The media is growing in quantity and quality, and is defining its own liberalism given Government controls that include censorship.Last year saw the birth of numerous magazines - quite a few of them being specialised or niche publications on topics such as motoring, sound equipment or digital gadgets. And, of course, the year also saw the first ever bikini-clad women on the cover of a magazine!
New initiatives such as digital broadcast and MMDS (wireless cable) distribution are laying the ground for what could be a good sized pay-TV market. VTV4, a satellite based entertainment/news channel of the national network VTV, has managed to reach Vietnamese population living in Europe and North America. The local channels are looking for content partnerships and are keen on talking to cutting-edge production houses all over the world. The recent upgrade in broadcast equipment for the coverage of the Southeast Asian Games is indicative of their will to invest and move forward.
It will be a while before private ownership of media in Vietnam is allowed, but one can already see a semi-private form of it as TV stations strike content partnerships with private producers, and the magazines look for independent contributors.
What is driving this progress? Economically, a consistent year-on-year growth in advertising revenues of at least 15 per cent for the past three years is definitely a major reason behind it. Directionally, probably the single, most-influential force behind this growth is the young and dynamic population of Vietnam. Although about 70 per cent of the population is considered to be residing in rural areas, estimates say that the 18 to 24 age-segment contributes about 55 per cent of the urban purchasing power. And these young people are all out to redefine their own habits and culture in a visibly dynamic way.
These young consumers of Vietnam are consuming new products, socialising more and spending forever more.
This consumer is also highly flirtatious. As they are exposed to new things in life, their habits tend to be more go from one-post-to-the-other than real stable consumption patterns. To gain attention of these flirtatious consumers, the businesses need to be quite dynamic themselves.
For a quite few years to come this segment in Vietnam will continue to be most influential in determining how the society, businesses and media would shape-up in the country. A youth-boom definitely worth exploring and worth studying.