thi Kim Tuyen purchased spicy dried buffalo meat from Hoang Nam Company for a total sum of VND30 billion to sell on the market.

Appearing on the ranking published by Metric.vn is a store ranking fourth in revenue named Huho Food, a brand that successfully raised VND25 billion in capital on Shark Tank in 2024, associated with content creator Huyen Huho (real name Nguyen Thi Ngoc Huyen).

In just over a year and a half, Huho recorded VND3.5 billion in sales selling smoked buffalo meat on e-commerce platforms. However, the brand's smoked buffalo meat products no longer appear in shopping carts on TikTok Shop, Shopee, or the huho.vn website.

Budget to high prices

Beyond revenue from sellers, data from Metric.vn also indicates that dehydrated, dried, and smoked buffalo meat products sold on e-commerce platforms span a wide price range, from VND10,000 to VND3.5 million per product, depending on weight.

Among these, the product group priced between VND750,000 and VND1 million recorded the highest sales, VND21.9 billion over more than a year and a half. This is also the standard price range for 1kg packaged smoked buffalo meat products.

The mid-range segment also recorded significant sales, with products priced between VND350,000 and VND500,000 reaching VND15.4 billion in revenue. 

Meanwhile, the VND500,000 to VND750,000 group reached VND17.4 billion. Lower price segments such as VND200,000 to VND350,000 also attracted online shoppers, generating VND14.1 billion in sales. 

The budget segment from VND150,000 to VND200,000 brought in VND11.7 billion, while the VND100,000 to VND150,000 group reached VND7.3 billion.

According to the report, TikTok Shop is the platform enabling the best seller performance, with total revenue for smoked buffalo meat and dried buffalo meat reaching VND101.1 billion, accounting for 86.1 percent of total category sales. 

Shopee ranked second with VND15.9 billion, representing a 13.6 percent market share. Sales on Lazada reached only around VND431.1 million, equivalent to 0.37 percent. Tiki recorded negligible numbers.

From a consumer perspective, Thao Huyen, residing in HCMC, shared that regional specialties like Northwest smoked buffalo meat hold strong appeal thanks to authentic preparation videos from content creators. As a result, her family has ordered many of these products via e-commerce channels.

Nguyen Binh Minh from the Vietnam E-commerce Association (VECOM), cautioned that consumers need to remain alert and avoid placing full trust in internet advertisements.

According to Minh, the public must clearly distinguish between famous individuals merely benefiting from social media crowd effects and genuine experts or reputable organizations in the industry. Wise consumers should absolutely not treat the fame or popularity of content creators as a "quality stamp" for products, leading to misplaced trust and transactions.

Thu Ha