Việt Nam was a 'bright star' for user-generated content, said Zhen Fang, Roblox international market director. — Photo vtv.vn

HÀ NỘI — Việt Nam is in the top five countries in the world for game publishing, with 4.2 billion downloads.

Revenues from games and applications in Việt Nam are expected to reach US$2.7 billion by 2026.

This information was shared by Zuy Nguyen, an international growth consultant for apps, gaming and entertainment in charge of the Southeast Asian market for Google Asia-Pacific, at a recent event called GameVerse 2024.

The consultant pointed out factors that contributed to the rapid growth of the Vietnamese game industry.

First, the country has a very young community of game developers who are willing to try new things, he noted.

Nguyen also said that gaming is considered an important export segment, so it is well supported with investments.

Gaming businesses have also cooperated to develop together. The emergence of an alliance of Vietnamese game developers has brought the gaming ecosystem to a new level, he added.

Vietnamese programmers in particular have a fierce and creative entrepreneurial spirit, he said.

Zhen Fang, Roblox international market director, said that Việt Nam was a 'bright star' for user-generated content (UGC).

In addition to the number of creative young users, the country also has an infrastructure which is ready to test technology to keep up with trends, said Fang.

Although the Vietnamese game market is potential and has a lot of room to develop thanks to the large population size and higher level of telecommunications infrastructure compared to some other countries in the region, Việt Nam's online gaming industry has still not met expectations.

The industry's revenue is still modest. In addition, the number of gaming businesses tends to decrease, as the industry is still facing many problems like social prejudice, unfair competition and pirated games.

Businesses in the industry said that the after-tax profit margin of the Vietnamese gaming industry is currently only 3-5 per cent of revenue.

Revenues for Vietnamese businesses only account for 22 per cent of the domestic mobile game market, with the remainder belonging to companies headquartered outside Việt Nam.

The Vietnamese gaming industry revenue is less than 0.5 per cent of the total global value.

Lã Xuân Thắng, director of VNGGame Online Game Publishing, said that many products from Vietnamese game publishers ranked among the top five in Southeast Asia, but many products have not yet come close to world standards and have a short lifespan.

Along with technology, attracting capital should be considered an important driving force to help Việt Nam catch up with game market development in other countries, said Thắng.

To attract investment, game makers must have ideas, vision and quality products that are recognised and used by the gaming community, he added.

“In the long term, the true value of products created matters. We, like other game businesses, always desire to find good ideas and good products to not only serve users, but also to be recognised on a global scale," stated Thắng.

As for management agencies, Lê Quang Tự Do, director of the Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC)'s Authority of Broadcasting and Electronic Information, said that although the Vietnamese game industry has many advantages, it needs to build a good foundation to continue writing the 'billion dollar' dream in the next five years.

One of the first priorities is training. The MIC coordinated with relevant units to implement programmes aiming to build human resources for the gaming industry last year.

Notably, the Việt Nam Posts and Telecommunications Institute of Technology is preparing to launch the first formal university programme dedicated to the gaming industry.

Another priority is to revamp tax policy for the gaming industry. Currently, the Government has not only removed the special consumption tax for gaming businesses, but has also asked the MIC to develop more tax incentives for the industry, said Do. — VNS