A screening room at a CGV cinema (Photo: VNA) Hanoi (VNA) - Executives of MultimediaJoint Stock Company have been very busy working with some major partners from theRepublic of Korea (RoK).
They include YG Entertainment, which managesmany of Korea’s biggest stars like Big Bang, 2NE1, PSY, Epik High, Choi Ji Woo,Black Pink and Lee Jong Suk, its subsidiary YGKplus, the country’s leadingmodelling agency, and Naver.com, the country’s biggest searchengine and online media and entertainment channel.
The RoK companies are seeking to tie up withMultimedia JSC in entertainment and fashion.
They will send their stars to participate inmajor entertainment events in Vietnam like the Vietnam International FashionWeek and also create opportunities for Vietnamese models in the RoK.
Besides YG Entertainment and Naver.com, manyother RoK companies in movies, the media and entertainment also have plans toenter the Vietnamese entertainment market.
The Vietnam Film Distribution Association saidthe market was dominated by foreign distributors, many of them are RoKcompanies.
Vietnam now has more than 50 cinema chains. TheRoK-owned CJ CGV Vietnam is the largest in the market with 30 cinemas in 10major cities. Lotte Cinema, also owned by the RoK, has 16 cinemas.
A CJ CGV executive said each year the companyopened around 10 cinemas in Vietnam and expected to reach 60 by next year.
Market observers said RoK investors saw plentyof opportunities in the Vietnamese entertainment industry.
They find that the Vietnamese entertainmentmarket is still in a fledgling state while the demand for entertainment hasskyrocketed in step with living standards, meaning the sky could be the limitfor investors.
The fact that Vietnam and the RoK have manycultural similarities means RoK entertainment investors with their qualityproducts can attract Vietnamese audiences easily.
On the commercial side of things, there areseveral trade agreements Vietnam has signed which offer opportunities toforeign investors, including those in the entertainment industry.
Analysts said all this imposed pressure ondomestic entertainment companies, who could lose the market completely to the RoKfirms if they were slow to react.
In 2005 CJ CGV and Vietnamese company VIFAestablished a joint venture called CJ-VIFA whose first project was the drama “MuiNgo gai”.
Then CJ CGV bought out Megastar, the largestchain of cinemas in Vietnam at that time. At the beginning of 2014, afterclosing the acquisition, Megastar was renamed CGV.
CGV now accounts for over a half the Vietnamesecinema market.
It also dominates the film import market, and byshowing more movies than its rivals, including blockbusters, CGV has becomepopular among the public.
CJ CGV’s strategy is a vital lesson for localentertainment companies.-VNA
VNA
