This is my guest post for Vietnam Talking Point (VTP) – a news and editorial journal designed to shed a fresh perspective on Vietnam and Vietnamese issues. It is part of a larger effort called OneVietnam Network. OneVietnam Network is building the first online network for the Vietnamese community and it will be launched in summer 2010. For now, it needs 10000 fans on Facebook to be able to look for sponsorship. Support One Vietnam Network on Facebook here.

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Some people might say that if 2007 and 2008 are the years of Facebook clones, 2009 is the year of Twitter clones and 2010 is going to be the fail of both in Vietnam. However, the doom of Facebook and Twitter clones does not necessarily mean something bad. In fact, it has helped our Internet startups get real and forced them to work on practical ideas instead of chasing after some Facebook or Google miracles that happen on the other side of the planet. Let’s check out some of the most exciting ideas that tackle real problems in our country. If you know any that is not on the list, please do not hesitate to comment below!

Catch a bus online – http://www.donxebuyt.com/

As you might already know or might not want to accept it (in case you are the one who is responsible for it), the bus system in Vietnam is a mystery with random schedules and routes. There are often cases when commuters just hop on whatever bus passing by to ask if this bus goes to a location and then hop off if it doesn’t. Realizing this problem, Nguyen Van Thanh – a 29-year-old programmer – has built a website where users can look up for bus direction from a place to another. Users can also look up for direction for cars, motorbikes and walking. When asked about revenue model, Thanh honestly answered: “This service targets mostly students and workers with low income, I haven’t thought of any way to make money yet. However, a young businessman who wants to contribute to community has invested in the project without asking for profit.” Thanh hopes that when the website is more popular, it can save time of hundreds of thousands of daily bus commuters in Ho Chi Minh City. However, how to promote this website to the worker class who is assumed to be not very geeky is a challenge.

*My 2 cents: Somehow the website reminds me of Singapore’s www.gothere.sg – my life saver service when I was in Singapore. I wonder if Thanh has ever thought of bringing this service to mobile phone, either as an application or an SMS-based service.

Delta Viet – Make your Make dreams come true http://deltaviet.com

A project by students and for students, Delta Viet was created by 2 university students named Le Viet Hong and Nguyen Thanh Minh. It might sound ironic that I categorize the project as practical while it taps into the most unrealistic thing ever: Dreams. The main philosophy behind Delta Viet is: “Life is nothing if you don’t have a dream” and “Dream is only dream until you work on it”. Delta Viet provides a platform where users can write down and manage their life goals and creates a community where people can support each other’s dream as well as find those with the same dreams. The website also publishes touching and motivative true stories written by its users. The system works! Born exactly one year ago, the website has already got some recognization like the first prize at “Starting a technology business with 300,000,000VND” (Khởi sự doanh nghiệp công nghệ với 300 triệu) competition.

Comments from a founder of Delta Viet Le Viet Hong:

“The idea behind Delta Viet is similar to that of www.43things.com, however, Delta Viet is focusing more on social activities because writing goal down is not a common thing in Vietnam. The revenue will come from advertising, training and premium memberships. Generally, there is no competition because student segment is not that potential.”

Digital “So lien lac” - www.liva.com.vn

In Vietnam, there is something called “So liên lac” – the little book invented to facilitate communication between teachers and parents and to betray all mischievous activities created by students. It was no doubt my enemy during secondary school; and it’s such a relief to know that its digital version wasn’t thought of until 2006 [when I already finished secondary school] by Viettel – a giant telco in Vietnam. The idea was soon copied by few other mobile value added service providers. Parents can send an SMS and receive their kids’ school results by SMS everyday. To make it worse, in 2009, Liva introduced Internet-based “so liên lac” where parents can log in and see their kids’ results, class’ schedule & extra curriculum, teachers’ comments, etc. and contact school immediately. This service is still under testing beta.

“Xe om” Online – http://xeom.com.vn

This is the concept that made me laugh so hard that I almost fell of the chair. Xeom, literally translated as “Hugging motorbike” and academically translated as “Taxi motorbike”, is the most popular means of travel for those who don’t own a transportation in Vietnam because it’s much more convenient than bus and much cheaper than “Taxi car”. Xeom business is very random: normally you just need a motorbike and 2 helmets to become a Xeom driver. However, a group of foreigners and locals has decided to systemize it. They created a website at http://xeom.com.vn. The project aims at building the largest network of professional Xeom in Vietnam. Clients can choose their Xeom based on age, profile, language skills, city knowledge, etc. According to the website, the project has a lot of meaningful social goals like: “Elevating the pride of Xeom’s”, “Reducing pollution – Xeom’s consume lesser fuels than taxis”, “Reducing traffic congestions”, etc. I have no idea if it should be called a web service or how the execution of the project is going on, but A+ for the idea.

As 2010 approached, people started to make predictions about Internet trends in Vietnam this year. One of the most discussed topic is probably the future of blogging. Will the death of Yahoo! 360 foreshadow the end of blogs or will it open the door to more professional blogging? As a full-time slacker who is especially interested in blogosphere, I decided to stop stalking others’ discussion and chip in my thoughts.

Two main theories

After stalking Ngoc Hieu’s blog post and the discussion on Linkhay as well as talking to some friends, I came to a conclusion that there are 2 most noticeable points of view regarding this matter.

1. Blogs will die

Those who are into this theory think that blogging already died together with the death of Yahoo! 360. People become more lazy and lazy due to the ubiquity and convenience of social networks like Facebook. Who cares about wordy posts while they can update their friends instantly with a status or a quick note? After all, one of the most important reasons that made Yahoo! 360 popular is that it allowed users to connect with their Yahoo! Messenger friends.

In this theory, blogging will be limited to the use of industry professionals and companies only.

2. It’s time for blogging to show its true value

People in this theory think that the death of Yahoo! 360 also killed the personal/emotional/non-sense blogs, and opened the area of professional blogging. Blogs on Yahoo! 360 were never considered serious. Now serious bloggers are no longer put in the same class with Yahoo! 360 bloggers. The view has been cleaned for more professional platforms like WordPress or Blogspot to show up and attract more users. Everything has just started!

My 2 cents

Apparently, both schools meet at the point that “non-sense `personal blogging will die”. I, however, go for another theory which is “Blogging, any kind, will prosper”. Why?

1. Vietnamese people LOVE blogging

In Vietnam, it used to be that “if you’re on the Internet, it’s very likely that you’ll use Yahoo! Messenger; and if you use Yahoo! Messenger, it’s very likely that you’ll have a blog”. Yes (almost) everybody (those who had access to Internet only) blogged!

I believe this habit is something beyond the existence of Yahoo! 360. Yahoo! 360 was just a platform and replaceable. Users just need some time to find/ get used to a new platform, and need some motivation to start all over again!

2. If there is a demand, there will be a supply

A lot of marketers I know have complained that they tried to look for a decent blogger to advertise some kind of products, but hardly could they find one.

Well, maybe not yet. I meant the demand for blog advertising is really high. And if there is a demand, there will be a supply. It might be hard to see it from the point of view of an individual, but if there is some serious effort, things can be changed.

3. Personal/emotional blogs are not non-sense

People tend to think that nobody cares to read personal/emotional blogs, but actually there are lot of people who care, A LOT.

Two of Time’s 25 best blogs in 2009 are highly personal blogs where the authors talk about nothing other than their daily lives. If you think that this odd only happens in Western world, then look at some countries in Southeast Asia. The winner of the best Asian blog at Nuffnang APAC blogging awards 2009 is the blog about daily life of a girl. In Philippines, there are some personal (non-sense) blogs that attract thousands of subscribers.

In Vietnam, why not? Oh come on, not everyone’s life is boring.

Your bet?

How about you? Do you think blogging will die or prosper? Please cast your vote here. Your opinions are needed!

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Tags: Blogging, Predicts, Vietnam

I used to think that people in Southeast Asia are somewhat similar due to common characteristics in geology, ethnic background and economy. But I was totally wrong. Working and a little traveling have given me a chance to take a closer look into what SEA people are doing online which reveal a lot of differences.

Blogging

I once thought that most SEA people were introvert, but it seems to be that this statement can only be applied to the Vietnamese. I was surprised to find out how active people in other SEA countries are on the Internet.

In Vietnam, there are only a small number of “professional” bloggers. Most “hot” bloggers emerged from Yahoo! 360 and became famous because of sensational rag news, sex, short stories, etc. (things that tradional media can’t mention). It’s true that bloggers in Vietnam aren’t paid much attention. Earlier this year I attended PestaBlogger in Indonesia and I was amazed. It attracted about 1000 bloggers of all social groups: young, old (I even met some 50-something bloggers there); male, female (though male bloggers seem to be more prevalent); poor, rich. They blogged about anything: politics and other sensitive topics. Every blogs in Indonesia [Blogger.com ranks 5 and WordPress.com ranks 7 in Alexa Indonesia]!!

Blogging is also very popular in Malaysia [Blogger.com ranks 6 and WordPress.com ranks 15 in Alexa Malaysia].

In Philippines, there is even a bloggers association and the Philippines Blog Awards. [They call themselves a blogging nation].

It’s also true with Youthsays.com. Even though there are only 13 330 members in YouthSays Indonesia, new questions are submitted at the rate of 1 question/min. YouthSays Philippines is also much more active than YouthSays Vietnam.

Web Services

Generally, youths in Southeast Asia favor internationl products against local products. In almost every country in SEA except Vietnam [Thank to Zing.vn and VnExpress.net], 5 first places on Alexa belong to internationl products [the common denominator are Facebook, Google, Yahoo, Windows Live/YouTube]. Although Facebook is now dominant, there are still some other popular SNS and they vary in each country. Thai people show highly favor for Hi5 while the Flippino go Friendster.

Friendster

Unlike in Vietnam, Friendster is a little bit popular in other countries in SEA. As we all know, it just had a brand makeover to target Asian youths, makes it look like just a MySapce-wannabe (according to a friend of mine). The color, logo and tagline are new but the features almost remain the same except they launched “Friendster Virtual Gift Shop” and “Friendster Games” that make it look just like an Asian-born product.

Friendster claimed that it “pioneered social networking, and today is a leading web site throughout Southeast Asia, with over 75 million registered users and over 90 percent of daily traffic coming from the region.”. But from what I observed, Facebook is winning it over.

According to Reuters, there is a rumor that Friendster will be sold off by the end of this year to an Asian Internet company with the value of at least $100M. Our Vinagame might be interested [I'm just joking, but who knows, Vinagame is valued at $500M, they are rich].

In August 2008, it got funded $20M by IDG Ventures. Around that time, they did some pretty noisy marketing campaign in Vietnam but didn’t get any success.

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Some quick facts:

1. Only in Vietnam that people love reading news that much. Of Top 10 websites on Alexa Vietnam, there are 3 newspapers, 1 portal and 1 porn site lol

2. Singapore has the highest Internet penetration rate, 72.4 % population, Brunei ranks 2nd with 55.9% while Burma has the lowest, only 0.2%. Burnese government imposes very very strict censorship upon Internet usage. In Laos, there are only 130,000 (1.9% population) and in Cambodia there are only 74000 (0.5% population).

3. In Singapore, there are only 3,370,000 Internet users but 1,789,840 Facebook users which means more than 50% Internet users there on Facebook. The rate is also super high in Indonesia where there are 30,000,000 Internet but more than 14,000,000 Facebook users. The Indonesian do not only love blogging, they also love facebooking

Tags: facebook, Friendster, malaysia, Southeast Asia, Vietnam, YouthSays

I haven’t blogged for a while, and apparently, the less you write, the less topic you can think of. Since my birthday, I’ve wanted to start blogging again yet can’t think of anything interesting enough.

It’s not because there is nothing good happening to me. In fact, I’ve never seen my life as exciting as it is now. I’m studying hard and working hard. I’ve just taken TOELF and SAT 2 while my SAT is coming within 3 weeks. My Spanish is getting better, now I can read BBC perfectly in Spanish. FHV [Free Hugs Vietnam] has an amazing team, coolest members and so many upcoming events. They are worth-checking out, trust me. Sometimes I can’t believe I’m that lucky to have you guys with me. SEAChange - the movement for youth in Southeast Asia that I’m involved in as its Vietnam Community Leader is taking its peak!!! Can’t wait to meet Biz Stone and Nando Parrado my hero at YES2009. I will also start a small 2-week project next Monday - my very first one of this kind. To make things even cooler, BarCamp Saigon will be held on Nov 29 with supports from some [BIG] names [FHV will also be taking care of BarCamp Saigon's volunteers]. My schedule for November is totally booked already with full of events and travel. Yes, the most exciting part is that, I’m moving, again. I have a very interesting plan that I’d love to share with you next month.

And well, it’s not that nothing bad happens to me. Shit happens as it does all the time!! Exams, work pressure, family’s loss, misunderstandings, the broken laptop, SERIOUS trouble with … [I really don't want to talk about it, it makes me feel deeply depressed], nightmares, and esp. the death of my new-born cousin, all of these together have worn me down. My hair keeps falling out and I have about 1 kilogram of medicine to take. I know I’m at the turning point of my life; and it’s never been easy. The only thing I can do now is to try harder & harder with the hope that life will turn into the better, not the worse.

I don’t update my blog or tweet much these days, but I will be back after everything is settled, maybe in November. Thinking of being left out makes me feel so dead

And now, enjoy a cute story from FHV ^_^ I’m so in love with it.

The first part was found somewhere on the Internet, the last one was designed by Simpleman

Tags: barcampsaigon, Chip, FHV, SAT, SEAChange