Rumors of Yahoo closes its offices to escape from Vietnam were settled off when Yahoo officially announced that it would open a subsidiary company here to better serve its sales & marketing strategies in this market. The move will take place on Feb 20. Vietnamese – languages websites will still be operated by Yahoo! Southeast Asia headquartering in Singapore. For more details, click here. or:

“Under Yahoo’s long-term plan, the company will implement many investment projects in Vietnam through the forthcoming subsidiary, and cooperate with some Vietnamese partners to establish a joint venture to localize its digital content for Vietnamese Internet users.” (SaigonTimes)

Seems like Yahoo! is trying its best to make money out ouf its 5th largest market in the world. Some acquisitions are negotiated, significantly is between VON (Vietnam Online Network) and Yahoo! Vietnam over the destiny of Timnhanh. After “dirty content” scandal on Timnhanh servers and  huge lay-off, it seems to be the best escape for Timnhanh. The price is not yet revealed, but it’s supposed to be much cheaper than unsuccesful negotiation one year ago. Looking forward to seeing Yume.vn to join Yahoo! 360 & Yahoo! 360 Plus family. (Someone from VON plz confirm that rumor).

About Yahoo! Vietnam & the market:

• Yahoo! totally dominates Vietnamese Internet users with about 16M – 18M users (out of 20M Internet users in total) for all Yahoo! services.  Its locally relevant and essential services accessed by 90% of internet audience in the country.
• Yahoo! Messenger is the most popular chat engine in Vietnam with approximately13M – 15M users.
• Yahoo! Mail reaches out to most of the total internet users in Vietnam and is the most used personal email engine.
• Yahoo! 360 in Vietnam has approximately 2M accounts out of 5M accounts of this services worldwide. (this one is not reliable)
• Yahoo! Music for Vietnam was shut down last month (Jan ‘09) due to issues over music copyright, local partner selection and digital content.

Tags: Timnhanh, Vietnam, VON, Yahoo