Vietnam: e-business
- Volgens het Vietnamese statistiekbureau hadden in februari 2011 172,6 miljoen mensen een telefoonabonnement; 90 procent daarvan voor mobiele telefonie.
- Eind 2010 hadden 27,4 miljoen mensen een internetaansluiting. Dat is meer dan eenderde van de bevolking.
- De vraag naar internetdienstverlening blijft stijgen en de netwerken worden steeds sneller. Sinds maart 2008 mogen diverse internetproviders mobiele WIMAX-diensten aanbieden.
Uitgebreide informatie is beschikbaar gesteld door de Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). Meer informatie leest u in onderstaande summary van EIU.
According to the Vietnam E-Commerce Report 2009, published by the Ministry of Industry and Trade in February 2010, 12% of 2,004 enterprises it polled in 2009 acknowledged participation in online marketplaces such as Alibaba.com and EC21.com. This figure was higher than 10% in 2007 and unchanged from 12% in 2008. (The ministry had not released a 2011 edition of the report by April 2011). The report noted that 22% of the enterprises surveyed had used their websites to receive orders/purchases of their products and services; 24% of the enterprises said they had placed orders using the Internet. However, the report gave no comparable figures for the previous years.
Vietnam's telecommunications infrastructure has expanded rapidly in recent years, encouraging the growth of e-commerce. The General Statistics Office (GSO) reports that there were 172.6m fixed- and mobile-telephone subscribers in Vietnam at end-February 2011, a significant increase from 138.2m a year ago and 83.9m two years ago. There were 3.83m broadband subscribers at end-February 2011, up from 3.1m in February 2010, according to the GSO. It estimated the number of Internet users at 27.4m at end-2010, up from 22.9m a year ago, and more than 30% of Vietnam's total population of 86.9m.
The widespread ownership of mobile phones underscores the potential for mobile handsets to become a source of Internet transactions and other services in future. Of the total 172.6m telephone subscribers at end-February 2011, 156.1m or 90% were mobile-phone subscribers; the mobile-phone penetration rate has thus exceeded 100%, considering Vietnam's total population is estimated at 86.9m. The three leading mobile operators. Vinaphone, MobiFone (both units of state-owned giant VNPT or Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications) and Viettel started to upgrade their networks in 2007. Vinaphone rolled out thirdgeneration (3G) services in October 2009, followed by MobiFone, which introduced the service in December 2009. The number of 3G network users had reached 9m by the end of 2010, according to the Ministry of Information and Communications.
VNPT's monopoly on Internet access and on the provision of network, fixed international and local telephones, Internet exchange and mobile phones officially ended in May 2003. Nevertheless, VNPT continues to run Vietnam Datacommunications (VDC), the dominant Internet service provider (ISP), which had nearly 75% of all Internet subscriptions at end-2010. Aside from VNPT, other licensed ISPs in March 2011 included the following: Vietnam Electronics and Telecommunication Company (Viettel), which is owned by the army; Hanoi Telecommunication; One Connection Internet (OCI); FPT Telecom; SPT; Tienet; EVN Telecom; Netnam and CMC Telecom. In July 2004 the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunication (now the Ministry of Information and Communications) allowed ISPs to offer high-speed wireless Internet service without seeking additional permission. Demand for Internet services is continuing to expand, and faster networks are becoming available. Since March 2008 the ministry has allowed several ISPs, including VNPT, Viettel, EVN Telecom and FPT Telecom to provide mobile wireless broadband services (mobile Wimax).
Although ADSL (asymmetric digital subscriber line) has expanded rapidly since late 2004, its service quality remains poor, with providers failing to cope with the massive growth in the number of subscribers. As a result of intense competition among the leading ISPs, however, prices have fallen sharply.
Vietnam's National Assembly passed the new Law on Telecommunication 41/2009/QH12 in November 2009 and the Law on Wireless Radio Frequency, partly to encourage investment in telecom and wireless technologies. Both laws went into force in July 2010.
