MANILA, Philippines – Vietnam took a step towards regaining the overall championship from the Philippines at the 19th Asean Age Group Chess Championship in Davao as it tightened its hold on 8 of 14 divisions after the 7th round on Friday night, June 22.
Although the Philippines ruled the boys and girls Under-20, the boys Under-8 and girls under-10, the Vietnamese leaned on their superiority in the girls division in the last two rounds.
The Vietnamese girls led in the Under-18, Under-16, Under-14, Under 12 and Under-10.
Vietnam failed to field a delegation when the Philippines won the overall championship for the first time last year in Macau.
With 6 points, Paulo Bersamina led the Under-20 by half-a-point as John Marvin Miciano held the pursuing Indonesian Setyaki Azraya Jodi.
In the girls under-20, national women’s champion Shania Mae Mendoza had 6 points and took a one-point lead over fellow Filipina Grace Moulic.
FEU players kept their hold on the boys Under-18 behind Dale Bernardo, who had 6.5 points, while Alekhine Nouri and Vietnamese Pham Phu Vinh were tied for the Under-16 lead with 5.5 points.
Al-Basher Buto drew with Arav Nambiar T of India in the 7th round but he still led with a commanding 6.5 points, a point ahead of two chasing Vietnamese.
Ruelle Canino of Cagayan de Oro also towed the Under-10 field with 6.5 points where Mecel Angela Gadut of Ilocos Sur and Daren dela Cruz were running second and third.
The Philippines could turn things around in the girls’ Under-16 where national junior champion Francois Marie Magpily will face the leading Bach Ngoc Thuy Duong, while Jerlyn San Diego will tangle with the pacesetting Vuong Quynh Anh.
After the standard tournament, the rapid and blitz events will be held and the overall title will be awarded.
The 12bet portal allegedly drew thousands of Vietnamese players with bets worth over $26 million.
Vietnam’s cyber crime police announced on Friday they had busted an online gambling ring through the web portal 12bet.
As part of the operation, police in Ho Chi Minh City have arrested and searched houses of Vo Van Nghia, Vo Van Hoa, Do Thi Tu Anh and Phan Thanh Hoang for organizing gambling.
Another four suspects have also been summoned and had their houses searched for gambling. Police seized a total of over VND300 million ($13,000) in cash, multiple computers and phones during the searches.
According to the cyber crime police, the online gambling portal 12bet was launched in 2007 by a foreign company. The site has since attracted thousands of players in Vietnam with a variety of gambling games such as sports betting, online casino and online lottery.
Players joining the site are required to create accounts and pay the operators real money through online banking in return for virtual currency, which they can spend on the gambling games.
Vietnamese police first discovered the ring, which has netted a total of over VND600 billion ($26.25 million) in transactions between the organizers and players, in early 2017.
Police are conducting further investigations.
The busting of this online gambling ring comes just three months after police announced the uncovering of another massive operation run by two major Vietnamese tech businessmen. Investigations into this case have resulted in the arrests of dozens of people, including Phan Van Vinh, former director of the General Police Department under the Ministry of Public Security and Nguyen Thanh Hoa, former director of the ministry’s cyber crime division.
Hoa has been accused of colluding with the ring’s leaders Nguyen Van Duong, board chairman of high-tech security development company CNC and Phan Sao Nam, founder and former board chairman of major online communication firm VTC Online in organizing the ring. Vinh is accused of abusing his power and position to protect the ring, which allegedly attracted bets worth $420 million in around two years.
There are a lot of great smartphone options available at any given moment, so it can be a challenge to sort through them all if you’re trying to choose the absolute best one. The stakes here can’t be understated: your smartphone is the most important gadget in your life, and you’ll probably be living with the one you buy for at least a year, if not two or three.
Most of the time, there’s a phone that stands out from the pack in all the areas that matter: performance, value, camera, and support. But this year, depending on who you ask, you could get as many as four different answers for what the best phone is to buy. And depending on what kind of phone user you are, any one of them could be the ideal phone for you.
THE ABSOLUTE BEST PHONE: APPLE IPHONE X
Photo by James Bareham / The Verge
Apple’s latest iPhone isn’t just the most interesting iPhone in years, but it’s easily the best smartphone ever made. The iPhone X has almost everything you could think to ask for in a smartphone: blazing-fast performance, a gorgeous display, top-of-the-class cameras, loud, clear speakers, reliable battery life, and a head-turning design. In addition, the X is water resistant and can be recharged with a wireless pad. The main thing that most people will miss is a standard headphone jack.
Apple’s extensive support system, through both its own and carrier stores, is another incredibly important point in the iPhone’s favor. There’s simply no other company that provides as much support for a smartphone after you purchase it. On top of that, since it’s an iPhone, the iPhone X enjoys the broadest support of accessories and cases.
The iPhone X separates itself from Apple’s other iPhones with its larger, crisper, edge-to-edge display, novel face-unlocking feature, and new gesture-based user interface. It’s a different experience than other iPhones, and though it may take a day or two to get used to, it’s very intuitive once you do.
The iPhone X also separates itself from Apple’s other iPhones with its very high starting price: $999 unlocked. This, more than anything else, is what caused some debate within The Verge. Are the additional features in the iPhone X really enough to justify the extra cost compared to an iPhone 8?
If you’re the sort of person who upgrades every two or three years, you want to get the phone that will have the longest life possible. That is, without a doubt, the iPhone X. If you’re the sort of person who upgrades often, chances are you have already purchased your phone for this year. Good job, you! I bet it’s a great phone! If you currently have an iPhone 7 and are on the fence, you can probably hang on to it for another year, honestly.
But if you’ve got anything older than an iPhone 7, the iPhone X’s extra RAM, better screen, and all the rest make the cost worthwhile — especially when you consider that there are more options to defray that cost than ever. You can set up payment plans or upgrade plans with either Apple or your carrier, bringing the cost down to somewhere between $40 and $50 per month on most plans.
You can get the iPhone X unlocked or from virtually any carrier. And though iOS 11 is perhaps the buggiest release of the platform in years, it’s still easy to use and has the best third-party app support of any mobile platform.
If you’re coming from an older iPhone or even an Android device, the iPhone X offers more in terms of raw “upgrades” than any other phone you can buy right now.
But spending a thousand dollars on a phone is not an easy thing to do, and you can get way more phone than you’d expect for hundreds of dollars less. If you want to go the less expensive route, here’s an alternative.
A MORE WALLET-FRIENDLY PICK: APPLE IPHONE 8 / 8 PLUS
Photo by James Bareham / The Verge
There are many reasons to skip right past Apple’s iPhone 8 or 8 Plus when browsing for a new phone. They don’t look any different from the last three iPhone models that preceded them. They have huge bezels above and below the screen. The iPhone 8 Plus is a practical giant among smartphones in 2017, even though it has a smaller display than many other phones with tidier dimensions.
But apart from its design and aesthetics, the $699 iPhone 8 is a tremendously good smartphone. It has a fast processor, its camera is easy to use and reliable for getting great pictures almost every time, and it’s water resistant and now has wireless charging options. The iPhone 8’s battery life isn’t class-leading, but it’s consistent and reliable. If you do want significantly better battery life, the $799 iPhone 8 Plus is a better pick.
Then there are the other factors in owning a smartphone to consider. The iPhone 8 and 8 Plus have by far the most case and accessory options available (even more than Apple’s flagship iPhone X). Apple’s customer care and support are unmatched by any of its competitors. You can get the iPhone 8 unlocked or from virtually any carrier, even smaller MVNOs.
The iPhone 8 pair don’t have the flash or overall new feeling of the iPhone X, but they still provide 90 percent of what you get with the X for about 70 percent of the cost. The future might be for the phones with narrow borders, but the iPhone 8 is for the present.
AN ANDROID ALTERNATIVE: SAMSUNG GALAXY S9 / S9 PLUS
Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
IOS isn’t for everyone, though, and there are many great Android phones available this year. This is where we’d usually say that the best Android phones come from Google, as they have the best software and performance. And Google’s Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL are very good phones with the best cameras you can get on any smartphone.
But they have a number of issues that make them difficult to recommend without reservations. They can only be purchased directly from Google or Verizon, meaning you can’t pay for your phone with your service bill if you’re on AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, or any other carrier. Google’s after-purchase support system pales in comparison to Apple’s or even other Android device makers. And frankly, there just aren’t very many cases and accessories available for the Pixel 2 or Pixel 2 XL.
The Pixel phones also had a number of hardware problems and software issues when they came out late last year. Most of those have been addressed with software updates, so the phones are reliable enough to purchase now. But it still doesn’t inspire confidence.
So our recommendation for the best Android phone to buy is Samsung’s Galaxy S9 or S9 Plus. Like the iPhone 8, the S9 pair gives you a choice between small or large and adequate or exceptional battery life. Stepping up to the S9 Plus also gets you a more capable rear camera. But otherwise, they are basically the same phone.
Inside, the S9 has the top-of-the-line processor in the Android world, a great camera, water resistance, wireless charging, and expandable storage. It even has a headphone jack, which is slowly going the way of the buffalo among flagship smartphones.
But the star of the S9 is its display. The super bright, exceptionally vibrant OLED screen stretches to the edges of the device and curves on its sides in an almost liquid fashion. Even though the S9 has basically the same design as last year’s S8, its curved display still makes it a head turner.
Also, thanks to Samsung’s popularity and the support of all four carriers, the S9 has plenty of accessories, from cases to battery packs to wireless chargers, available to it.
Not everything is perfect with the S9. Samsung is terrible at updating the software on its phones, and you’ll have to deal with a bunch of duplicate apps and useless services like Bixby. But it gets enough right that we’re confident in recommending it to anyone looking for an Android phone.
OTHER CONTENDERS
If an iPhone or Samsung aren’t your style, here are some other options that might work for you. We don’t consider any of them to be the best phone for most people, but depending on your needs, budget, or priorities, they could be a better choice for you.
HO CHI MINH CITY: Football scarves, shirts and… eggshell art? World Cup swag has taken a quirky turn in Vietnam where a retired schoolteacher is making mascot memorabilia from hollowed-out eggs, meticulously crafted by hand.
Nguyen Thanh Tam, 67, spends hours every day making the models, driven by his football fanaticism — a passion shared by millions across Vietnam glued to the World Cup since the tournament kicked off in Russia earlier this month.
Most of his tiny statues are of tournament mascot Zabivaka, a wolf in sports goggles kicking a football, and he has models of football heroes Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi in the works.
“Over the past few years, I have been spending my time making football mascots with eggshells as a way for me to show my love for football,” Tam told AFP, speaking before a basket of eggs in his Ho Chi Minh City home.
Though not widespread in Vietnam, using eggshells in art is not unheard of: traditional lacquer works often feature inlaid eggshell in lieu of white paint.
Tam says working with the fragile shells requires sharp focus.
“I love this work because it requires me to be creative, observant, meticulous and relaxed,” Tam added.
He first developed the unique hobby around Christmas in 2002, when he was looking for the right material to make a Santa statue with his 13-year-old students.
Tam decided that an eggshell perfectly captured Saint Nick´s rotund belly.
He eventually married his passion for crafts and football and started making World Cup mascots during the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
Now he has about 1,000 of the small figurines scattered throughout his apartment, some commemorating the 2016 Rio Olympics and Euro 2016 in France.
Others are of celebrities — Charlie Chaplin, Barack Obama, and Gangnam Style´s PSY all feature in his collection — or birds and animals, like his porcine series to mark the Year of the Pig in 2019.
Tam says the biggest challenge is finding the right egg shape to fit the creation, so he has expanded beyond chicken eggs to include ostrich and quail.
He has also widened his repertoire of egg recipes to use up all the yolks and whites he discards to make his art.
Tam doesn´t sell the delicate dolls, preferring instead to keep them on display to wow his visitors.
“I make eggshell art to satisfy my passion, not for commercial purposes,” he said.
He has already received a nod from Vietnam´s record centre for the most eggshell art created — believed to be a niche category — though he has global ambitions.
“I hope one day my eggshell art will be recognised as a world record,” he said with a smile.
Vietnamese real estates giant FLC is going to establish an airline which will frequently fly between Vietnam and East Asian countries.
Bamboo Airways of FLC will operate eight to 10 domestic routes, mainly to coastal cities, in the first two years of operation, and launch international routes, mostly to China, Japan and South Korea, in the third year, the realty group said on Thursday.
Bamboo Airways is scheduled to have a total of 24 domestic routes and 16 international ones by 2023.
According to FLC, which has signed a deal with Airbus to buy 24 A321-Neo planes, Bamboo Airways will offer quality services similar to those of Vietnam Airlines, with charges lower than those of Vietnam’s first budget carrier Vietjet Air.
Vietnam currently has four airlines, namely Vietnam Airlines, Vietjet Air, Jetstar Pacific, and Vietnam Air Services Company (VASCO), with national flag carrier Vietnam Airlines and Vietjet Air currently holding the lion’s share of the local aviation market.
Earlier, two Vietnamese carriers, Air Mekong and Indochina Airlines, closed after a short period of operating, mainly due to fierce competition and high operation cost.
Vietnam’s aviation industry transported 20.3 million passengers in the first five months of this year, up 14 percent, and 112,000 tons of cargoes, up 10.9 percent against the same period last year, said the country’s General Statistics Office.
Vietnam is intensifying surveillance at border gates to timely spot passengers with Ebola symptoms amid recent outbreaks of the disease in some African countries, the Preventive Health Department said on Thursday.
In mid-summer, when more and more Vietnamese students study abroad and foreign visitors are coming to Vietnam for vacations, local quarantine teams at border gates have to work around the clock to detect suspected cases of Ebola infections, isolate and send them to hospitals for further checkups and treatment.
All passengers are supposed to undergo temperature checks using visual infrared thermometers, and those from Ebola-stricken regions have to make additional medical declarations.
From April 4 to June 18, a cumulative total of 60 Ebola cases, including 28 deaths, were reported in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday. The total includes 38 confirmed, 14 probable and eight suspected cases.
At the global level, the risk currently remains low, the WHO said on Wednesday.
How one photographer reveals the hidden art of Vietnam’s vibrant markets
It was the sights and sounds of Hanoi’s street vendors that inspired Dutch photographer Loes Heerink to relocate to the Vietnamese capital some years ago. The fascination developed into a little side project that eventually became the makings of Heerink’s first photo book, Merchants in Motion: The Art of Vietnam’s Street Vendors.
Released last month, Merchants in Motion casts an expressive aerial eye across Hanoi’s street market culture, documenting peddlers as they carry their colorful cargo of fruits, vegetables and flowers fastened to their preferred modes of transportation. The 140-plus collection of photographs—which features everything from longan, durian and rambutan to lychees and flowers—makes everyday market goods appear like ephemeral, edible art installations.
If you take a moment to consider her perspective, these photographs really are a kind of art. And art, oftentimes, takes patience. Heerink would spend hours on perches across the city, waiting for vendors to pass through underneath.
“After six months of taking pictures, I still hadn’t seen a silk flower vendor pass by any of my spots,” Heerink says, describing her search to capture Vietnam’s tradition of handmade artificial flowers. With the help of a Vietnamese friend, Heerink eventually connected with a silk flower vendor named Buoi. “At the time I met her, “Heerink recalls, “she was trying to earn enough money to go home for Christmas.”
Most vendors in Hanoi are female migrants, heading to the city to earn extra money. Some stay year-round, some only when their crops back home don’t need attention. And though Heerink’s project could be taken as exploitative of Hanoi’s locals, to think that is to miss her celebration of life in the bustling Southeast Asian city, which calls to mind the same joy of New York’s The Street Vendor Project, once championed by the late, great Anthony Bourdain on his Queens episode of CNN’s Parts Unknown.
Street vendors all over the world work long hours, often in harsh conditions to provide quick, affordable service to all classes of people. And as Heerink demonstrates, there may be no better way to get to know a city’s beauty than through the stories of its streets.
Emma Orlow is a food writer and cultural event producer interested in the ways art can be used for food justice. She was named a 30 Under 30 by Brooklyn Magazine for 2018. Follow her on Instagram at @emorlow.
According to Google and Temasek eConomy SEA spotlight report, Vietnam’s e-commerce growth is at the second highest in the region.
Specifically, in 2017, Vietnam’s e-commerce growth rate (CAGR) is increasing rapidly at 30 percent, higher than their neighboring country Thailand and Malaysia. techwireasia.com reported
Earlier in 2017, Vietnam E-commerce Association (VECOM) predicted that the country’s e-commerce market can reach US$10 billion within the next five years.
Despite the potential growth, the market is still at the undeveloped stage. Here are 3 key takeaways from our Map of e-commerce, which rank and classify 50 top Vietnam e-commerce sites.
No clear border between C2C and B2C e-commerce
Shopee is one the most renowned C2C e-commerce sites in Vietnam.
After 1.5 years of operation in the country, Shopee has already made it to the top 10 list of e-commerce sites, thanks to its high web traffic.
Other giant C2Cs like Vatgia and Enbac are showing a slow down in terms of traffic growth. The top 3 B2C e-commerce websites like Lazada, Mobile World, and Sendo make up half of the total online shopping visits in Vietnam.
However, their business is not entirely based on the B2C model. For example, Lazada is one of the sites that builds a marketplace within their B2C platform. On one hand, they take care of e-commerce payment, logistics, and delivery as commonly seen in B2C e-commerce model. On the other hand, they have to acquire small businesses to expand their marketplace.
Local e-commerce still dominates the market
It is worth mentioning that foreign e-commerce websites account only 14 percent in Vietnam, while domestic e-commerce sites are growing strong in the country at 86 percent. Vietnamese online shoppers have a high degree of trust on foreign products compared to local goods, according to a survey by Association of High-Quality Vietnamese Goods Producers.
However, the language barrier is a huge obstacle for Vietnamese consumers if they want to purchase from foreign websites. Furthermore, the payment methods also play an indirect influence on the number of online purchases from foreign websites. Vietnamese online shoppers prefer COD as their main payment method. 85 percent of online orders are delivered in the form of COD which is 3.6 times higher than the world average.
Highly fragmented market
Across Southeast Asia, Lazada seems to lead the way in terms of traffic. With further investment from Alibaba Group for Southeast Asia expansion, Lazada is certainly on a promising growing stage.
However, it would take Lazada a longer time to become a dominant player in Vietnam compared to other Southeast Asian countries. More specifically, in Malaysia or Thailand, Lazada occupies up to 50 percent of total online traffic. Whereas, in Vietnam, Lazada only accounts for 19 percent of traffic, followed by Mobile World and Sendo with 15 percent and 12 percent respectively.
Other big e-commerce players like Shopee, Tiki, and Adayroi are also closing the gap with their new funding. While Shopee is back up by SEA, Tiki just recently received a US$44 million funding from JD.com. In such fierce competition, the market needs a longer time to define a clear winner.
*** This is an expert article from the iPrice Group ***
The Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Ministry of Finance have cut petrol prices by VND234 to VND368 per litre from June 22.
The prices of E5 RON92 was cut by VND329 to VND19,611 (USD0.87) per litre and RON95 price was decreased by VND334 to VND21,177. The prices of diesel and kerosene fell to VND17,460 and VND16,054 respectively. Mazut prices remain at VND14,437.
The world average prices of RON92 by June 22 dropped to USD81.25 per barrel, USD4 lower than the previous 15-day period. Since the world prices are lowering, the ministries also drop the fuel prices. Moreover, the fuel stabilisation fund has subsidised prices.
The new prices have taken effect from 3 pm on June 22.
On May 23, the price of RON 95-III rose by VND600 to VND21,511 per litre.
Authorities in Hanoi have decided to cut water and power services to an apartment building as it violates fire safety regulations.
Hanoi Department of Fire and Rescue said on April 20 that they had completed the inspection at the Discovery Complex in Cau Giay District owned by Cau Giay Investment and Trade JSC. The results showed that even though there are many fire safety violations, the investor already let customers move in.
The inspectors have issued administrative fines and asked the investor to stop moving customers in until the violations are dealt with.
On May 28, Cau Giay District People’s Committee ordered to halt the operation of the residential tower B and the commercial tower of the complex.
In an official notification issued last year, Vice Chairman of Hanoi People’s Committee Nguyen Van Suu ordered to cut water and power services to buildings complexes that do not have fire safety certificate. Hanoi Department of Fire and Rescue has issued an official document on April 26 to Hanoi Power Corporation to cut the services.
On June 5, Hanoi Clean Water Company said they would stop providing water to the Discovery Complex. Hanoi Power Corporation has asked Cau Giay Power Company to monitor the fire safety violations and how they are being dealt with at the complex. They will also review and ask subsidiaries to follow the regulations.
Hanoi Department of Fire and Rescue advised home buyers not to move into buildings that lack fire safety certificates.
The Law on Cybersecurity coming into effect in early 2019 will slap taxes on Facebook and Google as well as bring them under the supervision of Vietnamese authorities. However, the two companies have yet to express intention to establish representative offices in Vietnam.
Facebook and Google keep cards close to their chest
After the Law on Cybersecurity was officially approved on June 12 by 86.96 per cent of the delegates attending the latest National Assembly meeting, Facebook and Google have not issued comments about establishing representative offices or opening branches in Vietnam.
This was shared by Nguyen Thanh Hong, member of the Standing Committee of National Defense and Security, at the press conference to announce the results of the fifth National Assembly meeting on June 15.
Vneconomy.vn cited a foreign news source that Facebook and Google were disappointed by the new Law on Cybersecurity. Hong also said that despite having no official information, Facebook’s representative said that they will research and abide by the law.
Regarding Google, dantri.com.vn also quoted the company’s Vietnamese media representative as saying that it will soon make an official statement.
Facebook and Google are storing Vietnamese user data at their data centres in Hong Kong and Singapore. If the two technology giants do not leave the Vietnamese market, they will have to install servers in the country to store domestic users’ data.
Having to pay enough tax for Vietnamese government
Establishing representative offices in Vietnam would mean that Facebook and Google have to be under the Vietnamese authority’s supervision as they store data of Vietnamese individuals, organisations, and firms doing business in the country. In addition, the two global giants have to carry out their obligations stipulated by Vietnamese regulations, including paying taxes for the Vietnamese government via domestic bank accounts.
Currently, data about Facebook and Google’s 2016 and 2017 revenue in Vietnam has yet to be officially announced, but data from 2015 released by Vinalink show that Facebook led the online advertising market in Vietnam with the revenue of VND3 trillion ($132.1 million), followed by Google with VND2.2 trillion ($96.9 million).
According to the Department of Broadcasting and Electronic Information, in 2017 Facebook and Google accounted for 80 per cent of the online advertising market in Vietnam.
According to Article 13 of the Law on Corporate Income Tax, newly set up enterprises under investment projects in geographical areas with extreme socioeconomic difficulties, economic zones or hi-tech parks; newly set up enterprises under investment projects in the domains of high-technology, scientific research, and technological development, development of the state’s infrastructure works of special importance, or manufacture of software products are entitled to a tax rate of 10 per cent for 15 years.
Facebook and Google may be classified as high-technology companies and will be eligible for the preferential tax rate of 10 per cent for the first 15 years.
Thus, applying the 10 per cent tax rate to their 2015 revenue in Vietnam, the total the two giants would need to pay VND520 billion ($22.9 million) in income tax, more than four times higher than what they paid to the Vietnamese government in 2016-2017 ($5.28 million).
In addition, to establish representative offices or open branches in Vietnam, Facebook and Google have to hire local employees and carry out all regulations of the Labour Code of Vietnam, including paying social insurance and health insurance for their Vietnamese employees.
In Singapore, Facebook and Google employ 174 and 1,000 people, respectively.
With the two firms’ average salaries of $13,000 and $25,000 (emolument.com) and the huge number of users in Vietnam, it is expected that Facebook and Google will steadily raise the number of employees as well as scale up business in Vietnam, like it did in Singapore.
The Ministry of Transport has denied to let the ride-hailing firm Grab expand operations into other provinces including Ninh Thuan, Dong Nai and Gia Lai.
The two-year pilot project of applying science and technology to support management and connect passenger services of contracted cars was approved and carried out in five provinces and cities, including Hanoi, HCM City, Danang, Khanh Hoa and Quang Ninh, from 2016 to 2018.
The Ministry of Transport said they always supported technology application to improve services but it would only be applied to licensed firms and vehicles. The firms must obey the regulations, tax duties to ensure a healthy competition.
It then denied Grab’s proposal to expand businesses to other cities and provinces that are not included in the pilot project. The ministry also asked departments of transport to work with transportation firms and associations to ensure that the regulations about applying science and technology in transportation are followed.
Grab Vietnam was asked to not sign contracts and use the technology with drivers without permission from the local departments of transport.
Early this year, Grab Vietnam was already asked to stop operating in several provinces including Thua Thien-Hue, Ba Ria-Vung Tau and Lam Dong. However, Grab said it was a kind of e-commerce transaction platform and was registered with the Ministry of Industry and Trade so it can operate nationwide in accordance with a resolution on e-commerce.
The total expense that one student may have to pay for study overseas is no less than VND2 billion. If the student later finds a job with the monthly salary of VND20 million, a relatively high pay in Vietnam, he or she would only be able to cover expenses after 10 years.
After finishing high school, Le Quoc Anh left Vietnam for Japan, where he studied technology at a university in Tokyo.
Despite the bachelor’s degree granted by a Japanese school, it was still difficult for Anh to find a job in Vietnam. He applied for jobs at many companies. Some employers refused him because of the lack of experience, while others offered low pay.
In early 2017, he accepted a job at a private company for which he got VND6 million a month. However, as he could not see a future there, he gave up the job. Since then, he has been running a filling station.
“I feel sad that my current job has no relation with the major. But I have no other choice. If I continued to work for the private company, I will never be able to cover the expenses for the overseas study,” he said.
Regarding expenses, Anh said he stayed four years in Japan and had to pay over VND200 million a year in tuition and spend VND25 million a month on basic needs. So, the total expense was VND2 billion.
The total expense that one student may have to pay for study overseas is no less than VND2 billion. If the student later finds a job with the monthly salary of VND20 million, a relatively high pay in Vietnam, he or she would only be able to cover expenses after 10 years.
“You have money and you want to have good experience when studying abroad. You want to access modern education. Okay, you can go. But if you borrow money for your overseas study, you will regret your decision,” he said.
Nguyen Phuc Hung from Thai Binh province obtained a scholarship to study journalism at Ulyanovsk University some years ago, but still had to pay VND1 billion for a six-year stay in Russia. The amount of money is high for families of farmers.
Hung said many friends of his, after returning to Vietnam, are doing jobs which in no way have relations to their majors. Some of them once worked for state agencies, but they later quit.
“The title of ‘state official’ just represents vainglory. You cannot live on it,” he said.
Trinh Van Anh in Hoang Mai district in Hanoi spent seven years to obtain bachelor’s and master’s degrees in France. The study cost her VND5 billion.
Though Anh has found a good job in Vietnam which brings her VND20 million a month,
Anh said she doesn’t know when she can pay back VND5 billion to her parents.
Lawyer Tran Thi Ngoc Nu is indefatigable in her mission to protect children from sexual abuse and assault.
According to a report by VNS, for the last five years, as head of the city’s the Association for Protection of Children’s Rights’ lawyers’ division, Nu has provided free legal help for victims of child abuse.
Known for her proactive approach, she knocks on doors of government agencies and searches for evidence to present to the court.
She has even petitioned Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam for his help in several cases when the police did not recommend criminal proceedings against alleged abusers.
“Every day, the lawyers’ division receives four to five calls and letters asking for help,” the 62-year-old said. “The number is higher than in the past because more people are aware of criminal proceedings against abusers. Also, the new Law on Children came into effect in June last year.”
Parents of the abused children who speak out are “brave”, Nu said, adding that emotional scars from sexual and physical abuse can last a lifetime, and some children commit suicide.
Whenever Nu speaks about abused children whose cases are not referred by police to the courts, she is often moved to tears.
Every abuse case is important, but she is especially concerned with sexual abuse of girls with disabilities.
Her concern led her and several friends in 2013 to establish the Association for Protection of Children’s Rights and its lawyers’ division, which seeks justice for the victims by filing lawsuits.
“Before this was established, victims and their parents did not know where to go for help,” she said.
She began with 10 lawyers at a time when the public was wary of seeking help.
But now, after winning cases that have sent sexual offenders to prison, parents and children trust Nu and the lawyers’ division, which has grown to 30 lawyers.
They provide free legal assistance for victims and their parents in the city and provinces in the country.
A father in Binh Thuan Province, 200 kilometres from Saigon, for example, came to the lawyers’ division to ask for help after his daughter was sexually assaulted by a 28-year-old man.
The investigation police did not commence criminal proceedings against the man because of insufficient evidence.
Nu returned to his hometown to seek evident and force the investigation police to start criminal proceedings.
Finally, the man was sentenced to two years in prison after Nu filed a lawsuit.
Lawyer Tran Thi Ngoc Nu is indefatigable in her mission to protect children from sexual abuse and assault.
Even though Nu has at times been physically attacked by relatives of alleged abusers in the courtroom and received threatening phone messages, she has not allowed this to deter her from seeking justice for the children.
“My colleagues and I sometimes want to give up, but when we think about the children who need protection, we want to pursue our path for justice,” Nu said.
Do Ngoc Thanh, a lawyer with the lawyers’ division, said that Nu was a role model and inspired him in his work.
“She is both a colleague and a mentor who provides guidance on collecting documents and finding evidence to win in court,” Thanh said.
Nu and the other lawyers often carry out mock trials in residential areas in the city and provinces to educate parents and children about sexual abuse and assault.
They also provide information to them on what they can do after the abuse occurs.
At the mock trials, the Law on Children is also discussed.
Nữ, who also works on domestic abuse cases, received merit certificates from the Vietnam Fatherland Front Central Committee in 2016 and from the Vietnam Association for the Protection of Children’s Rights last year.
Besides work on her current cases, Nu is trying to improve the laws that protect children. She has asked the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs’ Department of Child Care and Protection to streamline the process needed to prosecute child sexual and physical abuse cases so that abusers would be punished as soon as possible.
The term “influencer marketing” is a common marketing buzzword used globally by brands and advertising agencies to target specific groups of consumers by involving an individual or personality with a strong social media presence to create branded and unbranded content.
Influencers—also generally referred to as Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs)—are seen as both ambassadors for a particular brand and a representation of the typical consumer with an opinion that goes far and wide, thereby being able to influence consumer choices.
By helping to build awareness and sales among a target demographic—usually the tech-savvy and those who spend more time online than in front of the television—influencer marketing is on its way to becoming more popular than traditional marketing tactics relying on print and television ads.
So who are the notable influencers in Vietnam today?
According to Influence Asia Council, Vietnamese influencers are listed in various categories. Well-known “Beauty” KOLs include: Changmakeup, Chloe Nguyen, Trinh Pham and Quynh Anh Shyn.Decao, Chau Bui and Kelbin Lei are sought after for their opinions on fashion. And for food, Helen Le, Kiyoshi Jiro, Ninh Tito and Esheep Kitchen top the charts in terms of followers and social media reach.
Other content categories where these figures are active include health, lifestyle and parenting. YouTube personalities such as An Nguy, Pho Dac Biet, JVEvermind and HuyMe Productions are also constantly engaged by brands to incorporate branded and unbranded content into their channels.
Becoming an Influencer
Celebrity endorsements on television commercials are still a common marketing tool for brands. However, these commercials are mostly staged and the personality in question may or may not actually be using these products.
This is part of what gives the opinions of KOLs a stronger edge. They typically have active Instagram and Facebook accounts specialising in a particular topic, and they start to gain recognition as an opinion leader.
Beauty bloggers for example, often start off by highlighting products which they feel are best for their skin and by applying the products in front of a camera. They then post reviews about the product. This format gives consumers a chance to see the products in action, with a credible review by someone who actually used it.
Sometimes the road to becoming an influencer can appear by chance. For example, when popular YouTube content—like video game commentary by bloggers like PewdiePie, or even videos of new products getting unboxed by tech geeks—receive high viewer numbers the content creator can be transformed into an influencer.
GIF source: Chloe Nguyen
Almost Everyone Online Follows One
In Vietnam, influencer marketing has reached new heights with global brands such as Samsung getting into the fray. Samsung recently launched their Galaxy S9 phone with a campaign featuring YouTube personalities creating content using the phone’s camera and highlighting its enhanced slow motion feature.
More than 60 percent of internet users of all age groups in Vietnam have interacted with an influencer by either liking or sharing their content, according to consumer research firm DI Marketing.
Nearly half of internet users have gone one step further and commented directly on the content.
Most internet users in the country rely on Facebook or YouTube to follow influencers. According to a 2016 survey by DI Marketing, 84 percent of respondents follow an influencer on Facebook, 61 percent on YouTube and 59 percent rely on online news sites. The wide reach of these influencers is the main reason why marketers in the country are resorting to social networks as a key marketing channel.
Three Modes of Engagement
There are three styles that define the way influencers and brands interact.
The first is that of mutual benefit.
Influencers and brands can share a symbiotic relationship by giving influencers the freedom to post content the way they always do, while incorporating the brand’s message. This was achieved by Samsung Vietnam, with the Samsung Insider Circle, a community made up of invited influencers with tailor-made content for the brand. This allows influencers to post Samsung-related content on their own channels without veering away from their usual content and still get paid for it.
One example would be the social media campaign for the new Galaxy S9 phone where KOLs such as beauty blogger Chloe Nguyen released videos of her usual makeup routines that were shot on the phone, using its “super slo-mo” function and uploaded on her Facebook and Instagram accounts. Although the actual video was unbranded, the captions that accompanied the videos, including the hashtags #samsung_vietnam and #WithGalaxyS9 were more than enough for audiences to know what camera the videos were shot on.
The second style is drawing the KOLs by designing events tailored to the influencer’s needs.
Influencer marketing is still a very new trend and many brands view influencers as a media channel, instead of a creative in their own right. Le Meridien Saigon solved this by offering a 6-month long campaign that invited influencers to give workshops and be a part of the hotel’s coterie of luminaries.
The third style is to provide a real experience.
The current practice among beauty brands is to provide a sample of their product to an influencer to showcase and review, which usually yields a positive response by the influencer.
For the launch of beauty brand Kiehl’s’ Calendula line for example, they created a creative concept titled Peace, Love and Calendula and sent out physical invites to influencers for an event at Takashimaya Saigon. At the event, beauty bloggers were invited to the Kiehl’s counter to get exclusive access to the products, and the chance to meet their fans while at it.
This turned what could have just been a digital campaign, into an interactive, offline experience where products could be seen and touched and the audience could see the product applied in real time on their favourite personality, instead of just through a cold photograph or video on their newsfeed.
If You’re Big, It Pays
As the relationship between brand and influencer continues to evolve, with more integrated brand messaging platforms thanks to digital marketing agencies and influencer platforms innovating ways to reach bigger audiences, being an influencer might just be a legitimate career path for those seeking to establish themselves as a credible source of information, while enjoying the spotlight and the many benefits that come with it.
YouTube pays the most, according to Forbes. Those with 7 million followers earned US$300,000 for sponsored content. On Facebook and Instagram, the influencers reported earnings roughly half that.
Influencer platforms such as Hiip, the largest in Vietnam, has a database of over 2000 influencers with a clientele that includes international brands such as Heineken and Unilever. There are also dedicated media production companies such as Yeah1 Network that specialise in working together with influencers to create video content for them in partnership with brands.
Image source: image.vtc.vn
Ultimately, it is up to the influencer to determine if they want to be a credible source of information for their followers, or turn into a media channel themselves by becoming the bridge between brand and consumer, or in an ideal situation, striking the right balance between both. This can only be done by being particular with the campaigns they choose to get themselves into and not be bogged down by posting content they don’t believe in.
