Online advertising market grows rapidly in Vietnam: foreign researchers

Vietnam’s online advertising market has posted a higher growth rate than the global average, according to Cimigo, an independent team of marketing and brand research specialists in the Asia-Pacific region.

In its ‘Vietnam’s Online Advertising Revenue Report 2009’ released recently, Cimigo said that the total revenues from online advertising in the country in 2009 were estimated at US$15.5 million, up 71 percent from the previous year.

However, the study, which is based on a large survey of online publishers and media agencies and is the first of its kind in Vietnam, pointed out that the full potential of Vietnam’s online advertising market has not yet been tapped into and its growth rate has failed to keep up with the country’s economic expansion.

The Internet plays an increasingly important role in Vietnamese people’s lives, but advertising via the Internet in Vietnam only makes up a small part of the total investment in advertising compared with other regional countries.

According to statistics produced in 2008, online advertising accounted for just 1.5 percent of the advertising market, while television and publications held over 80 percent of the total.

More than a half of the Vietnamese population have access to the Internet and spend hours surfing it every week, said Cimigo’s Online Director Lukas Mira, adding that, advertisers, however, still remain doubtful about using this method of advertising to approach customers.

Industry experts are optimistic about the prospects for the development of the online advertising market while the number of Internet users is rising fast. A study conducted by the Vietnam Internet Centre shows that more than 23 million Vietnamese people, equivalent to 27 percent of the total population, have regular access to the Internet and go online every day.

Nguyen Hung, Director of the Kiemviec.com Company, said that in the recent past, online advertising had been controversially preferred to advertising in the printed press, as most Internet users are have higher-than-average incomes and like shopping. Moreover, online advertising costs much less than conventional forms of advertising, he said.

Tags: Vietnam Online advertising market