Vietnam’s media market holds a lot of potential

Berlin, 27th September 2011 – “Very dynamic” is Florian Tausch’s verdict of Vietnam’s media market. In his 12-page document the author gives deep insights based on his expert knowledge of the country. “There are many good reasons why the Association of German Magazine Publishers (VDZ) focuses on the media market Vietnam”, says Kai H. Helfritz, Managing Director of VDZ Akademie and also responsible for the resort Foreign Markets within the VDZ:

• With an average annual growth of 7.5% in the last decade Vietnam is one of the absolute winners in the boom region Asia. In the course of few years a highly ambitious middle class willing to apply their spending power has emerged due to increasing incomes and purchase power.
• The population is young and, among other things, with a literacy rate of 93% well qualified.
• The number of internet users has risen by 12,000% between 2000 and 2010. 31% of the Vietnamese population is using the internet, two thirds of them on a daily base. More than 40% of internet users are using mobile services.
• Interest in media, particularly in magazines, is very high. As an ongoing trend poorly produced titles are still being replaced or complemented by those of higher quality. “Many Vietnamese titles are poorly edited and not produced to a good quality standard”, says Stan Gunn, General Manager of Sun Flower Media.
• Advertising expenditures for magazines are rising. According to an Advertising Expenditure Forecast by ZenithOptimedia they amounted to 57 Mio Dollar in 2011, twice the amount of 2005.

Involvement in Vietnam’s media market holds a lot of promise, but also special challenges, which the study describes in detail.

• Foreign investment in Vietnam’s media sector is only possible with the involvement of a third party. All control of the media is exerted by the state or state owned institutions assigning title licences.
• For this reason every international publishing house has to co-operate with a Vietnamese partner company, which should have the best possible connections to government authorities.
• Such partner companies have to be very carefully chosen, otherwise the partner might use the investor’s expertise for the production of their own titles.

Licences have been used for almost all foreign titles entering the market in the past. In addition to this some foreign companies have entered Vietnam’s media market in their own right, such as Ringier (already 18 years running) or the international media company IDG.

The study draws on the author’s expert knowledge and assessments. Florian Tausch lived in Vietnam for four years, where he worked for Burda Rizzoli and for Sun Flower Media as head of the development department and head of marketing. In addition to this Florian Tausch has obtained insights by several other experts of the subject for his documentation.

This 12-pages study is the newest publication by the VDZ’s resort “Foreign Markets”, which assists members of Association of German Magazine Publishers (VDZ) to open up and expand into new, international markets

The study can be ordered as pdf document for the price of 59 Euro (plus VAT) for members and for non-members for the price of 79 Euro (plus VAT) from Anett Breitsprecher, a.breitsprecher@vdz-akademie.de.